Friday, 06 November 2015 12:35
FRANKFURT: Lufthansa cabin staff will begin their planned week of walkouts at 1300 GMT on Friday, initially at the hubs of Frankfurt and Duesseldorf, with other sites to follow on Saturday, the union UFO said.
The strike on Friday will be for nine hours and last until 2200 GMT, UFO said in a statement.
The union plans to stagger the walkouts and target different airports over the course of the next seven days, with stoppages to go ahead “at other sites on Saturday.”
However, Lufthansa’s Munich hub would not be affected at all this weekend, given that there were still school holidays in the southern regional states of Bavaria and Baden-Wuerttemberg, it explained.
In addition, “no industrial action is planned at all on Sunday since most people travelling that day will be doing so in a private capacity,” UFO said.
UFO had announced on Thursday that industrial action was “unavoidable” after management had failed to come up with an improved offer in a long-running dispute over pay and early retirement provisions.
The union said it will give sufficient advance warning of when the strikes will take place.
It is first time that cabin staff have staged walkouts in the nearly two-year long dispute.
UFO is demanding the current system of early retirement provisions remain unchanged.
The dispute with cabin staff is separate from a long-running battle between management and pilots over company plans to change the pilots’ early retirement arrangements.
Lufthansa wants to scrap an arrangement under which pilots can retire at 55 and receive up to 60 percent of their pay until they reach the statutory retirement age of 65.
Pilots, who are concerned about Lufthansa’s aim to further develop its low-cost activities as it faces growing competition, have staged repeated walkouts during the dispute.
Last week, Lufthansa said it was raising its full-year forecasts after low oil prices and positive passenger numbers lifted profits in the third quarter.
