Wednesday, 11 November 2015 01:36
BERLIN: German airline Lufthansa won a symbolic court victory Tuesday in its bid to halt a week-long cabin staff strike, even as the trade union threatened to expand its industrial action.
A labour court found the union’s walkout to be unlawful — but it barred further stoppages only for the rest of Tuesday, and only in one of several airports, in the western city of Duesseldorf.
It was not immediately clear what impact the ruling would have on the broader strike, which is shaping up as the worst in the history of Germany’s biggest airline, as both sides awaited a second ruling by a separate court.
The UFO flight attendants’ union has threatened to continue until Friday its strikes which forced Lufthansa to scrap 929 flights on Monday, grounding 113,000 passengers, and axe 136 flights Tuesday, affecting 27,300 passengers.
Amid the protracted dispute over savings to help the airline fight low-cost rivals, the German flag carrier earlier Tuesday filed motions with two courts for temporary injunctions against the stoppages which began last Friday.
A Lufthansa spokesman said it was basing its case on demands by the UFO flight attendants’ union being “too vague” and unjustified under German labour law.
The head of UFO, Nicoley Baublies, hit back, telling reporters that the union would now strike on all short-, medium- and long-haul flights from Wednesday until Friday.
He called for immediate talks and warned that the union could still decide to extend strikes beyond Friday.
“As soon as Lufthansa joins arbitration with us without preconditions, we will end the strike,” Baublies told reporters. “From one minute to the next.”
If allowed to continue, the industrial action would become the longest in Lufthansa’s history.
In a late-afternoon ruling, the labour court in Duesseldorf granted Lufthansa’s request for an injunction, ruled the industrial action unlawful and prohibited further strikes in the city Tuesday.
The ruling was largely symbolic as Lufthansa had already cancelled the affected flights.
Both sides now awaited a separate ruling from the district court in the western city of Darmstadt, expected in the evening, which would impact on services from Germany’s biggest airport Frankfurt as well as southern hub Munich.
The airline presented a new offer to the union late Monday, with improved bonuses and retirement provisions, but UFO called it unacceptable.
The dispute over pay and early retirement provisions dates back to December 2013, when the company decided to embark on cost cuts in the face of intense competition from no-frills carriers.
The union is demanding that the current system of early retirement provisions remain unchanged, but Lufthansa has argued that those measures are too expensive.
