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After a successful first day of strike Lufthansa applied for a court injunction. The german judge forced both sides to go to the negotiation table to come up with a solution by Mar. 8th. This was what the pilots union had tried over 6 times within the past year. The pilots unions of United, Continental, Air Canada, Swiss and Austrian sent representatives to stand beside us to bring our point across. Many airlines as well as other companies world wide have been fighting against the out sourcing frenzy by the management. Lufthansaīs flight attendant union is considering a strike with their 16,000 members as once again the management was unwilling to talk as the end of the current contract approaches. This pilot strike was the second strike inthe pilot union's 40 year history. Almost all lufthansa planes remained on the ground on monday. The 25-30 percent of the flights, that opperated under the Lufthansa name were either operated by Lufthansa Cityline (not part of the lufthansa pilot contract group) or by other airlines under code share. The pilotīs union is willing to settle for a "0" percent pay raise, as long as the outsourcing doesnīt take away the original lufthansa pilot jobs.
In the past year all Lufthansa cargo staff had to take a pay cut with involuntary part time and parked 20% of their MD-11 fleet while that "saved money" was and is being used to expand two "joint venture" airlines Jade Cargo and Aerologic. The past contracts , which we want to keep in itīs basic form has given Lufthansa one record year after another and has made Lufthansa to one of the most profitable airlines in the world.
" If it ainīt broken, donīt fix it!!!"
Hopefully the negotiations will be a clear sign to the management of Lufthansa as well as other airlines and companies in general, that the workers are a big part of the company and cannot be shuffled around with every new restructuring plan.
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Lufthansa Strike
Feb 22 2010, 02:58 PM
