Pilots and cabin crew at the Lufthansa Group’s holiday subsidiary Discover Airlines are set to go on strike, trade unions announced on Sunday.
The four-day strike at the airline, which was founded in 2021, will get underway on Tuesday, August 27, union officials said in Frankfurt.
With all departures from Germany affected, the strike is set to cause severe disruptions to many people’s travel plans in the latter part of the summer holiday season.
Discover Airlines staff recently voted overwhelmingly in favor of a strike after a conflict between unions representing airline workers.
Unions at loggerheads
The decision to strike is due to a conflict following negotiations with the Verdi union, which has sealed the first collective agreements for pilots and flight attendants of Discover.
But two other unions, Cockpit, which represents pilots, and UFO, which represents cabin crew, work closely together to bypass existing pay agreements struck between Lufthansa and Verdi, which they see as a competitor.
Cockpit and UFO argue that Verdi lacks sufficient membership within the airline’s operations and was established as a bargaining partner by Lufthansa.
On Discover Airlines’ website, there is a message for those who have already booked, or about to book, a flight.
“Trade unions Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) and Unabhängige Flugbegleiter Organisation (UFO) have called for a strike at Discover Airlines between August 27, 2024, and August 30, 2024. Please check your current flight status regularly and enter your contact details,” the message reads.
Lufthansa’s financial losses
Operating out of Frankfurt and Munich, Discover operates a fleet of 27 aircraft and its staff totals almost 2,000.
“Impacts on Discover Airlines flights will unfortunately be unavoidable in this context. We sincerely regret this circumstance,” said UFO boss Joachim Vazquez Bürger. “We never take this path lightly, but as a last conceivable step, without exception.”
At the end of April, Germany’s flagship airline Lufthansa released its financial data for the first quarter of the year, which showed increased losses that it attributed in large part to strikes.
jsi/rmt (AFP, dpa)
