GERMANY: German airline Lufthansa forced to cancel more flights as strikes continue for third day

Record ID: 339995

  • Title: GERMANY: German airline Lufthansa forced to cancel more flights as strikes continue for third day
  • Date: 31st July 2008
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (German) KLAUS WALTHER, LUFTHANSA SPOKESPERSON, SAYING: "We had to cancel more flights. Thankfully we already did this proactively last night and so far we have been able to go along with the flight plans. We are flying on time. We are also trying to inform the customers who are booked on affected flights so that they can be rebooked. So far it is going well."
  • Embargoed: 15th August 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Germany
  • Country: Germany
  • Topics: Industry,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAELRW1FVBNLZWYS7TZEJIJIHRE
  • Story Text: Germany's Deutsche Lufthansa scrapped about 78 of its 2,000 daily flights on Wednesday (July 30), as thousands of ground and cabin staff staged a strike over pay for a third day.
    Europe's second-biggest airline said mainly European and domestic flights would be affected as nine aircraft remained grounded because they could not be readied for flight.
    The carrier also said it would cancel some long-haul flights for the first time during the strike, including three return services from Frankfurt and one from Munich.
    The open-ended strike of around 5,000 members of the Verdi services union began on Monday (July 28) and the union said on Tuesday the impact of the strike would grow in coming days.
    "Because I want more money. The management have done well so I also want to have some more money. I think we deserve it because we do just as much work. And that is why I am striking here today," said Anja Kandusch, who was striking in Frankfurt.
    Verdi, which represents some 50,000 ground and cabin staff at Lufthansa, wants an immediate 9.8 percent pay rise. Lufthansa is offering 6.7 percent over 21 months and a one-off payment.
    Ninety-one percent of union members backed the strike in a ballot.
    "If analysts now say that this industrial action costs the company five million euros each day to take counter measures and that this is increasing every day, then I think that this money could better be used in the bargaining round so that they can come back to the negotiating table with a material offer," Verdi's chief negotiator Erhard Ott told Reuters.
    Passengers were being rebooked onto other services with Lufthansa or its Star Alliance partners, but this left many feeling annoyed.
    "The economic damage is a catastrophe for all of us," said passanger Walther Lehmacher.
    And it's not just business people who are affected as the strike comes at the peak holiday time leaving many people, like Walter McDonald, wondering how they'll get home.
    "We're trying to go home to Canada today. So we've been in Europe for a month, so now's the day to go home. So we're ready to go home. And we hope the flight is on time, we hope the flight goes," he told Reuters.
    Lufthansa on Tuesday repeated calls for the union to resume talks to bring the strike to an end as quickly as possible, though a spokesman would not say whether it was considering making a new pay offer.
    "We are ready to start a dialogue and sit at the negotiating table. Verdi left the negotiating table and for days we have now been calling on Verdi to come back to the table," said Lufthansa spokesman Klaus Walther.
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