- Title: GERMANY/UK: Lufthansa grounded by three-day pilot strike
- Date: 2nd April 2014
- Summary: FRANKFURT, GERMANY (APRIL 02, 2014) (REUTERS) WIDE OF NEWS CONFERENCE WITH HEAD OF LUFTHANSA OPERATIONS FRANKFURT AND HEAD PILOT, WERNER KNORR REPORTERS (SOUNDBITE) (German) HEAD OF LUFTHANSA OPERATIONS FRANKFURT AND HEAD PILOT, WERNER KNORR, SAYING: "Sometimes the impression is created that should there be agreement, we could take up operations again as early as tomorrow.
- Embargoed: 17th April 2014 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Germany, United Kingdom
- City:
- Country: Germany
- Topics: Politics,Travel / Tourism
- Reuters ID: LVA75O4YF5P5VNBA9PI8IQ2352V5
- Story Text: A three-day strike by pilots at Lufthansa over early retirement, which has grounded Germany's largest airline, showed no sign of ending early on Wednesday (April 02) after management said there would be no further talks during the strike period.
Lufthansa has cancelled 3,800 flights during the strike, which runs until the end of Friday, and says the stoppage will cost it tens of millions of euros.
The pilots' walkout is the largest ever to hit the airline and the third strike at Frankfurt airport, Europe's third-largest by passengers, in six weeks after industrial action by security staff and public sector workers.
Both Lufthansa and the pilots say they are ready to talk. However, the pilots' union wants to see a new offer from management first and Lufthansa said on Wednesday that no new negotiations would take place while the strike continued.
"Let me tell you from my experience that we are Europe's largest airline, we have a very complex multi-hub system and we need 48 hours to logistically overcome a walkout," Werner Knorr, Lufthansa Chief Pilot, told journalists.
The stoppage by some of Lufthansa's most well-paid employees has prompted outrage from travel organisations, which say the three-day strike is over the top. Germany's best-selling tabloid Bild asked: "Do the Lufthansa pilots have their head in the clouds?"
The pilots want Lufthansa to reinstate a scheme that enabled them to receive 60 percent of their pay when they left their jobs before the legal retirement age.
Pilots at the airline used to be forced to retire at 60, leaving them with a five-year gap before legal retirement provisions kicked in at 65.
However, the retirement age for pilots was raised to 65 in Europe in 2011, and so Lufthansa says the scheme is no longer needed.
The union, Vereinigung Cockpit (VC), represents most of Lufthansa's 5,400 pilots. It is also negotiating over pay increases for the contract period from May 2012, but says the strike is solely over the retirement scheme.
A poll released on Wednesday by market researcher Forsa showed 71 percent of those surveyed, around 500 people, thought the pilots' demands were unjustified.
The pilots say they want the right to choose when to retire and that they shouldn't be forced to keep flying until 65. They also say the company is wrong to try and squeeze more cost cuts out of employees when it is already one of the most profitable airlines in Europe. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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