Further strikes loom at Lufthansa as cabin crew talks fail

Having suffered thirteen pilots’ strikes over the last eighteen months as Lufthansa struggled to reach agreement with their union Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) over early retirement and pension payouts, the airline now faces problems reaching an agreement on the same matter with its cabin crew, approximately 19,00 of whom are represented by the flight attendants’ union, UFO. In rejecting Lufthansa’s latest offering, UFO have made it abundantly clear that elementary points such as job security are missing and that negotiations had “failed completely.”
Based on a number of media reports and if accepted, Lufthansa’s offer, which was made on October 19th, would allow cabin crew members to stop working when they reach 55 years of age, but made it clear they could receive significantly higher pensions if they remained at work until they reached 65. On top of this all cabin crew would be given an individual one-off payment of €2,000, while those who had been with the company since 2012 would also be given a wage increases of 1.7% in 2016 and also in 2017.
UFO also indicated that further negotiations with Lufthansa had been made virtually impossible and that a target to reach an agreement by November 1st would not happen. This is disconcerting news for Lufthansa who have already lost over US$112 million this year alone through strike action.