Lufthansa pilots to go on strike again as talks break down

Lufthansa pilots will go on strike again this week as talks between unions and management broke down.
The Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) union has announced that on Tuesday (November 29) there will be strikes on short-haul flights from 00:01am until 23:59pm and on Wednesday (November 30) there will be action affecting all long- and short-haul passenger flights leaving Germany.
The airline has applied for an injunction to try and stop the strikes.
This follows four days of strike action last week.
Lufthansa Cargo pilots have again not been called to join the strike action, meaning that freighter flights will go-ahead “as scheduled”, but any cargo that is booked to fly in the belly of passenger aircraft could be affected.
Lufthansa Cargo said it was working to ensure disruption is kept to a minimum.
“We deeply regret any inconvenience the pilots’ union strike may cause. Lufthansa Cargo staff worldwide will do their utmost to keep the potential inconvenience to customers at a minimum.
“Affected cargo pieces will automatically be rebooked on flights of the updated flight schedule and on road feeder services.”
The strike centres on union demands for improved pay of 3.66%. VC claims that the pilots have gone more than five years without a pay rise.
The union said that it was “incomprehensible” that the airline had failed to “submit an offer on the basis of which one can negotiate”.
Lufthansa said the union’s demands were “unacceptable”.
“Lufthansa’s representatives are very disappointed that VC does not want to continue talks, but is rather seeking another escalation and calling for additional strikes,” the airline group said.
“VC has continued to insist on demands that are far beyond what other professions have demanded.”
So far, over 345,000 passengers have been affected by 2,755 flight cancellations during the four days of strikes in the past week.