Chaos Expected as Lufthansa Pilots Vote to Strike

[FarCenter]

Lufthansa pilots have voted to go on strike for four days next week. The industrial action will bring chaos to German airports and will cost the airline tens of millions of euros.

German airports look set to face chaos after Lufthansa pilots voted to strike in what will be the largest industrial action affecting the airline in years.

The pilots' union Vereinigung Cockpit announced Wednesday in Frankfurt that over 90 percent of its members had voted in favor of industrial action at Lufthansa, Europe's largest airline by sales. The union represents the majority of Lufthansa pilots, who are now expected to hold a four-day strike from Monday to Thursday of next week. The airline reacted by calling the strike "disproportionate" in a statement.

The strike will affect around 4,500 pilots at Lufthansa, its freight subsidiary Lufthansa Cargo and the low-cost airline Germanwings, a wholly owned Lufthansa subsidiary. The campaign has the potential to cause massive disruptions to air traffic and lead to delays and cancellations affecting domestic, European and long-haul flights.

The pilots want to stop potential plans by the airline to spin off jobs into lower-paying subsidiaries. They are also calling for job guarantees and more say in how the company is run, in the form of improved codetermination rights.

<SNIP>http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,678527,00.html

[Renew Deal]

1. They should coordinate with the Greek air traffic control workers.

:shrug:

[mn9driver]

2. Lufthansa pilots have a real Union, unlike US pilots.

Good for them.

The piloting profession in the US has been destroyed by the airlines' pushing flying to the regional carriers, where they can pay poorly trained pilots with little experience food stamp wages. Watch the Frontline video "Flying Cheap" and you may think twice about flying these carriers in the future-not that you have a choice:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/flyingcheap/

ALPA, the national US pilot union has allowed this situation to develop because the national organization is primarily interested in membership numbers and collecting dues. Besides, US airline employees aren't allowed to strike until many, many hoops have been jumped through, and unless the President decides to allow it.

[Brickbat]

3. Solidarity! Or rather, Solidarität!

Union yes!

[uppityperson]

4. Lufthansa struck 2 yrs ago when I was trying to fly to Europe.

All the other airlines were struggling to take up their business, I had my flight delayed overnight since they gave my freq flyer ticket seat away to a more high paying person. I'm trying to fly out next week again on another freq flyer ticket. We shall see what happens.

Thanks for the warning.