by Lufthansa Flyer | Jul 8, 2016 | Corporate, Featured, Lufthansa, Strike |
Finally…..
After months and years of squabbling and strikes, Lufthansa has announced that it has reached a binding long-term agreement with UFO, the union that represents most of Lufthansa’s cabin crew employees.
The new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) is in place until June 30, 2019 with further agreements that guarantee salary increases, employment guarantees, and pension enhancements beyond that date:
Cabin crew will receive a 1% raise on October 1, with an additional 2% raise on January 2018.
A shift in pensions programs from a defined benefit program to a defined contribution program. This reduces fiscal liability to Lufthansa, who will contribute 5.2% of an employees salary annually towards their pension benefit. Employees can still retire at age 55.
A conflict resolution process has been put in place through 2023.
Current cabin crew have employment guarantees through 2021. Lufthansa will not be able to hire non-union cabin crew for Lufthansa Airlines until 2023.
by Lufthansa Flyer | Jun 24, 2016 | Featured, Industry News, Strike |
In reviewing a few announcements from a variety of sources including EuroControl, it looks as though ATC strikes will be quite popular in Europe during July.
Instead of putting all of them into one or 2 paragraphs, it is easier just to list them since there are several (times are in local time zones):
Italy:
July 5: 11:00a to 3:00p
July 23: 10:00a to 6:00p
France:
June 28: General strikes will have widespread outages.
Portugal (The following dates will have random 2 hour strikes held each day):
June 30
July 8
July 15
July 22
July 29
Keep in mind that these dates can come and go as negotiations go on between labor and management continue.
by Lufthansa Flyer | May 24, 2016 | Featured, Industry News, Lufthansa, Strike, Vereinigung Cockpit |
Late last week, Lufthansa and Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) ‘quietly’ agreed to work towards an agreement that would finally put an end to strikes by Lufthansa pilots.
Over the last few months you’ve noticed relative peace between LH and VC as both sides have been negotiating on several levels to reach an agreement that would protect pilot benefits as well as the Airline’s interest. To that end, there have been several separate groups negotiation a variety of issues. Going forward, both sides agreed to consolidate their efforts into one major push and have committed to having issues resolved and new agreements in place by the end of July.
What does this mean?
As long as both sides agree to work together and not pull any surprises, I suspect that we will have little to no risk of service disruptions due to striking pilots this summer. Odds for a deal have improved dramatically once the union provided concessions to the compensation structure for pilots, while LH committed to expanded career opportunities for pilots.
The only time strikes would be called would be when the union had a temper tantrum and wanted to send a message to the airline and its passengers. It appears that they are well past this, and are finally realizing that the best outcome is to get a deal done.
Hopefully the peace lasts……
