For everything there is a season, but a “warning” strike in the midst of one of the busiest weeks of travel merits our scorn. Yet that is exactly what ground staff workers are doing today at Lufthansa, forcing Lufthansa to cancel over 1,000 flights and strand more than 100,000 passengers.
Selfish Lufthansa Strike Needlessly Strands Hundreds Of Thousands
The Vereinte Dienstleistungsgewerkschaft (Ver.di) trade union, which represents over 20,000 Lufthansa ground staff employees, says that Lufthansa’s recent wage offer is too small. It argues:
The situation at the airports is escalating. Workers are under immense pressure due to a significant shortage of staff, high inflation and a three-year wage cut. They urgently need more money and they need relief – for themselves and for optimal service for you, the passengers.
That is why ver.di demands a salary increase of 9.5 percent for a period of twelve months, but at least 350 euros per month and at least 13 euros per hour. Some Lufthansa companies currently have hourly wages of less than 12 euros.
It further claims that Lufthansa is unwilling to offer enough and will tie any permanent wage gains to the company’s financial performance:
In view of the wage negotiations to date, Lufthansa is not willing to sufficiently respond to our demands. Instead, it offers a significant real wage loss depending on a positive group result. The offers neither compensate for the high inflation nor do they do justice to the stressful situation.
The remuneration is already not sufficient to organize enough new staff and thus relieve and smooth air traffic. The attractiveness of Lufthansa as an employer will continue to decline. We want air traffic and Lufthansa to get back on course – this requires clear and binding investments in personnel.
I’m not anti-labor. I also understand that prices are rising in Germany and economic headwinds point to great uncertainty about the future. Therefore, it makes sense that Lufthansa ground staff would wish to secure the best possible deal right now. But from what I can see, the Lufthansa offer is at least a starting point and not a reason to strike.
Lufthansa has proposed the following:
- an increase in basic pay of 150 euros per month as of July 1, 2022 for 18 months
- a further basic pay increase of 100 euros per month as of January 1, 2023 for 18 months
- an additional 2% percent increase in compensation as of July 1, 2023, subject to how the business develops.
Michael Niggemann, Lufthansa’s Chief Human Resources, lambasted the union for its decision to strike:
“After only two days of negotiations, ver.di has announced a strike that can hardly be called a warning strike due to its breadth across all locations and its duration. This is all the more incomprehensible given that the employer side has offered high and socially balanced pay increases – despite the continuing tense economic situation for Lufthansa following the COVID crisis, high debt burdens and uncertain prospects for the global economy.
“After the enormous efforts to stabilize our flight operations, this represents a renewed, substantial and unnecessary burden for our passengers and also for our employees beyond the strike day.”
Niggemann is correct. Lufthansa is right to be hesitant over committing to higher wages in light of inflation and the threat of global recession, but it has. Ver.di is correct that there has been tremendous attrition during the pandemic, making it all the more clear that those workers who remain are there because they do not have a better choice.
That is not a position of weakness, but undermines the argument that there exists a tremendous imbalance between wage and duty. Addressing passengers, Ver.di says, “We understand very well if you are angry that you are affected by this tariff dispute and we are sorry” but it is not sorry…it hopes to inflict maximum pain on the public in hopes of bringing Lufthansa to its knees.
After this “warning” strike, the next round of negotiations will take place August 3-4th.
I find the union choice to strike during the one of the busiest weeks of the German travel season to be selfish and counterproductive toward securing the kind of long-term stability it claims it is after. Lufthansa’s offer is reasonable and at the very least, a starting point from which to build upon.
CONCLUSION
Lufthansa has cancelled over 1,000 flights, impacting over 130,000 passengers as it deals with a “warning” strike form its ground staff. Although the strike is only for about 27 hours, it will have ripple effects impacting travel for the next week.
While the union claims this action is necessary to secure contract concessions, it leaves the public angry and far less sympathetic to its so-called plight. Rather than engage in a strike, it should engage in constructive dialogue, seeking to build upon an offer that is arguably already generous.
Why is anyone surprised? Striking is the national sport of some western European countries.
I think its more common for someone to say striking is the national sport in certain western European countries than actual strikes occurring 🙂
And it’s I think it’s even more common for those with a political bias to forget even recent examples of Euro unions striking – because they want to. Let’s see, this summer there have been: Lufthansa, SAS, National Rail (UK),and that’s without me Googling it. So, I’d say it’s pretty common.
Some would say good for them for fighting for their rights and better rewards for working.
If all levers were used, and management were not negotiating in good faith (or at all), I fully support such action. Frankly, I wish labor in the US would have the guts to strike like their EU counterparts. Wealth inequality is at an all-time high.
+1
Fire them and replace them with migrants
Pull a Reagan and fire them all. OH wait, striking is part of European DNA
Good thing that POS Regan is dead.
We Europeans love strikes like we love free healthcare for all and a decent social welfare safety net, more holidays and greater life satisfaction for all. Perhaps they go hand in hand?
Tell that to the hundreds of thousands of European passengers trying to go on their “more holidays” and now waiting days to get through on the phone or find rebookings. “Life satisfaction” may not be entirely how many feel there today, lol.
But that’s the point. Some inconvenience every now and then is the price you pay to live in a society that is happier overall. I like visiting the States and meeting Americans (who are generally engaging when abroad) but I’d rather live in Europe because people just seem to be less angry and more content with life. Work less, earn less and spend less but spend more time with family and friends knowing that if you fall I’ll you won’t be finished off by medical bills. Try a little union militancy. You might find it’s good for you.
Had talks broken down and they had no offer or appearance of negotiations from management I would agree with you. However, after only two days of talks with a first offer on the table they wreaked havoc in an already stressed system? One that disproportionally affects families and leisure travelers who were excited for maybe their first holiday abroad in two years? That’s not militant. It’s silly and cruel and a disproportionate response. I am by no means anti-union. But I am anti-stupidity.
I don’t understand the “free” healthcare argument. Nothing is free. I do appreciate the German healthcare system, have been a beneficiary of it, and find it a far better system in its current form than the U.S. model. That said, there are genuine concerns over the sustainability of the system.
Like our system actually is sustainable? We’re the richest country in the history of the planet yet we’re the ONLY first world country without some form of nationalized health care, and boy does it show.
Our per patient costs are higher than any other country.
Our life span is not the highest.
Countries with nationalized health care have happier populations.
The number one cause for bankruptcy in the U.S. is health care costs.
Why is it that Germany doesn’t have a homeless problem? They must be doing something right, and conversely – we ain’t. This despite our handily outspending literally every other country. We are the absolute poster child for a dysfunctional health care system. By any major metric the Germans are doing better than us. Why do you express doubts about the viability of the German system when ours is worse in so many ways, including viability?
I agree with everything you said. But I wasn’t talking about our system, which is an even-worse and in many ways a DISGUSTING system, nor making a comparative analysis.
That said, there are questions over the long-term sustainability of the (mostly excellent) German system.
sustainability? my brother in christ sensible countries have had universal healthcare for decades with healthy budget surpluses, while the US dives further and further into deficit…
Selfish and counterproductive? Selfish? Yeah. Counterproductive – are you naive? This is the goal of the strike: it has to hurt to be successful. This is a good decision and LH’s offers were pitiful, completely not matching the inflation rate and not taking into account the fact that most of LH’s employees have had reduced pay for at least two years during COVID.
This part is particularly revolting: “making it all the more clear that those workers who remain are there because they do not have a better choice” – no, you do not understand how the industry works. Some people could endure the pandemic hardships better than others and it doesn’t mean they are the worst of the bunch as your hurtful comment would imply. Some others stayed, willfully decreased their living standards just because they love the industry.
You assume that I was being critical, but I was not. It is not unreasonable, exactly for the reasons you outline, to stay in a position (pay is not always the primary determinant). But the Lufthansa offer was not unreasonable – the airline is not and should not be a charity.
the Lufthansa deal was insulting with inflation surging, and passenger revenues the same
solidarity with the striking workers, may they get everything they deserve
From one perspective, negotiating for a higher salary for yourself, or your union, is always a selfish move yet almost everyone faces a point in life where they need to negotiate for a higher salary.
The current environment appears to be the most favoring environment for large unions that I can recall in my lifetime. I’d think of union leaders as failing at their job if they didn’t attempt to leverage this environment into a better working situation.
If the shoe were on the other foot and this was an environment that favored management in an historic fashion, I’d be willing to bet that management would grind labor down as hard as possible.
All part of the process, unless you were scheduled to fly Lufthansa yesterday, in which case it totally sucks
Bottom line, this is true (and management did extract a lot during the pandemic).
Given how precarious everything is these days what seems like a standard one day strike in Europe becomes days of hell for many. In the past an action like was an inconvenience more than a true disruption. Not now. I know a few people in Germany affected by this having to accept rebookings as far away as 5 days later as a result.
Selfish? F that! People work so they can make money. I know most Americans love the system here where employers have their workers over a barrel, and love to root for millionaire and billionaire business owners to suppress the middle class from raising their earning ability. At least some people in the world are able to turn the tables and do what’s best for them.
This is opposite of selfish. These workers are banding together so they collectively improve their and their families lives. Lufthansa has the power to give these people what they deserve and end this strike immediately if they so wished. I say Bravo!
I think there is a balance though. I agree that we give far too much power to corporate systems, but there needs to be carefully thought out processes in negotiations for workers justifiable attempts to secure better pay. The issue here is not the idea of a strike, or that they want more given inflation issues worldwide, it’s the timing. First, as they were only two days into talks with a first offer on the table, second because this would harshly impact many leisure travelers in family groups who wait for their vacations all year and have now been all but ruined. This does not look good from an optics level and does little to get public support behind them. Aggressive? Yes. But probably it will backfire on them now.
Deserve is a loaded word. Who determines what they deserve?
No person not involved in the intricacies of labor negotiations, offers and counter-offers, current working conditions and staffing levels, compensation packages, and other benefits, is qualified to label striking workers as “selfish.” Anyone could take this posting, re-write it, and label management as “selfish.”
By so doing (purposefully?), it brings out the predictable comments. I would have preferred a little more journalistic approach and if this action is going to be the subject of a blog posting, then discover the issues mentioned in the first paragraph and really delve into the issues.
But perhaps that was not the intent?
In Berlin at the moment and the mood is generally of sympathy for the strikers.
Of course Yanks would be out of touch with European values so no wonder there is all the faux and ill informed outrage across the pond. All I will say is thank goodness it’s Europe I live in and not the US.
Or one could look at it from another perspective. American workers choose not to strike at times it directly affects their own and thus disproportionately targets middle class families just trying to go on vacation and with little options left given the already difficult summer. One might even say that American workers are more pragmatic. Send a message, sure, but also don’t cut off the hand that feeds you in the process.
And your comment that most in Berlin support this is pretty laughable. Are you conducting research and doing surveys on the street? Are you at the airport and talking to families whose first vacations in two years are now ruined? Probably not. You are just coming on the Internet with shallow viewpoints and made up statements in a weak attempt to make Americans look like fools. We have plenty of faults, as does the EU, but we also are not some sort of demon to attack and deflect to when you suffer your own people for reasons that are, entirely, your own doing.
ROTFL, another obnoxious post. There’s no point in striking if it doesn’t have an effect. I speak to people, I read the German press and I watch German news programmes, I’m pretty well informed about the local mood. As a key board warrior I doubt you ever do any of those things.
James, wow, I’m surprised. A bit harsh, wouldn’t you say? That’s not like you.
I don’t think “European values” are homogeneous and I’ve lived and worked in Germany.
You know what happened in my office? Under German law no one could be fired so the company restructured so it could eliminate positions. Same result.
Employees pushed back.
Then it later closed shop and moved to Singapore.
Now no one has a job.
You don’t have to denigrate my nationality or accuse me of being ignorant to disagree with me. I agree that wealth inequality is a huge problem. I far prefer the German healthcare system to the US one. And I believe the quality of life is quite a bit better for the average middle class person in most of Western Europe versus in the Sates.
But I see little evidence to suggest that came about on the basis of strikes. What I do see is a union making unreasonable demands during a time of economic uncertainty. I don’t blame the union, mind you, but engineering a strike to inflict maximum damage while talks were still premature just to take advantage of the summer travel season strikes me as the sort of move that will make Lufthansa executives all too glad to lay off as many people as possible when recession hits.
Let’s not hurl names at one another. We can discuss this issue like adults.
Why does Lufthansa care? Eastern went down because of a strike, but they didn’t have a government to back them up. If LH workers strike multiple times, or again in a month, and again this fall, what are the real repercussions for Lufthansa? The German government is going to support the airline. Germany has done such a good job keeping competition out that there’s no real real choice for a lot of customers other than Lufthansa. Germany is large enough that there really should be two Global airlines based there, but there aren’t. Business travelers aren’t going to start flying Ryanair for their dependability, few will view connecting with neighboring flag carriers as a satisfactory alternative, and Condor isn’t truly a network carrier.
Hopefully Condor will rise.
They’ve got a very long way to go. Transitioning from LCC to Global carrier is tough. Just ask AB or VA. I still think the German government would give Lufthansa whatever it needed before they’d see Condor be anything more than a complimentary leisure carrier.
Seems to me that the management have rocked up with an insulting real terms pay cut. If they don’t have the decency to to start from an at least sensible position then the workers need to withdraw labour to show they mean business. It’s not selfish, it’s just good business sense.
A decade of QE where the assets of the rich have been artificially inflated has now triggered large scale inflation (don’t blame the war in Ukraine, yes its added to it, but it was already headed up at the end of 2021).
Look at the table – it’s not a paycut – it outstrips inflation for all but those who already make more than a comfortable living wage:
•Basic remuneration/month: 2,000 EUR / Increase per month: 295 EUR (+14.8%)
•Basic remuneration/month: 2,500 EUR / Increase per month: 305 EUR (+12.2%)
•Basic remuneration/month: 3,000 EUR / Increase per month: 315 EUR (+10.5%)
•Basic remuneration/month: 4,000 EUR / Increase per month: 335 EUR (+8.4%)
•Basic remuneration/month: 5,000 EUR / Increase per month: 355 EUR (+ 7.1%)
•Basic remuneration/month: 6,500 EUR / Increase per month: 385 EUR (+ 5.9%)
But that’s not what’s been offered is it? They have been offered 2% pay rise and essentially two bonuses?
The substantial part of the offer is time bound and will mean that within 18 months wages will head down, both in actual and real terms?
I also don’t like this idea that it’s all OK as they’re on “comfortable wage”- that smacks somewhat of a race to the bottom.
Don’t get me wrong- this will all be very annoying for the public- me included. But labelling workers as selfish for trying to at least tread water with their currently quality of life just doesn’t seem right.
There is a time and place for everything, but screwing Germans and other travelers during the busiest week of summer is wrong. Time and place does implicate selfishness. And sorry, but we are all hit by inflation. If Lufthansa is also losing due to inflation, why should workers also not feel the pain? If they can find more lucrative work, they can walk. It would be one thing if Lufthansa is reporting record profits…but if it is also just scraping by, there really isn’t pie in the sky to give workers what they want (which ironically, will only lead to even more inflation).
There will never be a good time for the withdrawal of labour- either it’s holiday makers or business travellers.
Simply not true. Business travelers are far more equipped to handle interruptions and strikes. We know how to navigate the system, are often traveling alone (much easier for rebookings) and have the budget to weather a day or two where needed to get out. Completely absurd to think that a family of four from Mannheim headed back from The Canary Islands, and faced with days to get out and a limited budget, is somehow the same as me, a solo business traveler with a travel budget and savvy knowledge of how to work the system. It’s like saying the person living 30 floors up in a high rise during a flash flood is in equal danger to the family living in the basement apartment down the street. This was cruel. I am far from anti-union. But this was completely uncalled for and vicious. Targeting directly the most vulnerable.
It is the right of every worker to stand up and fight for fair pay for their labors, I wish my fellow Americans would fight this hard as well. And I am probably going to be stranded in Finland on the tenth cause of this strike. (Not looking forward to rebooting a ua issued ticket, that does lt and lx segments….)
Umm, the 10th? Of August? It’s a one day strike, lol. What are you even talking about.
Two days may seem a bit early in the process, but there were probably weeks of negotiations leading up to this, frankly, pathetic offer and I’m sure the union negotiators have a better sense of how much more they could get without a strike than we do.
It’s almost certainly not selfish. Strikes only work if they actually inflict pain on management (which almost always results in some collateral damage to customers). Striking during a busy travel week is the best way to do maximize Lufthansa and make them negotiate a legitimate offer (also it might explain why they did it so quickly because they wanted to time it to now). Most people will blame Lufthansa anyways and I imagine that Europeans on average are more labor friendly than Americans so I don’t think this will hurt the union side all that much.
Finally, that offer was terrible. While things may change in the recession, employers need to realize they are having so much trouble with staff shortages because they aren’t paying enough. While shareholder return should be the greatest concern for boards and executives, it shouldn’t be at the expense of running a functioning company. The airlines/airports’ struggle to find enough employers is at least partially a consequence of shareholder greed and their insistence on squeezing out every dime from the company, without worrying about the consequences of doing so down the line. One would think they might have learned something from their continued operational issues, but they haven’t, mostly because we mostly let them get away with it.
So it’s better to strike when business is slow? Nah. Do it for maximum effect.
germany is just used to slave labor still from ww2 that dont strike
wake up if you want slave labor stop drinking beer and invade poland
Next time negotiate a better contract rather then strike during your contract. A Union that does not care about over 100,000 people they strand? Shirley you gest 🙂
You’re being a selfish narcissistic jerk. You brag about flying 100,000s of miles a year and you seem to think that the workers don’t have the right to show the management that they matter. If Lufthansa wanted to cough up the money there wouldn’t have been a strike.
The people working the ground are just that -people. They deserve for management to negotiate in good faith to reach a win-win.
Of course you call the workers selfish.
Why arent you calling the management selfish for not paying better wages?
Germany is facing recession. Good luck with those concessions, when everyone is going to hurt.
Nice job not responding to what I wrote. Lufthansa is making profits right now. The ground staff that moves your bag gets paid peanuts. A slight reduction in profits would have prevented this strike, but you blame the workers. And you know you’re wrong because you didn’t directly address what I wrote – the money is there, but management refuses to pay it.
This travel delay was due to management not willing to reach a fair agreement. And you call the workers selfish. Why aren’t you calling the management and the stockholders selfish?