Lufthansa cabin crew win hefty pay rises

FRANKFURT: Cabin crew for German airline Lufthansa have won 16.5 percent pay rises after months of negotiations, both sides said on Thursday, averting the threat of further strikes.

The deal comes after Lufthansa ground staff also reached a pay deal last month, and is the latest positive news for employers in Germany who have faced a wave of walkouts due to high inflation.

Lufthansa cabin crew at Frankfurt and Munich airports went on strike last month to push their demands, leading to widespread flight cancellations.The agreement affecting around 19,000 flight attendants runs until the end of 2026, and comprises pay rises of 8 percent this year, 5 percent next, and 3.5 percent in 2026, Lufthansa said. It also includes a 3,000-euro ($3,200) bonus to compensate for the impact of higher prices.”We fought hard to push through this” deal, said Harry Jaeger, lead negotiator from UFO, the union representing the cabin crews.”It was not possible to avoid using industrial action to convince Lufthansa of the seriousness of our demands. However, we can now be very satisfied with the result.” Lufthansa personnel chief Michael Niggemann said the agreement was good “for our colleagues in the cabin, who do an outstanding job every day, and also for our guests, who finally have planning certainty again.”The deal means the cabin crew won’t go on strike over the busy summer holiday season, when Germany is also due to host the European football championships.UFO members still need to approve it. Cabin crew for two other Lufthansa subsidiaries ― Discover and CityLine ― have still not reached pay deals, but UFO said they were confident of positive news in the near future.

The Lufthansa group ― whose carriers include Lufthansa, Eurowings, Austrian, Swiss and Brussels Airlines ― had to be bailed out by the German government during the coronavirus pandemic. But it has since bounced back strongly as travel has recovered, prompting unions to argue the airline is not passing on enough of its bumper earnings to its staff.