Lufthansa's flight attendants have been on strike since the end of August 2012. This affected the passengers, since all air flights, including to Russia, were canceled. The staff refused to work at full strength.
The starting salary for a novice flight attendant at Lufthansa is 1,533 euros 23 cents. But employees are demanding a 5% increase in wages. 19 thousand members are supported by the independent trade union Ufo.
By laying off 3.5 thousand employees, the company plans to save 1.5 billion euros. For the same purpose, it is planned to reform the subsidiary airline - Germanwings. And those who were fired from the head office were offered to move to this concern, but with a lower salary.
The strike affected airports in Frankfurt, Berlin and Munich. As a result, about 300 flights were canceled. This has happened before. Flight attendants carried out massive actions of dissatisfaction with their official position. The losses they caused to the company were estimated at several million euros.
Participants are not satisfied with the management's policy in terms of cost savings and working conditions. In particular, they are not satisfied with the fixed salary, the hiring of temporary workers, and the extra working day. Nobody announced the place of the meeting, the flight attendants decided this issue 6 hours before the meeting. Negotiations took place over several days and resulted in a 3% increase in cash benefits.
A massive demonstration by airport staff led to a malfunction of the post office. Delays of up to 5 days began in the transfer of postal items, including from Germany to Russia. Russians cannot fly out of Germany, nor can they get into it by air.
Lufthansa apologizes to passengers and offers to use the services of other airlines or railway carriers. The management of the concern will reimburse everyone for the full ticket price
Lufthansa is going to outsource some of the flights to third-party subcontractors who use cheaper labor. Employees consider it unprofitable, therefore, they demand that existing vacancies be preserved and guarantees against forced layoffs. Representatives of the leadership are ready to accept the conditions, but until the end of 2012, which does not suit the strikers at all.
According to the Minister of Transport of Germany - Peter Ramsauer - the strike, if the parties do not reach a compromise, will deal a serious blow to the economy.
