I feel this is "employer"/ employee
revenge deal,
Some history:
March 17 2015
The labor issues have significantly impacted Lufthansa’s operations and its earnings during a time when the carrier is also facing substantial obstacles from outside the company.
Deutsche Lufthansa AG faces its 12th strike by pilots over retirement benefits despite concessions in a conflict that has hurt earnings at Europe’s second-largest airline.
The Vereinigung Cockpit pilots union has asked Lufthansa cockpit crews on short- and medium-haul flights to walk out for the day on Wednesday for the second strike this year, after 10 in 2014. While the union said in a statement that the company’s
Germanwings and Eurowings units aren’t affected, Lufthansa said that
Germanwings flights would suffer.
On the strike day, Lufthansa plans to operate “a large proportion” of approximately 3,000 flights it has scheduled, the Cologne, Germany-based airline said in a statement. Lufthansa said it made concessions in past days, suggesting pilots will still be able to retire at 55, as well as offering to expand the main Lufthansa brand operations with associated benefits in a move that would add about 500 cockpit jobs.
The conflict cut Lufthansa’s operating profit by about 220 million euros ($233 million) in 2014 and contributed to Carsten Spohr lowering financial targets twice in his first year as chief executive officer. While the strike is only targeting retirement programs, the pilots also oppose Lufthansa cutting cockpit costs by moving flights to its Eurowings brand and its SunExpress joint venture.
The union said it won’t accept
younger pilots having to agree to early retirement benefits that are “noticeably worse” than those paid to longer-serving ones.
http://skift.com/2015/03/17/lufthansa-faces-12th-pilot-strike-as-benefits-fight-persists/
Pilots at Lufthansa's budget airline, Germanwings, started a two-day strike on Thursday as German pilots' union Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) seeks to put pressure on management in a long-running row over pay and conditions.
Germanwings, which runs short-haul flights in Europe, said on Wednesday it expected to operate more than 60 percent of the 900 flights normally scheduled over the strike period by using volunteer pilots or chartering planes from other airlines.
The row between pilots and management concerns early retirement benefits that Lufthansa wants to change
for new starters.
The pilots oppose the way Lufthansa is pushing through the expansion, by using a small business that is not subject to the same collective labor agreements as pilots at its Lufthansa and Germanwings units.
Like rival Air France-KLM, Lufthansa wants to increase low-cost operations to win back market share lost to the likes of Ryanair and easyJet, which are expanding in its home market.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/r-pi...gs-begin-two-day-walkout-2015-2#ixzz3VV8gKebq
German airlines Lufthansa and Germanwings will be hit by a new 24-hour walkout by pilots on Wednesday (Mar 18), grounding short- and medium-haul flights across Germany, unions and management said.
a long-running dispute over early retirement provisions.
Cockpit had originally said the industrial action would only affect Lufthansa itself and not its Germanwings and Eurowings subsidiaries. But Lufthansa said in a separate statement that flights operated by Germanwings would indeed be affected.
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/business/lufthansa-germanwings/1722294.html