WORKPLACE CONFLICT CRISIS MANAGEMENT
Germany - Around 4,000 pilots from German airline Lufthansa have agreed to suspend a four-day strike until 8 March so both the company and crew could resume talks.
On Monday, around 4,000 Lufthansa pilots went on a strike which left thousands of passengers stranded until a court hearing intervened to delay the strike for another two weeks. The pilots' union Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) negotiator Thomas von Sturm said they are prepared to resume talks. "We are sticking with that."
One of the reasons that led to the strike was salary demands. The current starting salary for a captain at Lufthansa is around 115,000 euros (S$220,000) while a budget airline such as Easyjet pays its pilots around 80,000 pounds (S$175,000), reported various media. "As we have been saying last week, those pilots want to be treated like managers but are acting like underpaid bus drivers," said a local trader.
According to Reuters, the pilots offered to forego pay increases if they are given some control over which routes or pilot jobs are transferred to other group airlines. Lufthansa has, however, rejected that demand as it would require relinquishing control over certain areas of its business strategy to employees. Having added several airlines to its group of carriers which includes Brussels Airlines, Austrian Airlines and BMI last September, Lufthansa aims to cut one billion euros (S$1.91 billion) of costs by 2011.
Lufthansa expects the pilots' strike to cost the airliner about 100 million euros (S$191 million), in addition to lost ticket sales and possible damage to its reputation with at least 3,200 flights out of a total 7,200 grounded over the four-day period.
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