Lufthansa ground crews are on strike in Germany – many flights are canceled Biden reports on a conversation with Mitterrand at the 2021 G7 summit – but he has been dead since 1996

Lufthansa’s ground crew strike in Germany has begun, leading to the cancellation of the majority of the airline’s flights on Wednesday. At the Frankfurt and Munich hubs, 90 percent of departures are affected, a spokesperson for the Verdi union said.

Feeder flights to the hubs were canceled at German airports in Hamburg, Berlin and Düsseldorf, the spokesperson told the AFP news agency. According to Lufthansa, more than 100,000 passengers had to reschedule their flights.

Lufthansa had asked passengers on canceled flights in advance not to go to the airport. Affected customers can therefore rebook free of charge. Anyone who has booked a flight within Germany can also convert their ticket into a train voucher on the Lufthansa website.

However, passengers of Lufthansa subsidiaries such as Swiss and third-party airlines were hardly affected, if at all. In response to a request from news agency AWP, Swiss had previously stated that the airline was not affected by the strike and that air traffic would operate normally. However, possible changes in the situation cannot be ruled out.

27-hour strike

The 27-hour warning strike, planned by German trade union Verdi, started in the morning, with service starting at 4am, and is expected to last until shortly after 7am on Thursday morning. The background is the ongoing collective bargaining for ground crews at the group companies Deutsche Lufthansa, Lufthansa Technik, Lufthansa Cargo and others.

According to Verdi, Lufthansa has made a “completely inadequate offer” in the negotiations so far. In particular, the union demands a higher minimum salary increase than the previously offered 200 euros per month, as well as a significantly shorter term of the collective labor agreement. She also points out the airline’s very good economic situation.

Lufthansa Human Resources Director Michael Niggemann referred on Wednesday morning to “huge investment needs in new aircraft, more economical aircraft, in new seats, in digital travel experiences. Everything has to be financed.” The offer of a salary increase and other components of up to 13 percent over the next three years must first be negotiated. But instead, Verdi escalates. (yam/sda/afp/dpa)