Arbitration talks between German airline Lufthansa and ground staff began on Monday, following repeated strikes in recent months that paralyzed the country's air transport. State Premier of Thuringia, Bodo Ramelow, and the former head of the Federal Labour Agency, Frank-Jürgen Weise, are to help resolve the conflict between the company and the Verdi trade union as mediators. The parties began talks in the morning, Lufthansa confirmed. No strikes are permitted during the negotiations, which are d
In the ground staff wage dispute at Germany's flagship carrier Lufthansa, technical staff began a three-day strike on Wednesday morning. The strike began as planned at 6:00 am (0500 GMT), said Marvin Reschinsky, chief negotiator for the Verdi union. Passenger flights will not be affected this time. According to Verdi, employees and trainees from Lufthansa Technik, Lufthansa Aviation Training and Lufthansa Technical Training are taking part in the nationwide action. Lufthansa says it assumes that
FRANKFURT (Reuters) -German labour union Verdi on Saturday demanded Lufthansa offers a higher wage increase for thousands of the German airline's ground crew before it agrees to a fresh round of pay talks aimed at averting further industrial action. Ground staff walked off the job at major airports on Tuesday in their second strike this month, which Lufthansa said had affected 100,000 passengers. The fourth meeting in the dispute over pay for some 25,000 ground staff ended fruitlessly on Thursday and March 13 or 14 had been pencilled in beforehand as the next date for a meeting, but Verdi is now seeking an earlier meeting in order to speed a deal.
Operations at Germany's largest airline were expected to normalize on Wednesday after this month's second wave of strikes by Lufthansa employees came to an end. "Lufthansa plans to gradually resume flight operations in Frankfurt and Munich after the end of the Verdi strike on Wednesday morning," said a company spokesman. Trade union Verdi had called on employees to put down their work for a second time this month in an ongoing wage dispute with the airline. Negotiations are set to resume on Wedn