Lufthansa cabin crew to resume strikes Tuesday

Flight attendants for Lufthansa are set to strike on Tuesday, according to German labour unions.

Travel Insurance News - 03/09/2012

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Flight attendants for Lufthansa are set to strike on Tuesday, according to German labour unions.

Officials from the Unabhaengige Flugbegleiter Organisation (UFO) said Monday that union officials would not announce specifics of the stop-work until six hours prior, increasing the chance of delays for thousands of passengers.

The strike follows a walkout staged by cabin crewmembers on Friday amid an ongoing standoff with the carrier’s management over wages amid the loss-making firm’s attempts to recover from steady financial decline in recent years.

Reports said that last week’s strike forced the flag carrier to cancel more than 200 flights headed for dozens of European destinations, as well as key long-haul routs to South Asia, the United States and Israel.

The UFO union represents more than 19,000 Lufthansa cabin crewmembers, although the organisation did not specify how many would be participating in the industrial action set for Tuesday. The group said that the strike comes after the carrier “provided no signal” following Friday’s strikes and the breakdown of wage talks on 28 August.

Lufthansa is planning to cut 4,500 of its 120,000 jobs worldwide amid cost-cutting efforts, according to reports. Meanwhile, the UFO is seeking a 5 per cent annual pay increase for currently contracted employees, although the firm’s management has offered only 3.5 per cent.

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