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Lufthansa Warning Strike

Frankfurt Flights Cancelled as Cabin Crews Walk Out

Lufthansa has been hit by a new strike after wage negotiations broke down last week with its major cabin crew union. Friday morning saw 44 cancelled flights and scores of delays in Frankfurt. Lufthansa was also hurt by a series of strikes last summer.

Flight attendants for Lufthansa Airlines mounted a warning strike Friday morning at Frankfurt, Europe's third-largest airport, affecting about 80 flights. The workers demanded a 15 percent raise on behalf of the Independent Flight Crew Organization, a union known by its German initials UFO.

The union said further strikes were in store if Lufthansa didn't respond to their demands. A spokeswoman for the airline said the workers should return to the negotiating table and not burden passengers with their wage demands.

The 600 or so flight attendants stopped work at 6:15 a.m. on Friday and returned to the job three hours later, said Joachim Müller, a spokesman for the union. There were 44 cancellations and scores of delays, according to the German news agency DPA. Lufthansa says it offered train tickets, alternative flights and refunds to the affected passengers.

Wage negotiations broke down last Friday, January 16. By then Lufthansa had offered a 6.1 percent pay increase over 12 months, plus a bonus of 3 percent. In the meantime, Lufthansa says, it has offered to provide cabin crew with a raise of 10 percent over 14 months.

It was the first warning strike in the history of UFO, which represents 70 percent of Lufthansa's 16,000 flight attendants. The airline took heavy losses last July when ground staff and flight attendants belonging to another union mounted a week-long strike -- on the heels of a crippling walkout by regional pilots.

msm -- with wire reports