Pilots and flight attendants at Lufthansa Group carrier Discover Airlines have voted to go on a four-day strike later this week to pressure the carrier to negotiate new contracts.
“From August 27th at 00:01 o’clock until August 30th at 23:59 o’clock all flights from Germany will be on strike,” pilot union Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) said on 25 August. “The aim of the industrial action is to conclude a collective remuneration agreement and a general collective agreement for the cockpit personnel stationed in Germany at EW Discover GmbH.”
Last week, 90% of VC union members participated in a vote to conduct a strike. Of those 81% voted in favour.
At the flight attendant union Unabhangiger Flugbegleiter Organisation (UFO), almost 92% voted for the strike.
“We didn’t expect this and we would have preferred nothing more than to avoid it,” UFO says.
The two unions have also said that they will coordinate their actions.
The move comes two weeks after Discover’s management agreed on new collective labour agreements for cockpit and cabin crew with trade union Verdi that were slated to run through the end of 2027.
But VC and UFO say that contract is insufficient.
“The Verdi [contract] leaves many points unregulated to the advantage of the employer,” says VC’s head of public relations Frank Blanken. “At the same time, the design of the differentiation clauses appears to be questionable and on shaky legal ground. It shows the employer’s helpless naivete if they believe that pilots can be duped so easily.”
Discover Airlines was previously known as Eurowings Discover, before Lufthansa Group rebranded the leisure unit last September. Eurowings Discover began operating flights for Lufthansa under its own AOC in the summer of 2021, initially focusing on leisure routes of Frankfurt. It currently has about 2,000 employees and operates 27 Airbus aircraft on short, medium, and long-haul routes to popular tourist destinations.
The airline plans to expand to 33 aircraft by the end of 2027.
In a note on its website, the carrier says it is “working to minimise the impact” of the strikes and advises travellers to regularly check on flight status.
Lufthansa Group was hit with numerous strike actions in previous months, which hit the companys first-quarter profit to the tune of more than €350 million ($391 million). The company cut its full-year adjusted earnings before interest and taxmoutlook to a range of between €1.4 billion and €1.8 billion as a result of the strikes and other operational struggles.
