Dhe labor dispute at the airline Eurowings continues. About half of the airline flights will not take place on Tuesday, a spokesman for the Lufthansa subsidiary said on Monday at Cologne/Bonn Airport. With the three-day work stoppage, which began at the beginning of the week, the Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) pilots’ union wants to increase the pressure on the employers’ side. The management of Eurowings has so far rejected improvements to its offer as economically unfeasible. Among other things, the union is demanding 14 additional days off, Eurowings is offering 10.
Chief Financial Officer Kai Duve reported on Monday at Cologne/Bonn Airport that every day of the strike costs the Lufthansa subsidiary a double-digit million euro amount. As a result, the strike is jeopardizing jobs, the manager warned, emphasizing that the union’s demands had already been met to a great extent. They also demand a reduction in the maximum weekly working time by five hours and offer a reduction of three hours. According to the company, the maximum weekly working time is currently 55 hours.
Roughly speaking, Eurowings operates 500 flights every day, with fluctuations depending on the day of the week. On Monday, 240 of 488 flights were canceled. Düsseldorf Airport was hit the hardest with around 100. There were also numerous failures in Cologne/Bonn, Stuttgart, Hamburg and Berlin. Eurowings is trying to fill the gaps caused by the strike with its own staff and flights from partner companies. Nevertheless, the situation on Tuesday should be similar to the day before. There had already been a one-day work stoppage on October 6th. This time it will be three days.
