Cabin crew union UFO said on Wednesday that it will begin strikes on Thursday, unless Eurowings signs onto an arbitration agreement over pay and other contract conditions before then. The union is set to give further details of the strike on Wednesday evening.
UFO last week had threatened strikes that could take place over the course of two weeks after they said Eurowings management had taken their own resolution proposal off the table.
Since then, UFO said that they had proposed a resolution under the same model that parent company Lufthansa had used in its own labour negotiations: A former Brandenburg minister president had acted as mediator to reach a solution in July to a two-year dispute with cabin staff that had impacted hundreds of thousands of passengers.
UFO said that Eurowings’ management responded that they would not be able to look at the proposal with short notice, and would review it in the morning. UFO accused the company of using delaying tactics.
A spokesman for Eurowings said the company leadership did not understand the reason behind the strike threat.
“Yesterday we offered UFO a resolution for all of their outstanding labour contract issues,” the spokesman said, adding that managers had also told the union they would review UFO’s own proposal on Wednesday afternoon.
Lufthansa has been putting Eurowings through major transformation in recent years, merging its operations with that of the company’s other low-cost subsidiary, Germanwings.
UFO’s rival union, Verdi, caused a stir in September when its members organized a ‘warning strike’ against the low-cost airline, resulting in eight flights being cancelled.
The Local
Flight Attendant Union at Eurowings threatens to go on strike October 27th 2016
