The union that groups Eurowings’ pilots, Lufthansa Group’s budget airline, announced this Friday that the new offer made by the company for the collective agreement is insufficient, so on Monday, October 17, they will start a strike that will last for three days, until 23:59 on October 19, although they assured that they are still open to talks.
According to Vereinigung Cockpit, their main demand continues to be the reduction of workloads through measures to limit maximum flight duty times and extend rest periods, which today apply up to the legal limits. This, they explain, should be an exception and not a frequent practice. Wages are not a source of labor dispute today.
«This strike would not be necessary if Eurowings would negotiate with us on equal terms. Unfortunately, the employer seems to want to buy time. Completely inadequate offers leave employees no choice but to express their dissatisfaction with the workload at their airline,» said Matthias Baier, spokesman for Vereinigung Cockpit.
«We regret the significant restrictions and consequences for passengers and hope that Eurowings management will contact us as soon as possible to resolve this dispute,» he added.
At the time of this publication on Friday night, the airline has not issued any official communication on the matter.
According to data obtained by Aviacionline through Cirium, between Monday and Wednesday Eurowings has around 1,300 flights scheduled, so the potential number of passengers affected would exceed 200,000. In early October Eurowings had already suffered another strike, albeit only for 24 hours.
The Eurowings network covers around 130 destinations in Europe. In Spain it operates in Lanzarote, Malaga, Alicante, Barcelona, Bilbao, Fuerteventura, Ibiza, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Menorca, Palma de Mallorca, Tenerife Sur, Valencia and Jerez de la Frontera.
