The pilots and cabin crew of Discover, Lufthansa Group’s holiday airline, have announced a four-day strike that will begin on Tuesday, August 27 at 0:00 (CET) and will extend until 23:59 on Friday, August 30.
The industrial action will affect all Discover Airlines flights departing from German airports and comes as a result of the lack of agreement with the unions VC (pilots) and UFO (CC) in the context of the negotiation of new collective agreements reached with Verdi, another pilots’ and CC union, whose conditions are deemed unacceptable by the first two.
“The management of Discover Airlines, which has been refusing appropriate tariff agreements through the majority cabin crew union UFO for years, already made a strike inevitable earlier this year. Now, this management is once again forcing UFO into an industrial dispute. In a sudden and nocturnal action, a tariff agreement was hastily created with another union, which contains unacceptable conditions for our members, while Discover’s management refuses to continue negotiations with UFO,” said Joachim Vázquez Bürger, UFO president.
See also: Discover Airlines adds more aircraft and modernizes its cabin for long-haul flights
“Our colleagues, after years of stagnation, are now facing not only – completely unexpectedly and suddenly – insufficient conditions, but also unprecedentedly unsupportive conditions, some of which are unbearable. The fact that essential salary components are tied to the employer’s favored union affiliation is already highly questionable. But the fact that they are willing to abuse job security for a membership recruitment program reminiscent of mobile phone providers, under the premise of ‘those who do not participate will be dismissed more quickly,’ leaves us stunned. Unfortunately, the employer leaves us no other choice but to engage in industrial action,” added Harry Jaeger, head of tariff policy.
The airline responded by condemning this industrial action, highlighting that the agreement reached with Verdi guarantees wage increases of up to 38% for CC and up to 16% for pilots.
The impact of the Discover strike
According to information obtained by Aviacionline through Cirium, this week Discover has 248 flights scheduled from its airports in Germany, so the industrial action could affect around 50,000 passengers (plus a similar number on inbound flights).
From its main bases in Frankfurt and Munich, Discover Airlines flies to around 40 destinations in Europe, Africa, North America, and the Caribbean.
Its fleet consists of 14 Airbus A320s, 3 Airbus A330-200s, and 10 Airbus A330-300s.
