Pilots at the German flag carrier Lufthansa are threatening to go on strike in a dispute over pensions, the official pilot union warned on Wednesday.
In a statement, the Vereinigung Cockpit union said it had declared an impasse with Lufthansa after seven rounds of negotiations over the issue failed to break the deadlock.
“The employer side showed no serious willingness from the beginning to raise the company pension plan to a reliable level,” commented the union’s president, Andreas Pinheiro.”
Pineiro claimed Lufthansa only presented pension models that would cost pilots more money. “No substantial improvements were offered,” Pineiro added.
Until 2017, Lufthansa offered a defined benefit pension plan with guaranteed payouts based on the pilot’s years of service and final rank at the time of retirement.
The union and its members are unhappy with the newer defined contribution pension, which is based on how much pilots have contributed into the scheme and how those contributions perform in the stock market.
While the union accepts that Lufthansa isn’t going to bring back a defined benefit pension plan, it wants the airline to boost its contributions to the plans of pilots whose payouts might be lower than they were expecting.
Pilots at Lufthansa’s mainline airline last went on strike in September 2022 in a 24-hour walkout that grounded 800 flights and left 130,000 passengers stranded. The two sides reached a deal in last-ditch negotiations just before an ever longer walkout was due to get underway.
At the time, pilots agreed not to stage any further strike action over pay and working conditions for at least nine months.
In April 2024, however, Lufthansa faced massive disruption after flight attendants and ground workers united in coordinated strike action that cost the airline at least €350 million (US $372 million).
Lufthansa has also faced industrial strife at several of its subsidiaries that were created with the aim of reducing employee costs in the form of lower pay and pension contributions.
