Transcontinental strike of Lufthansa

On April 22, 2013, a one-day strike of the Lufthansa took place. As a result, 1,720 flights to many countries were canceled. German railways were forced to launch several additional trains. The strike affected all the important airports in Germany - in Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich, Hamburg, Cologne and Dusseldorf, including forty flights from Germany to Russia and back. The strike of Lufthansa touched twenty-two Moscow flights to Dusseldorf, Munich, Hamburg, Frankfurt am Main and back. Twelve flights were transferred from St. Petersburg to Munich, Frankfurt and Dusseldorf. Two flights in different directions were abolished between Frankfurt and Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod and Samara.

Civil aviation employees, members of the service trade union, demanded a salary increase of 5.2 percent for thirty-three thousand employees. They also sought to obtain guarantees of protection from mass dismissal.

This is not the first strike of Lufthansa in its history. A month before , the union had held a strike with the demand to increase the salaries of ground personnel. Then it was necessary to cancel more than 700 sorties, including transcontinental and international.

Moreover, six months earlier, the flight attendants of this airline conducted their protest action. Then Lufthansa annulled several thousand flights. Before that, the negotiations of the so-called trade union UFO, representing the interests of flight attendants, lasted 13 months. But they did not bring results, which was the reason for a series of protest actions. The two previous cabin crew strikes lasted for 8 hours and were only carried out at selected airports in Munich, Berlin and Frankfurt. But even they actually paralyzed the country's air traffic.

In the end, the long-awaited compromise on the results of the April 24-hour strike was achieved. The parties agreed on a gradual increase in wages. In particular, for twenty-six months the salaries for the company's employees were increased by three percent, and for employees of subsidiaries by almost five percent. In addition, improvements in terms of working conditions have been promised and protection against layoffs has been established.

Although this Lufthansa strike was of a large scale, there was a serene atmosphere in German airports. This was achieved with the help of a competent warning to the passengers of the Lufthansa company. Tickets for abolished flights to people were compensated or exchanged for other dates.

The restructuring of Europe's largest air carrier "Lufthansa", a strike of its personnel struck at its profitability. In 2012, the German Lufthansa earned as much as 524 million euros of the so-called pre-tax profit. However, this is by thirty-six percent less than last year.

In addition, fuel costs have increased. Kerosene spending grew by eighteen percent to almost seven and a half billion euros. This crisis forces the German operator to cut costs and fire personnel. Costs associated with restructuring, will affect the carrier's profits until early 2015.