Lufthansa Cancels 1 700 Flights over Strike, Bulgaria Affected

Passengers are pictured stranded at a terminal Frankfurt airport during a Lufthansa strike in 2012. Photo by voanews.com

German flag carrier Lufthansa has announced Sunday it was cancelling 1 700 flights on Monday due to a workers' strike.

Most flights serve local lines or mid-distances in Europe, including flights to and from the Bulgarian capital Sofia to and from Frankfurt and Munich.

The full list of cancelled flights can be found HERE.

The Verdi trade union, representing 33 000 employees of Lufthansa, informed on Friday they had made the decision to call a strike with demands of higher wages than the ones proposed by the management, which were labeled "scandalous."

Losses are estimated to be in the vicinity of tens of millions of EUR.

The management's proposal was to up salaries by 1.2% in October and by an additional 0.5% in 2014.

The union further opposes the 29-month labor contracts, which do not guarantee job security.

Verdi want a 5.2% wage increase for all cabin crews and employees of Lufthansa Cargo, Lufthansa Technik, Lufthansa Systems, and the catering unit LSG Sky Chefs, along with job security guarantees.

A similar recent strike on March 21, 2013, led to the cancellation of 40% (1 750) of Lufthansa's flights.

 

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