Lufthansa breaks off union talks on cutting ground staff costs

Lufthansa, on Thursday, said it had broken off negotiations with Germany’s Verdi union, regarding ground staff as the troubled airline struggles to clinch cost-cutting agreements to get it through the coronavirus crisis.

Verdi represents around 35,000 employees and says it put forward savings measures of around 600 million euros.

This is apparently not enough for the company, which had to rely on a nine-billion-euro ($10.7 billion) government bailout for survival earlier in 2020.

A Lufthansa spokeswoman said in Frankfurt that the union had been asked to return to the negotiating table with new proposals that would significantly reduce personnel costs.

According to the Deputy Chairwoman at Verdi, who also represents workers on Lufthansa’s supervisory board, Christine Behle, the refusal is a slap in the face of the employees.

She said it was absolutely unacceptable that the company demands that employees forgo serious income without providing employment protection guarantees or measures for socially acceptable job cuts in return.

Behle, however, urged the German Government to wield its influence in the matter.

The part-nationalised airline said, after the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, that it planned to cut 22,000 full-time positions globally, half of which were in Germany.

The Lufthansa fleet is currently set to be reduced by 100 jets.