Airline threatens lawsuits against striking German workers

Lufthansa board members have called for tougher anti-union legislation Frankfurt – Arabstoday German airline Lufthansa said Friday it is considering taking legal action against a further day of walkouts in an escalating pay dispute that threatens to disrupt air travel across Germany next week. "We're examining whether to take legal steps as the strike action is not a warning strike, but an all-out strike which will probably cost us double-digit millions of euros," Lufthansa spokeswoman Claudia Lange told AFP.
Board member Stefan Lauer slammed the union's move as "absurd."
"A 24-hour strike is effectively an all-out strike and given the progress made in negotiations, a totally over-the-top reaction," Lauer fumed.
The board member said it was "intolerable just how frequently and callously the various unions inflict damage on the air traffic sector and on our company. It is high time that policy makers see the need for new rules in labour disputes," he said.
Earlier the giant services sector union Verdi had called for a full day of walkouts on Monday after management failed to come up with up an acceptable pay offer after three rounds of talks.
The call comes a month after Lufthansa was forced to cancel nearly 700 out of a total 1,800 flights due to half a day of warnings strikes.
The union complained that the offer tabled by management represented an increase of 0.4-0.6 percent over a period of 12 months.
 But Verdi is demanding a 5.2-percent pay increase for 33,000 Lufthansa ground staff, plus employees of the subsidiaries Lufthansa-Systems, Lufthansa Service Group (LSG), Lufthansa Technik and Lufthansa Cargo, as well as those cabin crew members who are Verdi members.
Lufthansa rejected the union's interpretation of management's offer, insisting that staff of Lufthansa Technik would get an increase of 2.3 percent over two stages, staff at Lufthansa Cargo and Lufthansa Systems would receive 2.1 percent and employees at the main company 1.7 percent.