A 24-hour strike is planned, according to a membership circular from the Cockpit union (VC) on Wednesday. The VC wants to enforce the first collective agreements on salaries and general conditions at the holiday airline, which was founded two and a half years ago, and has declared negotiations with the company to have failed.
In the initial vote that ended on Tuesday, almost 96 percent of members voted for industrial action. There is currently no collective agreement for cabin crews either. The UFO union is negotiating there.
First warning strike for Christmas
The pilots’ first warning strike on the day before Christmas Eve went smoothly for most passengers. Discover was able to reschedule flights to times outside the five-hour strike window. However, if the strike is prolonged, flight cancellations might quickly occur.
After the surprising warning strike in December, Lufthansa demanded an additional agreement on how to deal with each other – a so-called social partner charter. This was promptly viewed by the VC as a restriction on freedom of collective bargaining.
Competition for holiday airlines
The Lufthansa Group’s holiday airline was initially launched in the Corona summer of 2021 under the name “Eurowings Discover” and was later renamed “Discover Airlines”. The 24 aircraft so far are used at the hubs in Frankfurt and Munich on long and medium-haul flights. The Discover is intended to be cheaper than the Lufthansa core brand and to compete with other holiday airlines such as the Condor in the lucrative leisure market.
