German Court Tells LH Pilots To End Strike

A German labour court has issued a temporary injunction ordering Lufthansa pilots to end their strike actions, according to multiple reports in the German media,.

In making its ruling, the court described the strike action as “unlawful” because they were targeted at Lufthansa’s plans to expand its budget airline subsidiaries, rather than dealing with wage issues, the media reports stated.

Prior to the injunction being issued, strike action by the Vereinigung Cockpit pilots’ union resulted in 1,000 flight cancellations which affected some 140,000 passengers.

Lufthansa also indicated that it will submit a claim for compensatory damages against the Vereinigung Cockpit to the Frankfurt Labor Court.

The carrier said that claim will be based on the “unlawfulness” of the pilots’ strike of April 2014, when the Vereinigung Cockpit ordered strike action against Lufthansa Cargo even though the corresponding CLA [Collective Labour Agreement] was still in force. The damage caused to the Lufthansa Group as a result of the April 2014 strike totaled around EUR 60 million.