German airports are more or less empty due to pilots´ strike by Zuzana Zelenakova

Europe´s biggest airline when it comes to the number of passengers carried German Lufthansa is busy with the biggest strike since 2001. The company´s pilots afraid that they might lose their jobs and not content with their wages have begun a four-day strike on Monday. Two-thirds of flights of the German flag carrier were cancelled and usually busy airports are almost empty. The Lufthansa predicting several thousand cancellations has offered customers a possibility to change their bookings or travel by train. According to experts, the strike that is expected to cost about 65 million euros could represent possible danger for the recovering German economy. It might ! seem the situation came to a dead end as the Lufthansa management and Cockpit unions representing Lufthansa 4,000 pilots are unable to reach any kind of agreement. "Lufthansa management is not interested in dialogue, although it won't admit it," union spokesman Joerg Handwerg said. On the other hand, Lufthansa claims: "We are open to talks without preconditions," stated Lufthansa spokesman Klaus Walther, who continued to say that if the Cockpit union "withdrew its catalogue of unrealistic and illegal claims ... a deal would be swiftly found." The union aims for 6.4 percent pay rise and also a guarantee from Lufthansa that pilots will not lose their jobs as the company moves the flights to foreign affiliates where wages are considerably lower. Walther called this statement a “pure invention” and said no jobs have been threatened. Also German Transport Minister Peter Ramsauer appealed to both sides through television to resume negotiations "tomorrow or the day aft! er" despite the strike. Earlier, he stressed what damage could! such a strike pose for the country´s economy. "It can not be that the largest German air fleet is grounded for four days," he said.

related story (sgx16532): http://www.france24.com/en/20100222-chaos-hits-german-airpor...

by Zuzana Zelenakova for SigEx Ventures (http://sigexventures.com)

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