LH Strike pending

The BBC article makes reference to a THREE DAY pilots strike at Lufthansa, Lufthansa Cargo and Germanwings between Tuesday 1st – Thursday 3rd April 2014. Oh, and apparently this is the third strike to hit operations at FRA in six weeks, although the article is opaque about who it was that previously went on strike.

I shall look forward to hearing about the flawless non-interruption to travel plans owing to this (latest) minor inconvenience.

It must be approaching senility because I could have sworn that there have been previous BT postings lambasting BA management (and the bonus totin’ WW) for allowing industrial relations to deteriorate to the point of strike action. My recollection was the suggestion from certain quarters that at “Europe’s premier airline” (sic), management and unions would never allow things to get to such a low point. But it must be that I keep forgetting to brandish those “self-hating Brit” matching shoulder-chips so that I can assert that mismanagement, incompetence, poor service and letting down fare-paying passengers are uniquely British and BA phenomena…

Aviation Week reporter Jens Flottau says that Lufthansa is cancelling a total of 3,800 flights between Wednesday and Friday. The pilots’ strike is said to affect 425,000 passengers.

DavidGordon10 – 30/03/2014 21:48 GMT

I was caught in a Lufthansa strike about this time last year at only 48 hours notice. Their communication about the impact was very good and I was clear about my options. I decided to make alternative arrangements myself as it was easier to book an alternative than ask them to do it although they were willing. They sorted out the money aspect within about six weeks so while a strike is never desirable I was not really inconvenienced as I had new arrangements pulled together within about forty minutes of knowing what my options were.

That dispute was settled after one strike with a reasonable compromise by both parties which seems to be the Lufthansa way of doing things so perhaps after this week there will be no more.

It is noteworthy from the article Alec McWhirter attached that this dispute has now dragged on for two years already…. And with LH management having previously conceded much already to the LH pilots, just how many more such strikes can now be expected at “Europe’s premier airline” (sic).

Interestingly CAPA’s analysis

http://centreforaviation.com/analysis/lufthansa-pilot-strike-highlights-labour-issues-for-europes-legacy-carriers-its-time-to-wake-up-160339

comes as close to endorsing the BA/IAG approach to addressing legacy labour costs as I have read anywhere. As the article concludes, there is no such thing any more as a “too big to fail” airline. We cannot all be bankers benefiting from an implicit taxpayer guarantee and subsidy to our bottom line (as per the Bank of England’s Financial Stability reports).

@ BigDog. – 03/04/2014 18:22 GMT
EDITED subsequent to first posting

May I respectfully request that you take issue with CAPA – as the author of the item – rather than me?

You have compiled a €billion+ of losses that you claim have accrued as a result of WW’s leadership and management style. As far as the IB deal is concerned, I too believe that WW mistimed and overpaid but after having had a succession of deals with KLM, US Air and United blocked, by the time of the IB deal, it was one of the few options left that potentially provided any synergy. But WW paid too much and having had the Spaniards crawl all over the BA pensions issue, he failed to insist that they get their own house in order too. My criticism also extends to the due diligence carried out by the investment bankers and the management consultants that BA had in at the time.

As you have either forgotten or have chosen to overlook the point, I will reiterate that I am/have been a consistent and fierce critic of the WW “We’re all in it together – just some less so than others…” school of management whereby others get to take the pay and pension cuts but he gets to skim the cream off the top. But let’s face it, that is how the Anglo-American business model operates: with the rewards accruing to the board/senior management (and possibly the shareholders) and the proles being told to mind their Ps and Qs – or get fired.

Which, actually, is yet another reason why I continue to admire and promote the fundamentally participatory and social democratic business model employed in Germany. It is just the fawning/chippy “only the Germans can do anything competently…” mindset that I take issue with. This does also lead me to wonder just how well this fits with the ability of “Europe’s premier airline”… to make the necessary adjustment to remuneration costs to render LH competitive in the longer-run.

@ JohnHarper – 03/04/2014 19:03 GMT

And you can point out the example of an airline, or indeed a company in any sector, where the entire staff and management are happy with their lot…? And the source of your assertion (as opposed to an objective fact) re: BA flight deck crew?

Pointless argument all round, no group of employees are going to like their pay and benefits being cut, be that at BA, Iberia, Air France, KLM, Lufthansa, Austrian Qantas, etc.

The point the CAPA article is making is that all these airlines are having to go through this process, and BA / Iberia are further advanced in the process than others.

Lets just leave it at that rather than turning a LH strike pending thread into the usual repetitive Willie Walsh rant thread!