Flight attendants for Germany’s largest air carrier Lufthansa promised to abstain from holding strikes for at least a month and a half until the wages issue is resolved, Spiegel reported.
Last Friday, the country’s flight attendants labor union UFO and Lufthansa administration agreed to resume negotiations following the third and the largest strike of cabin crews since August.
Chief of the UFO labor union Nikoley Baublies told Spiegel it was unreal to resolve the dispute in lesser period than six weeks and flight attendants would not be staging strikes within this period of time.
He also said earlier that strikes during mediation are illegal under German labor law.
Flight attendants demand a 5-percent increase in wages. Because of the financial crunch, Lufthansa plans to lay off 3,500 employees and economize 1.5 billion euros over the next three years. In order to reduce its costs Lufthansa plans to reform its subsidiary airline Germanwings and partially move there Lufthansa employees by paying them lower wages.
Last Friday’s strike was held at the country’s major airports in Frankfurt, Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Dusseldorf and Stuttgart. Nearly 1,200 flights were grounded.
Last week on Tuesday, Lufthansa had to cancel some 300 flights due to striking flight attendants. The strike lasted eight hours and paralyzed three airports.
The first strike, which took place on August 31, saw about 100 flights grounded.