FRANKFURT: Pilots at Lufthansa, Europe's biggest airline, have overwhelmingly backed a strike to press for higher pay, their union said Sunday.
“This is a signal that cannot be ignored,“ the Cockpit union said in a statement.
The risk that Lufthansa’s planes could be grounded has increased, but the result of the consultation “does not automatically mean strike action will be taken”, it added.
The union said it would immediately reopen negotiations with the management, currently at a stalemate, “with even more support” from its members.
Lufthansa has around 5,500 pilots in its passenger and freight operations.
Cockpit is the only union representing them.
The vote gave a majority of 97.6 percent in favour of a strike by passenger service pilots and 99.3 percent for cargo pilots.
Turnout was around 95 percent of the membership.
The pilots are demanding a 5.5-percent rise in their salaries this year, followed by an automatic indexing to inflation.
The union is also demanding a guarantee on the size of Lufthansa's fleet, in order to secure pilots' jobs.
The spectre of strikes comes as Lufthansa has been in dispute with ground staff who took part in a 24-hour strike on July 27, causing major disruption to German traffic.
Their union, Verdi, is demanding 9.5-percent pay hikes.
In both cases, management has so far refused to accept the demands. - AFP
