Germany’s Lufthansa in new pay offer to end pilots’ strike
BERLIN — German airline Lufthansa said Wednesday it has made a modified pay offer to pilots as it seeks to put an end to a long-running dispute that’s seen a succession of strikes over recent days.
Lufthansa said it is now offering a wage increase totalling 4.4 per cent this year and next plus an unspecified one-time payment. It said the offer “is not linked to any other terms or conditions” and called for arbitration proceedings.
The new offer is an improvement on one Lufthansa made last Friday. Then, it offered to increase pilots’ pay by 4.4 per cent by mid-2018, and make a one-time payment equal to 1.8 monthly salaries in lieu of past raises. That offer was presented as part of an “overall solution” that addressed many other issues, and was rejected by the Cockpit union.
Cockpit is seeking retroactive raises of 3.66 per cent a year going back 5 1/2 years.