According to AUA, there have been no new negotiations on the collective agreement (KV) for this year since Sunday, and the airline now has to decide whether the more than 400 planned flights can be carried out before the Easter holidays. In any case, the employee representatives continue to be combative. vida unionist Daniel Liebhart said on Tuesday in the “Ö1- Frühjournal” that one is primarily responsible to the members.
“The AUA is driving us into industrial action”
“We don’t want to go on strike, the AUA is driving us into industrial action,” is how he sees things. The union wants a salary agreement above inflation, the AUA’s offer of up to 18 percent salary increase for flight attendants and pilots and up to 28 percent for co-pilots is for two years and consists of unsustainable one-off payments, emphasizes the employee representative.
The AUA, on the other hand, insists on offering full wage compensation plus something on top for two years, whereby the success bonus offered, as the name suggests, depends on good balance sheet figures in the next few years.
For orientation: In the current spring wage round for around 130,000 industrial employees, the basis for negotiations is the past annual inflation (February 2023 to February 2024) of 6.8 percent. The Lufthansa subsidiary AUA is now doing well again economically after very difficult years. We can look back on a “very positive year” in 2023 in terms of the key metrics, said AUA board member Michael Trestl in January of this year. According to the most recently announced company figures (3rd quarter of 2023), there was a significant increase: sales in the third quarter rose by eight percent to 741 million euros compared to the same period last year and the operating result (EBIT) rose by 17 percent to 129 million euros.
Strike would cause about 15 million damage
On Monday, the AUA pointed out that a 36-hour strike between Maundy Thursday from midnight and Good Friday until midday would affect 430 flights with 52,000 passengers. According to the airline, the financial damage would be around 15 million euros.
Regardless of the decision as to whether flights have to be canceled, the AUA is already offering potentially affected customers a one-off, free rebooking or cancellation of their flight.
