Jobs at risk, warns boss as Lufthansa subsidiary faces pilots strike

A planned new strike at Lufthansa subsidiary Eurowings could end up meaning the air carrier has to strike jobs in the long term, Eurowings boss Kai Duve warned on Saturday.

The Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) union has called pilots to go on strike starting at midnight on Monday (2200 GMT on Sunday) and not return to work until Thursday, amid a fight about pay and workloads.

"VC is recklessly endangering the future of Eurowings Germany with its latest strike threat," Duve said. He said the union's demands are going to force Eurowings to shrink its business, which will mean fewer jobs.

The pilots already staged a strike on October 6, forcing the cancellation of about half of planned flights that day. Eurowings averages about 500 flights to and from Germany a day. Duve said efforts are already under way to make sure next week's planned strike disrupts as few travel plans as possible.

VC has argued that flying hours have to be reduced and rest times extended to reduce pressure on pilots. So far, it has said proposals from Eurowings have been lacking.

But Duve disputes this, saying its offer was generous, arguing that pilots had demanded 14 extra free days a year, but that Eurowings had offered 10 more beyond that, as well as two fewer hours of work a week.