In a ballot of flight attendant union members, more than 96% voted in favour of going on strike in the ongoing wage dispute with the German airline Lufthansa, the Ufo union said on Wednesday, but a strike date is not to be set until later.
It comes after ground staff at the national carrier are set to go on strike from Wednesday evening, with security staff at Germany's Frankfurt and Hamburg airports set to join the action on Thursday. They are represented by a different trade union.
Ufo head Joachim Vázquez Bürger stressed that unionized flight attendants as well as the entire Lufthansa cabin staff were very determined to fight for improvements but said a strike could still be avoided at this point.
""We remain open to reasonable offers and fair solutions from the employer in order to possibly avert strikes at short notice," he said.
Ufo is demanding a 15% pay rise for around 18,000 Lufthansa cabin crew and just under 1,000 staff at subsidiary Cityline over a period of 18 months. The union is also asking for an inflation adjustment bonus of €3,000 ($3,200) and higher bonuses.
Wage negotiations for the Lufthansa parent company and the subsidiary Cityline have been held separately. In both cases, the union had rejected the respective offers as insufficient.
Amid the ongoing wage dispute, employees will be watching closely when Lufthansa chief executive Carsten Spohr is set to present a renewed sharp rise in profits for the financial year 2023 on Thursday.
