Lufthansa Group’s Leisure Carrier Discover Airlines’ Pilots & Flight Attendants Will Strike

Summary

• Discover Airlines flight attendants have planned a four-day strike action, which is scheduled to ocurr from August 27 to August 30.
• The strike was called due to the airline’s refusal to negotiate with UFO and its coercion for its flight attendants to join another union.
• Previously, Lufthansa outlined that it wanted to expand Discover Airlines operations, which would be done at competitive costs.

Discover Airlines flight attendants, represented by the Independent Flight Attendants Organisation (Unabhängige Flugbegleiter Organisation, UFO), have called for a four-day strike, protesting the airline’s attempts to allegedly lure cabin crews to join another union, namely the United Services Trade Union (Vereinte Dienstleistungsgewerkschaft ver.di).

Striking for four days

In the strike announcement, UFO said that all members of the union, as well as cabin crew members employed by Discover Airlines in Germany , are able to join the strike.

The labor action was scheduled to take place between August 27 and August 30, inclusive, affecting departures from German airports.

Data from the aviation analytics company Cirium showed that during the four days, Discover Airlines has scheduled 135 departures from Germany, with an average of 212.7 seats per departure during the time period.

Working with ver.di

UFO stated that the union did not expect this and it would have liked to avoid the labor action, yet the alleged Discover Airlines and ver.di cooperation was described as “intolerable” and “disturbing.”

“One reason to strike is what the employer and the other union have cobbled together in three days of work. Not only is it not sufficient in many areas, but above all, it is the membership procurement program […], which is intended to buy in members who did not and do not want to come voluntarily.”

According to UFO, the benefits that should have been given to everyone would be only given to those who would join ver.di.

The former union pointed out that someone was willing to abuse job security through a membership recruitment program with a motto that said those unwilling to join would lose their jobs quickly, which was “shocking.”

Comparatively worse conditions at ver.di

In a comparison paper issued by UFO, the union detailed that ver.di has offered a considerably worse collective labor agreement. The former labor collective does not have a deal with Discover Airlines, and according to UFO, the airline has refused to sit down and negotiate an agreement for the past two years.

As such, UFO will demand a pay package that was around 20% more than the package offered by ver.di, with the agreement lasting until December 31, 2026, while the latter union’s deal would expire on the exact day a year later.

Furthermore, UFO has aimed to increase flight attendants’ salaries by 8.5% in 2025 and 6.5% in 2026, while ver.di’s pay package includes a flat 5% raise during the three years of the contract.

Differences go beyond basic pay, including additional days off, more vacation days, a higher allowance, and others.

When the Lufthansa Group reported its H1 results in July, it admitted that its flagship airline has struggled to achieve profitability.

This was partly due to its disproportionately high operating costs in Germany, and new collective labor agreements have also impacted the carrier’s earnings.

As a result, Lufthansa’s turnaround program included expanding Discover Airlines and Lufthansa City Airlines operations at Frankfurt Airport (FRA) and Munich Airport (MUC) at competitive costs.

The competitive costs that Lufthansa mentioned were reflected in the differences between the potential labor agreements between UFO and ver.di, which the former labor collective detailed in its strike announcement.