The airline Eurowings sees jobs at the Lufthansa subsidiary threatened by the pilot strikes announced by the Cockpit Association (VC) for the coming week. "With the renewed threat of strikes, VC is willingly endangering the future of Eurowings Germany," said Eurowings Managing Director Kai Duve on Saturday. The union is thus inevitably forcing Eurowings into a contraction of German flight operations and endangering jobs - not only in the cockpit.

The Cockpit Association has called on the Eurowings pilots to lay down their work from Monday 00.00 a.m. to Wednesday (19 October) inclusive. The reason is the insufficient offer from the employer side for the collective agreement, the union said on Friday evening in Frankfurt. Duve announced: "We are doing everything in our power to minimize the impact of this strike, including rebooking to partner airlines in the Lufthansa Group."

Demand for more rest periods

The pilots had already struck Eurowings flight operations in a first wave on October 6 and canceled around half of the planned flights. On average, the Lufthansa subsidiary operates around 500 flights to destinations in Germany and Europe every day. Tens of thousands of passengers therefore had to switch to other flights or the train - or postpone their journey.

The union is in the dispute about reducing the workload of employees in the cockpit. The union demands that maximum flight duty times should be limited and rest periods extended. She described the latest offer from management as insufficient and non-negotiable. The negotiations therefore failed.

However, Duve vehemently disagreed with this view. The company submitted a relief package to the union that was unique in the industry. "Of the 14 additional days off required per year, we have already offered ten more days, as well as a reduction in weekly working hours by two full hours," explained the manager. Anyone who does not want to see a negotiable offer in this concession has lost all measure and every middle ground.