News / Meeting union demands will be 'a major economic challenge', says Lufthansa

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Lufthansa Cargo has admitted that the spate of prolonged strikes had “left their mark”, and said it would have to increase productivity and efficiency to fund the agreed salary increases. 

After some four months of intermittent strike action, and five rounds of negotiations with German trade union ver.di, Lufthansa Cargo has offered a new benefit agreement for its ground staff. 

They would receive significant pay increases, putting an end to strike action and Lufthansa customers could expect a return to reliability from their carrier.  

“The agreement reached is good news and we are pleased that we have come to a compromise,” a Lufthansa Cargo spokesperson told The Loadstar.  

“It is also true that the strikes have cost us a lot of money and the agreement is, of course, a major economic challenge for us. We have high investments ahead of us.” 

Ver.di had vowed, via its members, to continue strikes until Lufthansa agreed to a minimum 12.5% pay increase for ground handlers, among other conditions.  

The Lufthansa Cargo spokesperson said: “The process was very challenging and has left its mark. The path to this agreement could have been different if we had discussed more with each other at the negotiating table, instead of wage disputes being fought on the backs of our customers and employees.” 

Lufthansa must now find the capital to account for the inflated staff costs, which will likely be a challenge; many airlines posted a loss in 2023 in the wake of Covid peaks.  

Lufthansa Cargo reported revenue of €2.98bn ($3.3bn) last year, down 36% on 2022’s €4.6bn, and generated an adjusted ebitda of €401m, down 77% from 2022’s €1.7bn.   

The spokesperson told The Loadstar: “This salary increase will trigger costs and we must see how we deal with them – for example, through greater efficiency and productivity.” 

Ver.di will now conduct a survey among its members to decide whether to accept or reject the new offer. The survey will run until mid-April.  

“We are not making any assumptions about the outcome, but we believe that our employees covered by the agreements can be very satisfied,” concluded Lufthansa.