German union Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) announced on Tuesday that it is calling for strikes against Lufthansa. The planned actions will target Lufthansa Cargo and Lufthansa Passage flights that depart from German airports on Thursday and Friday, while Lufthansa Cityline flights are scheduled to be affected on Thursday as well. In light of the current situation in the Middle East, flights from Germany to that region will be explicitly excluded from the strike.
The union says the industrial action is driven by failed negotiations over pay for Cityline crews and over pilots’ company pension schemes at Lufthansa and Lufthansa Cargo. Until 2017 pilots received a traditional company pension with guaranteed payments, a system that the employer pushed to replace with a capital‑market‑financed model that the union says falls far below the previous level of support.
“We would have preferred to avoid further escalation” said VC president Andreas Pinheiro. “But no viable offer has been presented. It won’t help if the other side only signals a willingness to talk without discussing substantive improvements in the pension”.
Since August 2025, the collective bargaining commission has been negotiating a new wage contract. According to the union, several rounds of talks ended “without a negotiable offer from the employer”. Lufthansa Cityline did present the VC, in a preliminary discussion on 25 February, an offer that did not demand counter‑financing. However, the VC considers the offer far too weak and also finds a requirement for an absolute peace clause completely unacceptable.
Arne Karstens, speaker of the Group Wage Commission, said, “We have negotiated for a long time without a proper offer. Seven rounds of talks, long pauses, even a mediated proposal have all been allowed to slip by the employer. We will only proceed if a truly negotiable offer is put forward”.