So Lufthansa is on strike again. We should not be to surprised. The last years strikes among different airlines have hit the passengers hard. But are the strikes defendable or even good?
First of al, Im a big friend of trade unions. I do believe that an unionized work force gets better paid and more benefits then unorganized labor. And with a high inflation it’s maybe not surprised that Lufthansa is on strike again. Yes up to 100 000 passengers will be effected. Either by rerouting, delays or canceled flights. But what are they fighting about this time?
Lufthansa on strike for higher salaries
According to Reuters Lufthansas workers are on strike for a salary increase of 12,5% and a one of payment of 3000 €. Is this reasonable and common good? In Sweden we learned the hard way during the -70:s that meeting inflation with demands on high salary increase only feed the inflation. It quickly becomes a hamster wheel that never stops. The higher salary, creates higher inflation that leads to higher salary and so on. So when Ver.di takes out Lufthansa on strike they are playing a risky game. Not only because the put Lufthansa at stake. Because even if the traveling is increasing we as passengers are looking for cheap tickets but can hardly find any and someone need to pay those 12,5 percent. And I’m not sure there is room to rise the salaries as much as needed to cover the cost.
Is the strike good
When Lufthansa is on strike it’s not just about them. Because if one group of employees get a higher salary, the next group will follow shortly. Both inside Lufthansa and other companies around Germany. Normally if some companies went down because the couldn’t meet the salary demands I would not care. Those companies would be so bad on it any way that it would just be a question of time before they went down anyway. But this is not normal times, and its for sure not the time for labor actions. Because what Ver.di don’t understand when the put Lufthansa on strike is that we as employees shouldn’t get full coverage for the inflation.Instead we should be modest in our demands and help our societies getting their finance back on track. Something that will benefit both employees, employer, customers and society as a hole better then 12,5 percent salary increase.
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