German court backs Lufthansa crew walkout
A German court has ruled in favor of the striking cabin staff of Europe's largest airline as the walkout is expected to continue on Wednesday.
The labor court of Darmstadt late Tuesday rejected German carrier Lufthansa's appeal against the strike by the flight attendants' union, UFO.
The court also dismissed the flagship airline's argument that the union's reasons for striking were "too vague" and unjustified under German labor law.
The court backing was welcomed by the UFO, which called for walkouts on short- and long-haul flights at Frankfurt, Duesseldorf and Munich airports from 0300 GMT on Wednesday through to 2300 GMT on Friday.
On Tuesday, Lufthansa filed for temporary injunctions at two courts to stop the strikes which have resulted in almost 2,000 flights being cancelled and left hundreds of thousands of passengers stranded since it began on Friday.
In a statement, Lufthansa said it stood by its position that "the reasons for the strike were not defined clearly enough."
The strikes, which are set to be the worst industrial action in the history of Germany’s biggest airline, are over cost-cutting measures that Lufthansa is implementing to compete with rival low-cost airlines. The strike over pay is also aimed at securing transition payments for the UFO’s 19,000 members in case of early retirement.
The airline presented a new offer to the union late Monday, which included better bonuses and retirement provisions. The UFO, however, called it unacceptable.
The dispute between the union and Lufthansa goes back to December 2013, when the company decided to start cutting costs.
The airline has also seen more than a dozen pilot strikes over the past 18 months.
Lufthansa's net profit saw a 42-percent increase as it rose to 794 million euros in the third quarter of 2015 from 561 million in the same quarter last year partly due to lower fuel prices.
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