Unions representing pilots and cabin crew have voted overwhelmingly in favor of a strike at Lufthansa’s holiday subsidiary Discover, union officials said on Wednesday.
Cockpit, which stands for pilots, and UFO, which stands for cabin crew, have not yet set a date for a possible strike.
The two unions are working closely together to circumvent existing wage agreements between Lufthansa and the major German service union Verdi, which they see as a competing union.
Discover has a workforce of nearly 2,000 people, including 500 pilots and 1,400 cabin crew, with the remainder working in administrative roles.
According to Marcel Gröls, an expert in payroll administration, employees of a company have the right under the German constitution to determine for themselves who represents them.
The members of Cockpit had decided by a clear majority that they would not accept wage agreements that employers made over their heads with a union that they, the employers, preferred.
At UFO, 91.8% of voters supported a strike, while at Cockpit this percentage was 81%.
The vote means that strikes can now go ahead indefinitely at Discover Airlines, which has 27 planes based in Munich and Frankfurt and flies to holiday destinations in Europe and beyond. The airline plans to expand its fleet to 33 planes by mid-2027.
While the two unions did not reveal details of how they would handle the dispute, they made it clear that pilots and cabin crew would work together. They did not rule out solidarity strikes at the much larger parent company.
