Collective bargaining agreement at Lufthansa: Too few skilled workers? Good this way

Lufthansa’s cabin crew receive significantly more money. A trend is becoming established: the unions can appear more self-confident.

With the longer lever: The UFO union has prevailed at Lufthansa with its collective bargaining agreement Photo: Lando Hass/dpa

The shortage of skilled workers is also affecting Lufthansa. That’s why the airline has now agreed on a collective agreement with the UFO union that is worthwhile for its 19,000 flight attendants: their salaries will rise by 16.5 percent, and on top of that there will be an inflation compensation bonus of 3,000 euros. The conclusion shows that employees no longer have to hold back on their wages, even in times of poor economic activity.

For management, the deal has the advantage that there is no longer any threat of strikes in the long term. The ground staff also accepted the arbitration result between Verdi and the company in a ballot vote – also with a double-digit wage increase. A collective agreement had already been agreed with the Cockpit pilots’ union last year, which runs until the end of 2026. The collective agreement that has now been concluded for cabin crew will also apply for a similar length of time. And for three whole years.

This is a toad that the employees have to swallow and puts the result into perspective. The employees also had to get their claws out first so that the company could put a decent offer on the table. And despite already having a fairly high degree around a year and a half ago, their real wages have shrunk in real terms since 2019, partly because they had to temporarily forego payments such as Christmas bonuses in order to save the company and jobs.

Shifted balance of power

Nevertheless, the collective bargaining agreement is remarkable. He joins a chain of other high degrees with double-digit wage increases. On the one hand, this is still an after-effect of the energy crisis, as a result of which the cost of living is rising drastically. The unions therefore had to achieve high levels of agreement in order to compensate for the loss of purchasing power of their members. On the other hand, this is also a consequence of the much-talked about shortage of skilled workers.

Ultimately, the shortage of skilled workers is something positive for employees: it shifts the balance of power on the labor market in their favor. Gone are the days when you had to be happy about finally getting a lousy job after countless unsuccessful applications. Companies now have to offer good wages and working conditions in competition for good skilled workers. Experts therefore speak of a change from an employer to an employee market.

So it’s no surprise that Lufthansa is also willing to pay its employees more. After all, she wants to avoid one thing above all: having to cancel flights due to a lack of staff, as in the previous two years.