Lufthansa's young subsidiary, Discover Airlines, faces a tough test. The unions accuse the company of using delaying tactics. The pilots and flight attendants of Discover Airlines will strike next Friday, January 26th.

The pilot union Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) and the cabin crew union UFO have announced that work will be suspended from Friday 00:01 to 23:59. This decision has been criticized by Discover Airlines, which stated in the evening that it expects "far-reaching effects" of the strike on flight operations and for passengers.

The company is currently working on an alternative flight plan and is trying to "bring as many travelers as possible to their destination." In a recently concluded strike vote, nearly 96 percent of VC members voted in favor of a labor dispute. VC aims to establish first collective agreements for salaries and working conditions at the holiday airline, which was founded by Lufthansa two and a half years ago, and has declared negotiations with the company as failed.

The union accused the employer of endlessly delaying negotiations on collective agreements. Harry Jäger, the UFO's negotiator, stated that the union has been trying to initiate wage negotiations for over two years, but is consistently refused. The collective agreements affect approximately 400 pilots and 1200 cabin crew members.

Discover Airlines criticizes VC for unilaterally declaring negotiations to have failed at the beginning of the year and categorically rejecting further talks. Despite these developments, the company plans to soon improve the salaries and working conditions of cockpit employees. Prior to the first warning strike shortly before Christmas, the company and VC were in advanced discussions about concluding a collective bargaining agreement.

There have already been partial agreements and a clear intention to "continue further talks in January and quickly reach a conclusion." A solution can only be found at the negotiating table. The first pilot strike on December 23rd went fairly smoothly for most travelers, as flights could be rescheduled outside of the five-hour strike window. However, in the event of a longer strike, flights can quickly be cancelled.

After the surprising warning strike in December, Lufthansa demanded an additional agreement on how to deal with each other - a so-called social partner charter. This was promptly interpreted by the VC (Vereinigung Cockpit, pilots' union) as a restriction on tariff freedom.

The holiday airline of the Lufthansa Group initially started under the name "Eurowings Discover" in the summer of 2021 and was later renamed "Discover Airlines". The existing 24 aircraft are used for long and medium-haul flights at the hubs of Frankfurt and Munich. Discover aims to be cheaper than the core brand Lufthansa and compete in the lucrative leisure market with other holiday airlines such as Condor.