F
R

4
-
2
0
0
1

GERMAN PILOTS' UNION DEMANDS DRASTIC SALARY INCREASES

Its demands are quite something. On 5 and 14 February the German pilots' union, the Vereinigung Cockpit (VC), put their ideas about pilots' salaries in the future on the table before Lufthansa's Head of Human Resources, Stefan Lauer: in the view of the union, a senior captain on top salary level, i.e. after 28 years of service, should be paid $222,000 (DM 477,000) p.a. instead of $172,000 (DM 370,000). And if the company's operating results are good, this annual salary should be boosted by a profit-related bonus of up to three months' salary, making an annual income of up to $279,000 (DM 600,000) feasible.

According to the VC, a captain's starting salary should be increased from the present $107,000 (DM 230,000) to $174,000 (DM 375,000), while First Officers' annual pay should rise from $63,000 (DM 135,000) to $78,000 (DM 168,000). Such a hefty wage rise has probably never been claimed before by a trade union in Germany.

The initial response of a Lufthansa spokesman was to call the demands "utopian".

This is the first year that the VC has been independently negotiating pilots' salaries with Lufthansa. Up to now their terms and conditions have fallen within the remit of the German Union of Salaried Workers (DAG) and the German Public Services and Transport Workers Union (ÖTV), even though these do not have any pilots in their ranks.

The VC justifies its pay demands with the argument that Lufthansa's pilots materially contributed to the airline's financial recovery in 1992 by foregoing 28% of their salary, and they have still not received any compensation for the sacrifices they made then.

It is unlikely that the VC has done itself any favours by advancing these demands. It has placed itself and its negotiating partners under far too much pressure. Of course making big claims is a ritual that both sides indulge in during wage negotiations: the more one asks for, the more leeway there is for negotiation. But the extent of the VC's demands, which amount to an increase in cockpit salaries of up to 70% in some cases, goes far beyond what anyone could conceivably regard as realistically achievable. One would have expected a little more perceptiveness.

Should the VC attempt to push through its demands through work-to-rules, increased sick leave or other measures, it is bound to annoy the passengers and could even drive them away to other airlines. Claims that Lufthansa pilots are poorly paid in international comparison are unlikely to be greeted with sympathy by the public, since in Germany, Lufthansa pilots are among the most highly paid workers of all.

The VC is stirring up expectations among its members which are reverberating and will affect the union itself, weakening it, if the demands are not satisfied, as unfulfilled expectations create unnecessary unrest. The VC's members do not work only for Lufthansa but also for other airlines whose cockpit crews are not paid as well as at Lufthansa. On the other hand a weak pilots' union cannot be in the interests of the air transport industry. The pilots are an extremely important element in the air transport safety chain. Their opinions on topics such as crew rest breaks, new technology in the cockpit and air safety need to be taken seriously. But if the union is weakened through its own mistakes on the captains' salary issue, its ability to influence others will be impaired.

From page 4 of FLUG REVUE 4/2001