(new: cabin crew union Ufo is taking part in the strike)

FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - Pilots and flight attendants at Lufthansa subsidiary Discover Airlines will go on strike this Friday (January 26). A 24-hour strike is planned, according to a members' circular issued by the Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) union on Wednesday and obtained by dpa. Late in the evening, the cabin crew union Ufo announced that it was calling on its members to go on warning strike during this period.

Discover Airlines criticized the decision and announced in the evening that it was "currently assuming far-reaching effects" of the strike on flight operations and for passengers. A replacement flight plan is being drawn up. The priority is to "get as many passengers as possible to their destination".

In a ballot, almost 96 percent of VC members voted in favor of industrial action. VC wants to enforce the first collective agreements on pay and conditions at the vacation airline, which was founded two and a half years ago, and has declared negotiations with the company to have failed. There is also no collective agreement for the cabin crews. Negotiations are being conducted by the Ufo union, which has not yet held a ballot.

The head of Ufo's collective bargaining policy, Harry Jaeger, criticized Discover for presenting itself as a "hip start-up" whose employees accept far below-average working conditions simply because of a great spirit. "The fact is, the Discover cabin does a fantastic job, but can barely pay the rent," said Jaeger. This had to stop.

Discover Airlines accused VC of unilaterally declaring the negotiations to have failed at the beginning of the year. VC had categorically rejected an offer made this Wednesday and called a strike in response. Regardless of these developments, the company will "promptly raise" the pay and working conditions of Cockpit employees.

Until the first call for a warning strike shortly before Christmas, the company had been "in very good, advanced talks with VC and on the home stretch to concluding a collective agreement", the Lufthansa subsidiary continued. Partial agreements had been reached and there was a clear intention to "continue negotiations in January and reach a conclusion quickly". A solution could only be found at the negotiating table.

An initial warning strike by the pilots on the day before Christmas Eve had been relatively mild for most passengers. Discover was able to reschedule flights to times outside the five-hour strike window. A longer strike, on the other hand, could quickly lead to flight cancellations.

After the surprising warning strike in December, Lufthansa had demanded an additional agreement on how to deal with each other - a so-called social partner charter. This was promptly interpreted by VC as a restriction on the freedom to bargain collectively.

The Lufthansa Group's vacation airline was initially launched in the coronavirus summer of 2021 under the name "Eurowings Discover" and later renamed "Discover Airlines". The 24 aircraft will be deployed at the Frankfurt and Munich hubs on long- and medium-haul routes. Discover is intended to be more cost-effective than the Lufthansa core brand and compete with other leisure airlines such as Condor in the lucrative leisure market./ceb/DP/he