Lufthansa cancels flights as pilots vote to take industrial action.

A planned four-day strike by Lufthansa pilots has been labelled “entirely inappropriate” by Germany’s national airline, which is urging the German pilots’ union Vereinigung Cockpit to come back to the negotiating table.

The Vereinigung Cockpit argues that its members are simply demanding assurances over job security and after a ballot of 4,500 pilots, it announced on Wednesday (17 February) that industrial action would go ahead.

However, Lufthansa has continued to urge the union to return to negotiations; otherwise it says the company will be “appreciably damaged”.  Germany’s national carrier says it has offered up numerous proposals on job security, but it alleges that the union is also making other unacceptable demands such as “a greater say on fundamental entrepreneurial issues, equating to intervention in business management.”

“In months of negotiations, we have explained, have been prepared on what concessions the pilots were willing to accept. However, Lufthansa has not been able to deliver the required safeguards against relocation of German jobs,” insisted Markus Germann, Chief negotiator for the Vereinigung Cockpit.

The four-day strike, which will start today (22 February), is expected to cause disruption to a number of flights. The airline has assured customers that should they be unable to continue their journey because of the strike action, they will be able to cancel their flight booking free of charge.

Lufthansa announced today that almost two thirds of its affected flights will have to be cancelled.

Later today British union Unite will announce the result of a ballot of 12,000 British Airways (BA) cabin crew, which will decide whether to go ahead with industrial action in a continued dispute over job changes.

The High Court ruled earlier this month that BA’s “modest changes to onboard crew numbers on flights” were reasonable and could remain in place, despite staff continuing to protest and Unite leading a campaign against the airline.