Lufthansa ground staff set to strike over wage row

BERLIN

A German trade union has called on Lufthansa ground staff to stage a one-day strike on Wednesday over an ongoing pay dispute.

The ver.di service workers’ union on Monday asked around 20,000 Lufthansa employees to stop work from 3.45 a.m. local time (0145GMT) on Wednesday to 6 a.m. (0400GMT) on Thursday at airports across the country.

Lufthansa has sharply criticized the union for the planned strike action, which is expected to ground hundreds of flights from the country’s major airports.

"After only two days of negotiations, ver.di has announced a strike that can hardly be called a warning strike due to its breadth across all locations and its duration,” the German carrier said in a statement.

The ver.di union is demanding a 9.5% pay rise to help employees beat inflation.

The next round of wage negotiations is expected to take place in Frankfurt next week.