jetopa>>> Jet "Opa", which translates as "grandfather"
Maybe he is suffering already from Alzheimer´s, otherwise he should remember what lead to the 2001 slogan of "Top pay for top performance":
In the early 90ies last century, Lufthansa was at the brink of bankruptcy. Due to considerable concessions mainly by the pilot group, the company was able to recover and make billions of profit within less than a decade. The pilots´ union unfortunately had forgotten to fix a "fall back clause" in the contract.
When they asked for their share in the success, they did a profound research on the salary schemes of the main competitors both in Europe and overseas and found themselves approximately 30% lower. That resulted in abovementionned slogan, which really was for a pay hike, contrary to the present situation. Also, management then did indeed believe, pilots would not stand united, as they had never done a serious strike under their former "public workers" unions.
Present situation is: salary contract ran out a year ago, last group that has no pay hike are the pilots. Cabin crew got, amongst other perks, at least 4,2% pay rise, with up to 6,9% in the lower scale (Citing from UFO Report, the CC union magazine)
So, the only thing pilots can strike about is for a pay hike, the usual game: to get the same 4,2% the rest of the employees already got on 01.01.2009 you have to ask for 6,4% at least. Of course, sounds irresponsible these days.
Pilots of LH are not irresponsible and have never been: they already offered to go for a zero pay hike, if they get other concessions, which are vital not only for LH pilots, but for others as well. Talks have been going on for over a year now, with no results. How long are they supposed to continue talks, forever and a day?
It is very popular to bash the LH pilots. In fact, the whole thing is about management flexing their muscles, (the economic environment at present is in their favor), and the response of the pilots is accordingly a message the management should not ignore once again.
The pilots have helped to save the company in the nineties, they will not be as foolish and ruin it now!