Lufthansa pilots strike

BERLIN, Germany -- German pilots have gone on strike against Lufthansa Airlines to press for higher wages.

Members of Vereinigung Cockpit, the union representing some 4,200 Lufthansa pilots, voted overwhelmingly in favour of the limited strike.

The strike began at 2200 GMT on Thursday and is expected to last until noon (1000 GMT) on Friday. It will be repeated each Thursday for four weeks unless an agreement is reached.

The pilots are seeking an average wage increase of 30-35 percent. They say they should be compensated for having accepted low rises when the airline's finances were stretched during the early 1990s.

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Lufthansa has so far offered increases of 10-16.7 percent.

The pilots announced they would vote on whether to strike after negotiations with Lufthansa broke down in early April.

The strike comes as another blow to the airline after it posted a 94 percent plunge in 2001's first-quarter operating profit.

But last month Lufthansa chairman Juergen Weber said the airline had posted the best results of all European airlines for the fourth year in a row with an operational profit of more than $900 million in the year 2000.

He has blamed the high cost of aviation fuel as well as investment in electronic commerce projects for the collapse.

The company's chief financial officer, Karl-Ludwig Kley, said the operating profit for the whole of 2001 would likely come in flat only if it reaches an "acceptable agreement with the trade union in a reasonable time."

A short one-day strike in late March -- the first since 1996 -- stopped 116 flights and delayed about 10,000 passengers at airports throughout Germany.

Cockpit negotiator Ruediger Fach said on Thursday that the union would try to give passengers enough time to reschedule their flights.

The airline has indicated it wants to continue talks with the union.

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