WordBulletin

World Bulletin / News Desk

Cabin crews of German airline Deutsche Lufthansa will strike again on Tuesday and extend work stoppages, after a labour action on Friday over pay and cost-cutting measures brought Frankfurt airport, Germany's busiest, to a standstill.

The union on Tuesday plans to strike for longer than the eight hours on Friday and at more airports but is still considering where and when, it said on Sunday in a statement on its website. It will warn at least six hours before new stoppages start, it said.

A spokesman for Lufthansa said that Germany's biggest airline had little possibility to prepare for the strike and was not planning right now to improve its offer to increase wages by 3.5 percent in exchange for longer working hours.

The cabin crew union UFO demands a 5 percent pay rise and guarantees that Lufthansa will not outsource jobs and use more temporary workers.

The first day of labour action cost Lufthansa millions and forced it to cancel another 19 flights on Saturday, it has said.

Lufthansa is facing more negotiations with personnel about pay as the tariff agreement with the pilot union Cockpit is ending in coming months.

German magazine Der Spiegel reported, without saying where it obtained the information, that Lufthansa plans to start negotiating with the union on Sept. 10. A spokesman declined to comment on the date.