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Lufthansa strike to continue until Friday

Xinhua, November 10, 2015 Adjust font size:

Lufthansa cabin crew union on Tuesday called for its members to continue their strike until Friday midnight, amid concerns of German industry which fears the action could hurt the German economy.

UFO, the union represents 19,000 Lufthansa flight attendants, said the strike, which entered its fourth day on Tuesday, would continue at 4:00 a.m. (0300 GMT) on Wednesday and last until 24:00 p.m. (2300 GMT) Friday at Germany's three largest airports of Frankfurt, Duesseldorf and Munich.

Lufthansa has canceled nearly 1,900 flights since the strike started last Friday. Over 235,000 passengers were affected.

On Tuesday, the airline grounded 136 flights, affecting 27,300 passengers.

Lufthansa and UFO are in a dispute over cabin crew's early retirement benefits. Their latest negotiations broke down last Thursday. On Monday evening, Lufthansa made an improved offer with higher bonus and wage increases in an attempt to end the strike which it said was "without precedent" in its history.

The latest offer, however, was rejected by the union.

Martin Wansleben, chief executive of the Association of German Chambers of Commerce and Industry (DIHK), warned that the ongoing strike would cost the German economy 25 million euros (about 26.8 million U.S. dollars) a day.

"The longer the walkout lasts, the greater are the interruptions in production," he said in an interview with German newspaper Passauer Neue Presse on Tuesday, pointing out that particularly high-quality and important components need to be transported by planes and a short delay could stop the whole production process. Endit