British Airways Cabin Crews Plan Strike
Britain's largest union says most of British Airways' cabin crew have voted in favor of striking over job security and working conditions.
Unite said Monday that over 7,000 — or 81 percent — of its cabin crew members have voted in favor of the strikes.
The union says it is not announcing any strike dates. It says members will meet Thursday to discuss the vote result before deciding on dates.
The union has to give seven days' notice of any strikes to the airline, which has been training other staff, including pilots, to replace cabin crew if strikes are held.
Early Monday, pilots for German airline Lufthansa launched a strike that canceled 800 Monday flights and upended the travel plans of 10,000 passengers worldwide.
The airline sought an injunction from a labor court to stop the strike by more than 4,000 pilots.
"This strike is disproportionate," Lufthansa AG spokeswoman Claudia Lange said. "We hope for a decision within the next 24 hours."
Lange said the company filed the legal action in a bid to avoid more harm to its passengers, customers and shareholders.
The move came on the first day of a planned four-day walkout by pilots in the Cockpit union over job security. The action could be extended, a union official said.
"The four days apparently are not enough to get Lufthansa going to find a solution with us at the negotiating table," Cockpit spokesman Alexander Gerhard-Madjidi told Bayerischer Rundfunk Radio Monday.
"Of course, we won't end this escalation after those four days, that means we are going to prepare further strike measures and they are going to be expanded in length and duration," he said.
Europe's biggest airline by sales said many long-haul flights to the U.S., including New York and Denver, were canceled because of the strike organized by the Cockpit pilots' union. However, it said it was still running many domestic flights and short-haul routes across Europe.
The airline, Germany's largest, estimated the strike could cost it some euro25 million ($34 million) per day.