Lufthansa and Verdi Union Reach Long-Term Pay Deal for 20,000 Ground Staff

Lufthansa and the Verdi union reached a collective bargaining agreement on March 27, 2026, covering approximately 20,000 ground staff and averting the threat of strike action for that workforce. The deal delivers a total base salary increase of 4.65 percent across two stages over a 26-month term running until the end of February 2028. Employees in check-in, passenger service, aircraft maintenance and technology, cargo, logistics, and administration across Lufthansa AG, Lufthansa Technik, and Lufthansa Cargo are covered by the agreement. The settlement was reached after four rounds of negotiations that began in January 2026, without any strike action being called during the process.

Pay rises arrive in two stages, with a notable exception Under the terms of the agreement, base salaries for ground staff at Lufthansa Technik and Lufthansa Cargo will rise by 2.2 percent retroactively from January 1, 2026, with a further increase of 2.4 percent following from March 1, 2027. Employees at the core Lufthansa AG brand will receive the first pay step one year later, on February 1, 2027, due to what the company described as a strained economic situation. Training allowances will also increase in two stages by a total of 100 euros, according to Verdi. The union calculated that the combined increases translate to an average monthly gain of just over 220 euros per employee.

220 (euros) — average monthly pay increase per ground staff employee

Verdi negotiator Marvin Reschinsky highlighted the financial and job security dimensions of the deal. „The employees will in future have, on average, just over 220 euros more per month in their pockets. At the same time, the outsourcing that had often been discussed in recent months and hung over the ground staff like a threat is now ruled out for a long time.” — Marvin Reschinsky via stern.de Michael Niggemann, Chief Human Resources and Legal Officer of Lufthansa, said the long term of the agreement guaranteed reliability and that it sent a clear signal in times of geopolitical crises. Reschinsky separately described the outcome as creating security in uncertain times.

Eight-year outsourcing shield was a central union demand Beyond the pay increases, Verdi secured what it described as a comprehensive eight-year protection against outsourcing for ground staff. The union had identified the prevention of outsourcing to companies operating under cheaper collective agreements as a central concern entering the talks. The protection covers passenger and aircraft handling roles, areas where the threat of cost-cutting transfers to lower-wage contractors had been a persistent source of anxiety among workers. The agreement is still subject to approval by employees, though no vote date was specified in the available reporting.

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In 2024, a collective bargaining dispute between Verdi and Lufthansa resulted in multi-day strikes before the two sides reached a resolution only through arbitration. Verdi had entered the current round of negotiations with a demand for 6.0 percent more pay over a twelve-month term and a minimum increase of at least 250 euros per month. The union had already surveyed strike readiness among its members and found strong support for industrial action before the agreement was reached.

Pilots and cabin crew disputes keep strike risk alive at Lufthansa The ground staff agreement does not resolve broader labor tensions within the Lufthansa Group, as pilots and cabin crew remain in separate and unresolved disputes. The Vereinigung Cockpit union, which represents pilots, and the cabin crew union have both conducted strike ballots with results in favor of industrial action. Two waves of pilot strikes in recent weeks led to the cancellation of hundreds of flights, though no further concrete strike threats were immediately announced at the time of the ground staff agreement. Lufthansa management recently extended a conversation offer to Vereinigung Cockpit, which brought some movement into what had been a deadlocked dispute, and salary talks with pilots resumed. The cabin crew of the core Lufthansa brand and other airline operations remain in a position to call strikes, meaning the risk of further flight disruptions has not been eliminated by the March 27 deal.