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Lufthansa pilots in Germany agreed to suspend for two weeks a strike that grounded about 900 flights on Monday, just as rival British Airways‘ cabin crew voted to join the fray to protest harsh cost cuts. Some 4,000 Lufthansa pilots took part in a stoppage on Monday that was meant to last for four days, leaving thousands of passengers around the world stranded, on concerns the company could try to cut staff costs by shifting jobs to foreign units.
In a hastily called court hearing, pilots’ union Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) agreed late on Monday to suspend the strike until March 8 to give the deadlocked parties a chance to resume talks. "VC has said that it is prepared to resume talks, and we are sticking with that," said VC negotiator Thomas von Sturm. Lufthansa said it welcomed the decision, though it will take a few days until its flight operations have normalized again.
British Airways wants three-quarters of its crew to accept a pay freeze this year, along with other cost-cutting measures. BA cabin crew voted in favor of a strike to protest the cost cuts. This is their second attempt at industrial action after a court forced the workers to abandon plans for a 12-day strike over Christmas that would have affected a million travelers. Union Unite said on Monday that no dates for the work stoppage had been set but reiterated that crew would not strike over the Easter holiday at the start of April. British Airways said the decision to strike was "completely unjustified" and vowed that it would "not allow Unite to ruin this company."
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