Independent flight attendant organization

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Independent flight attendant organization
(UFO)
logo
purpose labor union
Chair: Daniel Flohr
Establishment date: 1992
Number of members: over 10,000
Number of employees: 20th
Seat : Moerfelden-Walldorf
Website: www.ufo-online.aero

The Independent Flight Attendant Organization (UFO) e. V. sees itself as a trade union for cabin personnel in German commercial aviation .

It split off from the predecessor organizations of the Ver.di service union in 1992 and is based in Mörfelden-Walldorf near Frankfurt am Main . According to its own information, the UFO has over ten thousand members and an organization level of over 70 percent.

The community of interests has been a tariff partner of Lufthansa and other airlines such as Condor Flugdienst , Eurowings , Germanwings and Lufthansa CityLine since July 2002 . 

Mittlerweile handelt es sich um eine Gewerkschaft.

Strike action

From August 31 to September 4, 2012, the UFO carried out a Germany-wide strike at Deutsche Lufthansa (DLH) for more wages and against the outsourcing of parts of the company, third-party shipping and the employment of temporary workers . After the DLH declared that it wanted to forego temporary work in the cabin, an arbitration was agreed under the direction of Bert Rürup , in the course of which a result was reached. The members of the UFO at the DLH could vote on this result until December 10, 2012.

The arbitration was accepted with 85%.

In 2015 the UFO carried out a strike at Deutsche Lufthansa. The eight-day stoppage of work was the longest strike in Lufthansa history.

In 2016, the union called for warning strikes at both Germanwings (GWI) and Eurowings (EWG) . The respective work stoppages lasted 24 hours.

In January 2020 the UFO announced a "significantly expanded" labor dispute at Lufthansa. A few days after Lufthansa offered to negotiate again, the union withdrew its threats.

Public prosecutor's investigation into UFO officials

In 2018, Der Spiegel revealed that there were investigations against UFO officials. It is about accounting "for company cars and business trips, champagne and oyster feasts at UFO costs or a private apartment that was rented as a union office" and "personal enrichment at the expense of the members". The processes played a central role at a general meeting on November 21, 2018. Ex-UFO boss and Lufthansa supervisory board Alexander Behrens is said to have used a UFO credit card for some time for private flights and rental car bills. Lush expenses for restaurant visits unrelated to the UFO are said to have been billed - including oysters and champagne. Behrens is also said to have settled travel expenses, although the UFO temporarily paid him subsidies for a second home at its headquarters in Walldorf. Behrens' lawyer told Spiegel: "We will work through the allegations extensively and show that not a single person should be pilloried. There are political backgrounds within the UFO board, which is why there are these targeted allegations." Together with UFO board member Christoph Drescher, Behrens is said to have hired expensive consultants - without a board resolution being available. Drescher is responsible for international relations and lobbying on the UFO board. He is accused of renting his spouse's Berlin apartment as an office at excessive prices at the expense of the union. The union is said to have contributed generously to the steep renovation costs without an official board resolution. Drescher assures that the apartment was rented "with the best intention of making it possible for UFO to settle in the capital as cheaply as possible". This has led to misunderstandings. Therefore, the lease was terminated at the end of October 2018, "overpayments made" have now been paid. In another case, proceedings initiated against Alexander Behrens and Nicoley Baublies for fraud and breach of trust were discontinued due to a lack of suspicion. There are "no sufficient indications for deliberate acts of deception," the Frankfurt investigators told the Spiegel. These investigations were also initiated in December 2018 because Baublies and Behrens had received payments from the UFO in addition to their Lufthansa salaries; Lufthansa then demanded a total of almost 300,000 euros from the two of them. Lufthansa argued that the accused had deliberately failed to apply for exemption in order to give the UFO a financial advantage.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Board of Directors. Independent flight attendant organization (UFO) eV, accessed on December 7, 2018 (German).
  2. ↑ Registered at the Darmstadt District Court in the register of associations under 51221
  3. ↑ "Lufthansa: Stewardesses threaten to strike" (stern.de)
  4. ↑ About UFO. Independent flight attendant organization (UFO) eV, accessed on April 30, 2018 (German).
  5. ↑ https://www.ufo-online.aero/de/ueber-ufo/geschichte.html
  6. ↑ https://archiv.berliner-zeitung.de/wirtschaft/leiharbeit-der-flugbegleiter-die--schleckerisierung--der-lufthansa-3775932
  7. ↑ At the end of the strike, flight attendants threaten a new labor dispute . In: airliners.de . ( airliners.de [accessed April 30, 2018]).
  8. ↑ Eurowings and Germanwings: flight attendants strike on Thursday . ( bz-berlin.de [accessed April 30, 2018]).
  9. ↑ DER SPIEGEL: collective bargaining dispute with Lufthansa: cabin union UFO announces new strikes - DER SPIEGEL - economy. Retrieved January 26, 2020 .
  10. ↑ DER SPIEGEL: No strike at Lufthansa for the time being - DER SPIEGEL - Economy. Retrieved January 26, 2020 .
  11. ↑ Martin U. Müller , Dinah Deckstein: UFO: Dubious finances in the "Independent Flight Attendant Organization" - DER SPIEGEL - Economy. In: Der Spiegel . Retrieved January 26, 2020 .
  12. ↑ Martin U. Müller , Dinah Deckstein: UFO: Dubious finances in the "Independent Flight Attendant Organization" - DER SPIEGEL - Economy. In: Der Spiegel . Retrieved January 26, 2020 .