Lufthansa Faces Strikes in Labor Dispute Over Sale of LSG unit

(Bloomberg) -- German service-workers union Verdi has called a 24-hour strike at Deutsche Lufthansa AG’s catering unit LSG Sky Chefs over the sale of some operations to Gategroup Holding AG.

The walkouts will start at 00:00 CET on Monday, Verdi said in a statement on Saturday. Effected airports include Frankfurt, Munich, Duesseldorf, Cologne, Stuttgart and Berlin. Flight delays and cancellations are likely, especially on long-haul routes, the union added.

Lufthansa aims to operate all flights, a spokeswoman said when contacted by Bloomberg News.

Verdi wants assurances from Lufthansa that the wages of LSG employees will not shrink as a result of the sale, union representative Katharina Wesenick said by phone, adding that the carrier’s latest offer is not sufficient.

Lufthansa said on Tuesday that it has agreed to sell the European operations of its LSG arm to Gategroup of Switzerland, the world’s biggest inflight caterer, for an undisclosed sum. The carrier’s executive board backed the move as part of a plan to focus more fully on its airline operations.

To contact the reporter on this story: Stephan Kahl in Frankfurt at skahl@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Daniel Schaefer at dschaefer36@bloomberg.net, Sam Unsted, James Amott

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