Pilots at Lufthansa airlines in Germany began striking for the eighth time this year on Monday. The 35-hour strike has led to the cancelation of about 1,450 flights.
The dispute is over proposed changes to retirement and pension plans. Pilots want Lufthansa to continue to make a transition payment to those who want to retire early while the company wants to cut the payments.
The strike was initially focused on short-haul flights in Europe, but has expanded to include a one-day walkout on Tuesday that will affect long-haul international flights. Tuesday's strike will last from 4 a.m. to 10 p.m. GMT.
"Regrettably, Lufthansa has not acted on the compromise proposals of [the union] after seven strikes now since April this year and is stonewalling," the Vereinigung Cockpit union said in a statement.
The union represents about 5,400 pilots, who also want the airline to reconsider raising the retirement age, which is currently 55.
The airline is concerned about cutting costs in order to compete with budget airlines. It has offered to allow the current retirement and pension agreement to continue for existing union members, ending it for new hires, but the union has not been placated.
About 200,000 travelers will be affected by the cancelations. Lufthansa lists affected flights on its website, and travelers can rebook their flights on Oct. 20-21 for free -- whether it was canceled or not.
Some travelers were expressing their frustration about rebooking on Twitter.
awesome idea for lufthansa pilots to go for strike and company stop answering phone numbers so passengers can't reschedule the flights.— Mark Kofman (@markkofman) October 20, 2014
@lufthansa I was booked on lh 1341 and I'm waiting over the phone for over 3 hours to reschedule— Simon Feld (@feldman30) October 20, 2014
So apparently @lufthansa strike has my flight canceled, and they don't even bother to email me about it. Thanks @google for warning me!— Andrew Rodgers (@acedrew) October 20, 2014
oh great now @lufthansa tells me my international flight is cancelled LH459, not seeing anyplace that confirms that— Chris Christensen (@chris2x) October 20, 2014
Germany's national railway is just ending a two-day strike in an unrelated dispute over pay.
The Federation of German Industries (BDI), a business lobby, spoke out against the strikes Monday. The lobby said the transit strikes hurt "the entire economy."
Additional reporting by the Associated Press