UPDATE 2-Lufthansa pilots set to resume strike on April 13

FRANKFURT, March 22 (Reuters) - Pilots at Lufthansa plan to go on strike again next month after failing to resolve a dispute over pay and job security that already caused a costly work stoppage in February, their union said on Monday.

The pilots will strike from April 13 to April 16, the Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) union said.

The move comes amid mounting labour unrest over management attempts to push through cost-cutting plans in an industry which is still reeling from its worst year in decades as consumers and companies reined in travel budgets amid the global economic crisis.

Cabin crew at British Airways started a three-day strike on Saturday over pay and working conditions, disrupting flights from London's Heathrow airport.

The BA workers, who are due to return to work on Tuesday, offered to resume talks with the company to try to settle a dispute that has become a political issue for the ruling Labour Party which faces an election within weeks.

Pilots at Air Berlin, Germany's second-biggest airline, this month called off a warning strike to hold wage talks with their employer.

Lufthansa's pilots walked out last month, but at the urging of a labour judge agreed to suspend the planned four-day strike after only one day to try to work out their differences with the German carrier's management.

The work stoppage had led to about 2,000 flight cancellations, left thousands of travellers stranded around the world and cost Lufthansa up to 50 million euros ($68 million).

Each strike day costs Lufthansa 25 million euros in lost revenue and disrupts travel for days even after workers return.

Lufthansa's talks with the UFO cabin crew union are also under way.



PAY DISPUTE

Lufthansa said on Monday it had made an offer to VC that included asking workers to accept a pay freeze this year in exchange for job guarantees.

'In the interest of all Lufthansa employees we must make sure that we have competitive structures. That is why we need to avoid cost increases by all means,' Lufthansa's head of passenger airlines, Roland Busch, said in a statement.

VC said it would only accept a pay freeze in return for further concessions by Lufthansa on job security.

Lufthansa workers fear that the airline, which aims to cut 1 billion euros of costs by 2011, wants to expand foreign units while shrinking its Germany-based Lufthansa airline because pilots and cabin crew make less money outside of Germany.

Shares in Lufthansa were down 1.1 percent at 12.15 euros by 1321 GMT, in line with the STOXX Europe 600 Travel & Leisure index. British Airways shares were 1.2 percent lower at 240.6 pence. ($1=.7401 euros)

(Reporting by Maria Sheahan; Editing by Greg Mahlich) Keywords: LUFTHANSA/ ([e-mail]; [phone]; Reuters Messaging: [e-mail]) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.