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Cabin crew union calls for strikes at Lufthansa's Eurowings

The logo of Lufthansa's low-cost brand Eurowings is pictured during the presentation of Eurowings' first long-haul flight to Havana, Cuba, at Cologne-Bonn airport, Germany, November 2, 2015. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay

BERLIN (Reuters) - Cabin crew at Lufthansa's budget carrier Eurowings are threatening fresh strike action from October in a row over contracts at the carrier, their union said on Friday. Lufthansa is using the regional carrier as the base for low-cost expansion and is combining it with its Germanwings operations. The union has been trying to agree new contracts for Eurowings staff in Germany for two years. The union said it broke talks off a few days ago after management failed to stick to assurances it had made. "Major industrial action at Eurowings can no longer be ruled out," Nicoley Baublies, chief negotiator at cabin crew union UFO told Reuters. A Eurowings spokesman said Eurowings operated 23 planes in Germany, and that only these planes could be subject to industrial action. "We are confident we can resume talks," he added. The Eurowings talks are separate from an agreement between Lufthansa and UFO for staff at its main Lufthansa brand and Germanwings, for which a deal was agreed over the summer. (Reporting by Peter Maushagen; Writing by Victoria Bryan; Editing by Tina Bellon and Elaine Hardcastle)