Deal with union averts pilot strike at Germany’s Lufthansa

BERLIN (AP) — A union representing pilots at Lufthansa has called off a planned two-day strike after a last-minute agreement with Germany’s biggest airline in a pay dispute. The Vereinigung Cockpit union had announced plans for a walkout on Wednesday and Thursday, calling on the company to make a “serious” offer in talks over pay increases. It would have been the second strike in a week after pilots staged a walkout Friday that led to hundreds of flights being canceled. In hastily convened talks on Tuesday, the union said that the two sides agreed in principle on “an extensive package of monetary and structural issues” whose details would be thrashed out in the coming days.