China News Service, Taipei, January 22 (Reporter Lu Mei) Out of dissatisfaction with EVA Airways’ insufficient salary increase and illegal hiring of foreign pilots, Taiwan’s Taoyuan City Pilot Professional Union recently launched a strike vote. On the morning of the 22nd, With more than half of the votes cast, Evergreen pilots have the right to strike or launch a strike during the Spring Festival.
According to previous reports by Taiwanese media, the labor dispute at EVA Air is that the employer is only willing to increase the union's salary increase by 4% to 6% in response to the union's request for a 20% salary increase. The labor side believes that it is not in line with the current price increase, and the outstation subsidy is lower than European and American prices, and at the same time dissatisfied with EVA Air’s illegal hiring of foreign pilots.
The Taoyuan City Pilots Professional Union pointed out that EVA Air has cut costs and suffered serious manpower losses, leading to frequent safety accidents.
Due to the lack of progress in labor dispute mediation, the union launched a strike voting process on December 22 last year. Among 1,398 members, 910 people participated in the vote, of which 900 voted in favor and 10 voted against.
The union said it would not rule out a strike during the Spring Festival and would give a 24-hour notice in order to reduce the impact on passengers.
On January 22, Taiwan's EVA Air pilots were granted the right to strike and may launch a strike during the Spring Festival.
The picture shows an EVA Air passenger plane taxiing on the runway at Taipei Songshan Airport on January 9.
Photo by China News Service reporter Lu Mei
It is understood that EVA Air currently operates hundreds of flights every day, and travel industry operators are worried that the strike will have a wide impact and will cause a lose-lose situation for airlines, passengers, and the tourism industry.
Taiwan's aviation industry has experienced three strikes in recent years.
The first time was in June 2016, when Taiwan’s China Airlines flight attendants went on strike for three days, grounding more than 100 flights, affecting more than 30,000 passengers; the second time was in February 2019, when Taiwan’s China Airlines pilots went on strike during the Spring Festival During the seven-day strike, China Airlines canceled a total of 214 flights, affecting more than 25,000 passengers. The third strike was in May 2019, when EVA Air’s flight attendants went on strike for 17 days. As a result, EVA Air canceled 1,440 flights, affecting nearly 25,000 passengers. 280,000 visitors.
(over)