Taiwanese carrier Eva Air and the striking flight attendants have finally reached an agreement, and the protesters announced they are set to end their strike on July 10.
EVA Air said airline management and the Taoyuan Flight Attendants Union (TFAU) reached a consensus and signed a collective agreement on July 6, ending the 17-day labor strike that started June 20.
In a statement EVA Air, Taiwan’s second largest carrier, apologized to the general public “for the turmoil and inconvenience” caused by the labor action. It said it will “gradually resume scheduled flights by the end of July and will make necessary adjustment to its service operation in August depending on the number of cabin crew able to work and passengers’ travel demand.”
The agreement involved provisions for an on-duty bonus, human resources arbitration, overnight rests, annual leaves, and regular management-labor meetings.
EVA Air said the two parties agreed that the union will not stage another mass action within three years and that future strikes should spare domestic flights. EVA Air will also not retaliate against the union, as long as its actions during the strike were lawful, reported the Central News Agency.
TFAU went on strike June 20 to highlight longstanding disputes over alleged poor management and working conditions. On June 29, a hoped-for resolution of the conflict failed to materialize after negotiations collapsed.
EVA Air in its statement July 6 said that although the strike has ended, it still needs to raise two appeals to the government. For one, it is proposing that an advance notice of strike be applied to the airline industry “to effectively reduce the impact of labor actions and safeguard the interests of innocent passengers.”
It is also urging the government to take seriously the issue of external trade unions launching labor actions against the airline industry and “take initiatives to amend the laws in order to prevent such incidents from happening again and protect local investment environment from worsening.”
The EVA Air strike, the longest in Taiwan’s history, led to the cancellation of about 1,440 flights, affecting some 280,000 passengers, according to the Ministry of Transportation and Communications.
However, because a full resumption of normal flights will be possible only by the end of the month, 2,250 flights have been listed as cancelled until July 19, according to local reports.
The airline had accumulated an operating loss of nearly TWD2.8 billion as of July 6.
In February, more than 600 China Airlines pilots staged a walkout over longstanding disputes surrounding working hours and labor-law violations, returning to work after seven days when the two sides reached a consensus on the majority of worker demands. The flag carrier had to cancel more than 200 flights, resulting in millions in revenue losses.
Photo: Foxy1219
