Five China Airlines (CAL) union representatives who were grounded for speaking at a demonstration are to resume their flight duties this week, the company said amid mounting public pressure.
The decision marked a victory for labor activists and their supporters, who accused the airline of violating labor regulations and suppressing union activities.
An online petition that expressed solidarity with the five union representatives — four flight attendants and one pilot — has drawn the support of more than 18,000 people.
Photo: Wang Min-wei, Taipei Times
CAL spokesperson Jeffery Kuo (郭興長) said on Friday night that previous accounts that the quintet would be grounded for at least one month were “misreported.”
He said the grounded employees were subject to a three-day ground-based training session on passenger cabin regulations and employee protocols from Wednesday to Friday.
The employees should be able to resume their posts as soon as this week, since they met all the requirements and passed their exams during the training session, Kuo added.
CAL had said earlier that the grounded staff required “anger management courses” for exhibiting “emotional behavior” that could threaten flight security, referring to their appearances on stage during a protest on Jan. 22.
The protest, which drew more than 1,000 people, was against the company’s reduction in employee year-end bonuses.
At a news conference outside the company’s offices yesterday, the union representatives said they would continue to keep a close eye on CAL, adding that the incident only served as a catalyst for reform, as the company had been urged to improve its working conditions.
CAL staff supportive of the movement would continue to pin yellow ribbons to their uniforms until the grounded employees return to their full duties, Taoyuan Confederation of Trade Unions secretary Lin Chia-wei (林佳瑋) said.
She blasted CAL for clamping down on freedom of expression, citing reported cases of managers removing yellow ribbons by hand against the will of their employees.
Labor activist Tu Kuang-yu (杜光宇) said it remained unclear if Taoyuan Pilots’ Union president Yang Kuang-hai (楊光海) would return to duty next week, as he has not been subject to any courses or “training sessions.”
Yang said he was “confined to a small room” over the past week and was told to study manuals on his own, unlike the grounded flight attendants, who received lectures on anger management together.
Greater Taoyuan Department of Labor Director Pan Hung-lin (潘鴻麟) warned CAL against its “impudent” behavior.
Additional reporting by CNA
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai