China Airlines has violated the commitments it made to end June’s flight attendants strike, the Taoyuan Flight Attendants Union said yesterday, threatening lawsuits as dozens of members protested outside Taoyuan City Hall to demand that the agreement reached to end the strike be recognized as an official collective bargaining pact.
“China Airlines is not willing to accept the restraints of a collective bargaining agreement, because it intends to act unreasonably. Without a collective bargaining agreement, it can refuse to acknowledge its promises — and the government is letting it get away with this,” union president Chao Kang (趙剛) said.
“If China Airlines continues to willfully persist in violating the agreement, we’re prepared for a second battle,” union secretary-general Lin Chia-wei (林佳瑋) said, urging the Taoyuan City Government to officially accept and file the agreement which ended the strike.
Photo: Chiu Yi-tung, Taipei Times
Only if the agreement receives government recognition would the union be empowered to sue the firm directly, Lin said.
Only individuals could sue if it was not recognized as a collective bargaining agreement, she said.
The company has played “word games” with some of its commitments under the agreement, particularly in failing to follow through on promises to limit negotiated pay increases to Taoyuan Flight Attendants Union members, she said.
China Airlines granted identical increases to members of the competing official company union — which did not participate in June’s strike.
“This is harmful to our union because if everyone benefits after a strike regardless of whether or not they participated, then no one will be willing to take the risk,” she said.
The union on Tuesday voted to officially expel 22 members who were found to have worked during the strike, but the former members’ benefits would not be affected under current company policy.
Lin also criticized the company’s handling of increases in guaranteed days off, saying that while the airline followed through with providing a guaranteed 123 days off each year, it cut the number of attendants working on each aircraft from 12 to 10, increasing the work load of those on duty.
Taoyuan Department of Labor official Feng Fei-yao (馮飛耀) said that the department was still considering whether to accept the filing.
Union representatives said they would protest again on Sept. 28 if the city fails to take action.
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