EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) yesterday said it would continue to talk with its flight attendant union to avoid a possible strike, although it hopes that the government moves ahead with plans to introduce a requirement for a strike notice period.
The union has said that it would stage a strike to back demands for better working conditions.
“We are already studying the union’s demands, including the same subsidies for overnight stays abroad as China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空) has and attendants staying overnight after short-haul flights,” EVA Airways president Clay Sun (孫嘉明) told reporters on the sidelines of a promotional event in Taipei.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
“There are more than 10 routes that we still need to negotiate with the union regarding adjusting working hours and flight schedules, but we are willing to continue discussions with the union,” Sun said.
It implemented a new regulation in January to guarantee its attendants higher income after the union asked for negotiations last year, Sun added.
EVA Airways held talks last month with the union, which went smoothly, and both parties would look into the remaining issues at the next round of negotiations scheduled for April 9, company spokesman Golden Kou (柯金成) told the Taipei Times by telephone.
“We will discuss the attendants’ working hours or schedules on a route-by-route basis,” Kou said.
However, the airline is not likely to accept the union’s “no free ride” proposal, which would prohibit non-union attendants from receiving the same improved conditions as union members, Kuo said.
“We understand that CAL pilots also made such a demand earlier this year, but it is impossible for a firm like EVA to offer different conditions to its employees based on their union memberships,” he said.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications has proposed introducing regulations to require a notice period for aviation-related strikes.
EVA Airways supports the idea, which would give airlines more time to prepare for such strikes and reduce disruptions to travelers, Kou said.
“We respect the ministry and will wait for the results of its meeting,” he said.
EVA Airways’ flight attendants union has called on the ministry to withdraw the proposal.
TECH RACE: The Chinese firm showed off its new Mate XT hours after the latest iPhone launch, but its price tag and limited supply could be drawbacks China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為) yesterday unveiled the world’s first tri-foldable phone, as it seeks to expand its lead in the world’s biggest smartphone market and steal the spotlight from Apple Inc hours after it debuted a new iPhone. The Chinese tech giant showed off its new Mate XT, which users can fold three ways like an accordion screen door, during a launch ceremony in Shenzhen. The Mate XT comes in red and black and has a 10.2-inch display screen. At 3.6mm thick, it is the world’s slimmest foldable smartphone, Huawei said. The company’s Web site showed that it has garnered more than
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進) and Episil Technologies Inc (漢磊) yesterday announced plans to jointly build an 8-inch fab to produce silicon carbide (SiC) chips through an equity acquisition deal. SiC chips offer higher efficiency and lower energy loss than pure silicon chips, and they are able to operate at higher temperatures. They have become crucial to the development of electric vehicles, artificial intelligence data centers, green energy storage and industrial devices. Vanguard, a contract chipmaker focused on making power management chips and driver ICs for displays, is to acquire a 13 percent stake in Episil for NT$2.48 billion (US$77.1 million).
RSS