The Taoyuan Union of Pilots yesterday offered to hold eight-hour negotiations beginning at 1am today, as it announced plans for a sit-in in front of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications in Taipei in support of striking China Airlines pilots, whose strike enters its sixth day today.
No timeframe was given for the sit-in.
While the ministry and the airline agreed to meet with union representatives, China Airlines said that the union’s proposed start time for the talks was unfair, as it appeared to be an effort to avoid a media presence, even though the negotiations are to be broadcast live over the Internet.
The carrier said that it had agreed to deploy three pilots for flights that exceed eight hours and four pilots for flights that exceed 12 hours, thereby meeting the union’s main terms for resolving the problem of pilot fatigue.
It said that it also agreed to assign three pilots for red-eye flights — those departing between 2am and 5am — if the duration of the flight is more than seven hours.
However, it rejected a new demand by the union that multi-leg flights of more than seven hours should also be assigned three pilots, it added.
The union has defined multi-leg flights as those in which the aircraft makes two or more landings, including round-trip flights between two destinations, while China Airlines said that it defines multi-leg flights as those involving landings at a minimum of three different destinations.
Accepting the union’s demand on multi-leg flights would dramatically raise personnel costs, it said.
Deputy Minister of Transportation and Communications Wang Kwo-tsai (王國材), who took part in three-way negotiations held on Monday night, said that he was extremely disappointed that the union refused to discuss the airline’s proposal for red-eye flights.
The union also did not consider the ministry’s compromise that a third pilot be assigned on a case-by-case basis for flights with a duration of between six and eight hours, he said.
A lack of consensus on this issue led to the strike continuing yesterday for a fifth day.
Union board director Chen Pei-pei (陳蓓蓓) rejected accusations that the union has changed its demands, saying that it has made many concessions, but needs to make additional proposals because of China Airlines’ refusal to amend its working conditions.
The union’s first concession was agreeing to use flight time rather than flight duty period as the basis for dispatching additional pilots, said Chen, one of the first female pilots trained by China Airlines.
The flight duty period refers to the period that commences when a crew member is required to report for duty for a flight or a series of flights and ends when the airplane comes to a full stop at the end of the final flight.
Its second concession was agreeing that the company should dispatch four pilots when a flight’s scheduled duration exceeds 12 hours, instead of 11 hours, she said.
The union had good reasons for demanding a third pilot on multi-leg flights lasting more than seven hours, Chen said.
For example, round-trip service between Taipei and Bangkok totals about seven hours, but pilots actually work eight hours if the waiting time on the ground is included, she said.
Pilots are likely to feel tired in such cases, she added.
While the airline defines red-eye flights as those in which pilots report for duty between 12am and 5am, it can always manage to meet airline regulatory standards by playing semantics, Chen said.
The airline should come up with a better proposal for relieving the fatigue that pilots might experience on multi-leg flights if it thinks that the union’s demand is unfeasible, she said, adding that the union should not keep making concessions while China Airlines does nothing.
The Civil Aeronautics Administration’s Aircraft Flight Operation Regulations (航空器飛航作業管理規則) are the framework that airlines have to follow, but the rules governing the dispatch of pilots must be set through negotiations between workers and management, she said.
The regulations stipulate that the flight time of an airplane begins from the moment it moves away from the gate to take off until the moment it comes to a full stop after landing.
A duty period is defined as beginning when a flight or cabin crew member is required by their airline to report for or to commence a duty and ends when that person is free from all duties.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is aware that Beijing’s treatment of Hong Kong has weakened any possible sentiment for a “one country, two systems” arrangement for Taiwan, and has instructed Chinese Communist Party (CCP) politburo member Wang Huning (王滬寧) to develop new ways of defining cross-strait relations, Japanese news magazine Nikkei Asia reported on Thursday. A former professor of international politics at Fu Dan University, Wang is expected to develop a dialogue that could serve as the foundation for cross-strait unification, and Xi plans to use the framework to support a fourth term as president, Nikkei Asia quoted an anonymous source
LUCKY DATE: The man picked the 10th ‘Super Red Envelope’ in a lottery store in Taoyuan’s Jhongli because he broke up with his girlfriend on Jan. 10 A man who recently broke up with his girlfriend won a NT$1 million (US$32,929) prize in the “NT$20 million Super Red Envelope” lottery after picking a card based on the date of their breakup, Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The man, in his 20s, bought the 10th ticket at a lottery store in Taoyuan’s Jhongli District (中壢), because he broke up with his girlfriend on Jan. 10, the store owner told the lottery company. The “Super Red Envelope” lottery was a limited offering by the company during the Lunar New Year holiday, which ended yesterday. The cards, which cost NT$2,000 each, came with
TOURISM BOOST: The transportation system could help attract more visitors to the area, as the line is to connect multiple cultural sites, a city councilor said Residents in New Taipei City’s Ankeng District (安坑) said the local light rail system might have a positive influence, but raised questions about its practicality. The Ankeng light rail system, which is to commence operations after the Lunar New Year holiday, would cut travel time for commuters from Ankeng to downtown Taipei or New Taipei City by 15 to 20 minutes, the city government said. According to the initial plan, there would be one train every 15 minutes during peak time and additional interval trains would run between the densely populated Ankang Station (安康) and Shisizhang Station (十 四張). To encourage people to
CHAMPION TREES: The team used light detection and ranging imaging to locate the tree, and found that it measured a height of 84.1m and had a girth of 8.5m A team committed to finding the tallest trees in the nation yesterday said that an 84.1m tall Taiwania cryptomerioides tree had been named the tallest tree in Taiwan and East Asia. The Taiwan Champion Trees, a team consisting of researchers from the Council of Agriculture’s Taiwan Forestry Research Institute and National Cheng Kung University (NCKU), in June last year used light detection and ranging (LiDAR) imaging to find the giant tree, numbered 55214, upstream of the Daan River (大安溪). A 20-member expedition team led by Rebecca Hsu (徐嘉君), an assistant researcher at the Taiwan Forestry Research Institute, set out to find the
RSS