CAL pilots threaten strike

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – A total of 800 China Air Lines pilots threaten to call a strike on the day of the Dragon Boat Festival, reports said Thursday.
June 9 is the first day of a four-day holiday expected to be busy with travelers heading out of the country.
After Wednesday’s failure of the previous round of negotiations over the number of days off, the pilots reportedly said they might ask for leave together on a single day, in this case the start of the Dragon Boat Festival holiday.
A new round of talks next week could still defuse the situation, reports said. At the heart of the matter is the failure of the promise by Taiwan’s major airline to give its pilots at least 116 days off per year, union activists said.
The promise was part of a package signed in May last year by CAL and by a union representing 70 percent of Taiwanese pilots at the airline. However, because the company has been facing a shortage of pilots while adding new routes, the plan would not be realized, reports said. The number of flights had increased from 68,000 last year to 82,000 this year, according to the union.
The group said its members had on average only 25 days off a year, a far cry from the promise made in last year’s agreement.
CAL said it would continue to talk to the union, including at a meeting scheduled for May 24, and propose solutions to the problem. One plan reportedly would double the pay for those days which would normally have been taken as holidays, reports said.