Flight attendants from Taiwan's well-known airline EVA Air launched a strike on the 20th, resulting in the cancellation of 19 flights that day and affecting 4,000 passengers. Today, as the strike enters its second day, EVA Air announced that it expects to cancel more than 79 flights, which may affect more than 15,000 passengers.
According to Xinhua News Agency report, on the 20th, the Taoyuan City Flight Attendants Professional Union held labor negotiations with EVA Air, but failed to reach a consensus and subsequently announced the start of a strike.
According to the Hong Kong media China Review Service, at the strike site of the Evergreen Shipping Building in Nankan, Taoyuan, more than 700 people came yesterday and surrounded the gate; the flight attendants who protested today adopted a "shift system" and always maintained a scale of more than 100 people at the scene, braving the 34-degree heat, wearing hats and holding umbrellas, sitting on the ground. The strike organizers used various methods to cool down the scene, including bringing out electric fans and large sprayers, and distributing drinks and mineral water.
On the other hand, the Taoyuan City Flight Attendants Professional Union held a press conference today to express its demands in a "soft yet hard" way: on the one hand, it expressed goodwill and emphasized that the channels for negotiation with management are always open, showing its position of wanting to solve the problem; on the other hand, the union accused management of attacking union members by throwing water, insulting, and giving middle fingers, and threatened to "leave some way out for yourself" and "we will deal with you after the strike."
Conflict broke out during the strike
Although the trigger for this strike was the disagreement between labor and management on issues such as the "daily subsistence allowance", according to reports and analysis from Global Network, this is already the third strike in Taiwan's aviation industry since the Democratic Progressive Party came to power in 2016. The underlying reason behind it is a series of failed labor policies issued by the Tsai Ing-wen administration after taking office. As a result, labor wages did not increase, and management's personnel costs increased instead, triggering rising prices and triggering labor-management confrontations, which in turn led to strikes at Taiwan's China Airlines, EVA Airways and other airlines.
What is even more egregious is that when Ma Ying-jeou was the leader of Taiwan, when there was a strike, Tsai Ing-wen hypocritically said, "If it is not intolerable, there will be no strike" and "I will not leave you alone", blaming the problem on the Ma government's inaction. However, after the Democratic Progressive Party came to power, its attitude changed 180 degrees when encountering similar strikes. In February this year, the Taoyuan City Pilots Union launched a strike against China Airlines. During the Spring Festival travel period, the situation continued to escalate. However, the Taiwan authorities' "Ministry of Transportation" was helpless and the "Executive Yuan" could not avoid speaking out. Tsai Ing-wen herself only responded with the word "Thank you."
A queue of 100 meters long in front of the EVA Air counter
As for this strike, the Taiwan authorities have not made any decent response and arrangements so far. Only "Vice President of the Executive Yuan" Chen Qimai instructed the "Ministry of Transportation" to launch a contingency plan. However, according to Taiwanese media reports, the strike has generally affected passengers transferring in Taiwan in recent days. The queue at the EVA Air transfer counter is as long as 100 meters. This shows that the so-called "contingency plan" has a very limited effect.
Editor: Ye Songting
