EVA Flight Attendant Strike Must Watch for Public Welfare

 EVA Flight Attendant Strike Must Watch for Public Welfare

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

June 12, 2019

 Translation of an Excerpt

The Taoyuan City Flight Attendants Union not unexpectedly voted to approve EVA Air’s strike, thus securing the lawful right to strike. The union has pledged that prior to the resumption of negotiations on the 20^th, it would not launch the strike, but judging from the China Airlines strike experience at the beginning of this year, it may still happen that only after the strike is on and labor and management begin strike and talks at the same time, can there be opportunities to iron out divergences. The treacherous confrontation shows that neither side has absolute assurance that even if a consensus is reached, as factors of strike still exist, the poor passengers will still be in the helpless lot.

Now that summer vacation is around the corner, the EVA strike is being mounted, bringing anxiety to numerous passengers. Will Taiwan from now on really become a country with high-frequency public transportation strike? However, to resolve the strike crisis, both labor and management should think about the other party's stance and approach the other instead of driving it away; moreover, both should care about public welfare.

However, for labor-management negotiations to succeed, besides "approaching the other party", both sides should understand that there must be gives and takes in negotiations, and not maintaining the bottom line, never changing a bit . This time, EVA management insists on the bottom line that the authority of management must not be intervened, rejecting the free-ride clause; it is absolutely impossible for labor unions to propose its right to take part in management. The labor union of course understands this logic: if using this appeal to exchange for the improvement of work terms, it should be a good deal.

The environment is not wholesome for the development of Taiwan's labor unions, but the iron law that in labor-management negotiations, both sides should "approach the other and watch for public welfare" must be defended.

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