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Mandarin Airlines could also face strike

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Mandarin Airlines could also face strike

Mandarin Airlines could also face strike

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – After China Airlines agreed to most demands by striking flight attendants, its affiliate Mandarin Airlines could face similar action, reports said Saturday.
The Mandarin Airlines professional union is reportedly scheduled to hold its final round of talks with management on July 7, and its members are facing issues similar to the ones that led to Friday’s CAL strike, according to the Chinese-language Apple Daily.
Problems included the location for pilots to report to work being moved from Taipei Songshan Airport to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, overtime for flight attendants, ground staff having to work shifts of colleagues leading to up to 46 hours of overwork per month, and a serious wage discrepancy between Mandarin and CAL with lower pay for the same work, union chairman Wu Yen-hsien said.
CAL flight attendants had 116 days off per year, but their Mandarin colleagues only 84 days, while extra pay for overseas work trips ran up to NT$1,350 (US$41.6) for CAL but amounted only to NT$340 (US$10.5) for Mandarin staff, Wu said. At CAL, the company paid for the laundry, but at Mandarin, employees needed to pay themselves for having their uniforms dry-cleaned, the union leader added.
Wu also told the Apple Daily that due to his action on behalf of the union, he was to be transferred to do more work in Hualien, but later the move was canceled.
Mandarin Airlines said in a statement that its operations had not been affected by the recent CAL strike and that it had not heard of any plans for a strike by its own employees. The company would continue to understand the demands of the union and communicate, the statement said.
Officials were reportedly also worried that the CAL flight attendants’ strike and the rapid acceptance of their demands by the new management would lead to similar protest actions by ground personnel and pilots.