AIRLINE STRIKE: China Airlines strike causes 67

flight cancelations
Staff Writer, with CAN

A strike by China Airlines (CAL, 中華航空) flight attendants that started

yesterday caused cancelations of at least 67 flights operated by the airline, which
is Taiwan’s largest air carrier.

Sixty-seven CAL flights that were to depart from Taiwan Taoyuan International
Airport and Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) between 6am and
10am yesterday were canceled, affecting at least 20,000 passengers and
resulting in revenue losses of about NT$160 million (US$4.92 million).

However, all CAL flights from Tainan and Kaohsiung were running on time as of
noon yesterday, as the flight attendants there are not members of the Taoyuan
Flight Attendants Union, which called the strike.

Crowds of passengers lined up at CAL counters at Songshan airport and Taoyuan

airport yesterday morning as the airline tried to get them onto different flights.

The airline said it had scheduled 92 flights out of Taiwan yesterday and had
arranged for passengers to take alternative flights or reschedule their departure.

TransAsia Airways (復興航空), Cathay Pacific Airways (國泰航空) and EVA

Airways (長榮航空) were accepting passengers with CAL tickets to some
destinations yesterday.

CAL was also offering US$100 coupons to each passenger affected by the
cancelations.

Meanwhile, at Songshan airport, 30 union members were distributing leaflets in

the lobby to inform people about the issues. While some passengers expressed
support for the flight attendants, others complained about the inconvenience.

To help clear the backlog, CAL has sought assistance from Japan Airlines and
Tiger Air to fly passengers to Northeast Asia; from Cathay Pacific Airways, Thai
Airways and Philippine Airlines to take passengers to Southeast Asia; and from
China Eastern Airlines (中國東方航空) and China Southern Airlines (中國南方航
空) to take passengers to China. The strike has also affected inbound flights from
China, Bangkok and Jakarta that would have been the return leg of flights from
Taiwan.

Several passengers at the CAL counter at Beijing International Airport said they
were dissatisfied because CAL had given no advance notice of the flight
cancelations.
In Thailand, two flights from Bangkok to Taipei were canceled, the airline’s office
there said.

The union, which has more than 2,500 CAL members, voted on Tuesday to
proceed with the strike after a breakdown of its talks with CAL management
over work hours, subsides and the location flight attendants are required to
clock in.

The union has threatened to indefinitely maintain the strike, the first on record
in Taiwan’s airline industry, if demands over conditions are not met.

Information on CAL flight schedules is available on the carrier’s Web site

(www.china-airlines.com/tw/zh/fly/flight-status/index), or via its service
center telephone line at (02) 412-9000.

單字/片語：
1. strike n. 罷工
2. cancelation n. 取消
3. air carrier n. 航空公司
4. depart v. 起飛
5. alternative n. 替代方案
6. departure n. 出發
7. coupon n. 折價券
8. leaflet n. 傳單
9. backlog n. 積壓的工作
10. seek–sought–sought v. 尋求
11. inbound adj. 回程的
12. union n. 工會
13. proceed with 繼續進行
14. breakdown n. 故障；破裂(談判)
15. subside n. 平息
16. indefinitely adv. 無限期地
17. meet-met-met v. 滿足