Eva Air fails to sign agreement with union, strike continues

Eva Air's flight attendants participate in an event to gather support for the week-long strike over work conditions outside the headquarters in Taoyuan, Taiwan, on June 23. (Reuters photo)

Taiwan’s Eva Air failed to come to terms with representatives of striking flight attendants on Saturday night, and will renegotiate with workers on Tuesday, a union said.

The strike will continue until a collective agreement is signed, the union said in a statement posted on its Facebook page at midnight. Among the issues for negotiation that broke down was the carrier’s refusal to withdraw punitive measures against flight attendants, according to a statement issued by the company.

Earlier Saturday, a majority of the employees voted to accept an offer by the carrier on Friday, and were willing to end the 10-day strike.

The action started on June 20 and involves more than 2,300 workers. The cancellation of 392 flights between June 20 and 28 caused revenue losses of NT$1.75 billion (US$56 million), the company said late Friday in a statement to the Taiwan stock exchange.

Eva Airways estimates the strike will cause the cancellation of almost 2000 flights by July 12, and impact hundreds of thousands of passengers.

The strike is the second impacting an airline in Taiwan this year. Staff of China Airlines, Taiwan’s largest carrier, stopped work for seven days in February. Pilots reached a deal with China Airlines on compensation that was estimated to add about NT$114 million to the company’s annual costs.