hayzel7773

Over 500 flight attendants called in and took the day off using the "Natural Disaster" excuse(Taiwan's labor laws allow for you to take days off after typhoons and other disasters). 42 flights have been cancelled. The company is claiming this is a result of the typhoon(which resulted in difficulties in crew duty arrangements) and not an industrial action.

Based on my chat with a few pursers that I know, this is actually a coordinated day off by the union as labor negotiations have stalled but they cannot strike due to their current negotiation status.

Text in Chinese Only(English news hasn't picked up yet)
http://www.chinatimes.com/realtimene...0000918-260405

Official Statement from EVA Air(English)
https://www.evaair.com/en-us/about-e...vaair-can.html

Affected flights are listed:
https://www.evaair.com/en-us/about-e...oon-nesta.html

username

The bad thing is that the main page evaair.com seems to be down (this is about Noon on Sunday TPE time).

Many Taiwanese employers treat employees like slaves. So, it is not a bad thing workers get some rights. On the other hand, productivity has to go up for the additional benefits to keep the companies competitive.

hayzel7773

I still have access to the website. It is running smoothly with no issues. The phone line is crowded though, almost 20 minutes wait for the Infinity Mileageland Hotline! I have never waited that long before.

hayzel7773

EVA is offering flight attendants one extra day off and extra per diem if they fly.

coolfish1103

I am unsure if these flight attendants + union think BR is the same as CI.

BR is not a government related business so I expect fierce retaliation from the managerial side.

EVA flight attendants may not have the best benefits or pay in the industry, but they are definitely not slaves in Taiwan.

alanme123

Okay, so I am actually directly affected by this BS. I originally had a flight from HKG-TPE-LAX today and because of this my HKG-TPE leg was cancelled.

Now I got my ticket through ANA awards in J, so this morning I contacted ANA and they told me the earliest flight back to LAX in J was Aug 4th or they can refund me. I was offered an economy option in united and needless to say, I didn't take it as I wasn't in a super hurry to get back.

I called up EVA, waited for 45 minutes before an agent picked up. They told me that because I got my flight through ANA, there wasn't much they can do. I was a little desperate at that point and i asked really politely if they can do anything about it, and the flight attendant said the only thing they got for me is tomorrow with a 11 hour layover in TPE.

Well I decided to go to HKG and try my luck there, and i got the same answer that it was an ANA reward flight and they really can't do anything for me. Again, I asked politely and explained my situation on how ANA was only offering me flight in J 5 days later. They talked with their supervisors and got them to agree on selling my seat to another airline that was flying to TPE. Cathay rejected, so I am flying out on China Airlines 3.5 hours later and catching a later EVA flight to LAX. The news station was there with a camera guy and reporter doing interviews on this.

I am sitting here in the Skyteam lounge waiting for my flight. I am not blaming either the airline or staff for this, but it was total BS on how my flight was affected not because of a typhoon but an internal issue. However, I am glad I was able to get everything sorted out, although I have to get my TPE-LAX boarding pass at the transfer desk in TPE. I normally fly Cathay out and try to avoid transfers because of problems like this. This is my first time (round trip back) flying on EVA and needless to say, it really pissed me off. No other compensation was offered, which is fine as I got my flight settled back to today.

Crossing my fingers that nothing happens when I get to TPE.....

gengar

Pretty disappointed to hear about the under-the-table industrial action - it'd be one thing if I consistently got stellar service on my BR flights (heck, I'd take consistently above-average), but that's not at all been the case and so it's difficult for me to have any empathy for the FAs. I recently took JL biz for the first time TPAC and the service as well as FA attitudes/polish absolutely blew away what I experience on BR.


First off, can't expect NH to do anything here - if there's no award availability, the most you could feasibly expect NH to do is to accommodate on their own metal and that would already be going way above and beyond. Bottom line is that BR is the operating carrier and it is a BR operational issue, so BR needs to handle it. BR telling you to complain to NH is poor form.

We all know BR is quite stingy so my expectations would be low, but if TPE-LAX were running as scheduled and only the HKG-TPE were canceled, I would have demanded OAL accommodation on the HKG-TPE leg. (Pragmatically in this case, another option would have been to get BR to eliminate the HKG-TPE leg on the ticket and buy a walkup HKG-TPE, but that has risks of its own and I'm not sure I personally would have trusted BR on this.)

Ultimately, a 24hr-ish delay with an 11hr stopover is likely among the most expected outcomes given the circumstances, even if very unfortunate for you.

username

I was trying evaair.com, which still does not work (and probably never did), but I guess I should have used www.evaair.com.

I think the fact that BR got caught up by all the absences show that they take it for granted that employees will all show up in a typhoon and do their jobs as the company expected. Also, whoever is in charge with employee relations does not have his/her hands on the employees' pulse to see this coming.

EVA/Evergreen is an extremely tightly controlled and disciplined company. It is known for hiring young people and train them to do the things the company's way. I think for the employees to rebel, it is a huge thing. My guess is that one outcome is management will hire even more non-Taiwanese FAs.

gnof

situation here: HKG-TPE-YYZ paid Y.
got a text the previous day but the ticket was not automatically rebooked.
showed up at the airport and was rebooked onto HKG-YYZ on CX.
does EVA and CX have some sort of agreement? wonder if EVA buy this ticket outright?

hayzel7773

Interline agreements.

qsh

I thought BR would have written typhoon related work arrangements into employee's contracts, to bypass that government regulation.
CX is constantly affected by typhoons too and it has a powerful union, yet its operations does not collapse under tropical storms.

hayzel7773

They probably will start now. This break was agreed upon by EVA and the union after last years Typhoon Megi. This is only allowed on days that the government orders shutdown.

hayzel7773

EVA Air ground staff are very angry with the flight attendants. I think this may have backfired on the EVA Corporate Union a bit. They were attempting to recruit Ground staff into the union but the ground staff are not happy with them right now. They feel as these flight attendants put an immense amount of workload onto them, just for their own gain. Not only that, the flight attendants that did not call in with this excuse and lost their trips are mad too, as they will not get paid.

hayzel7773

I expect to see some scheduling revenge. EVA has the power to group trips together, basically one trip after another(while still maintaining the legal hours) and having continuous days off instead of balancing the schedule and having days off between trips. This will be extremely tiring. They also will just not honor any of the "bids" that the crew put in and not allowing swaps. They can also cut down on these crew's trips, thus leaving the crew with less money per month then they had before.

You are right about the benefits and pay, the aviation industry is one of the top paying industries in Taiwan.

qsh

What kind of management would agree to that... I do wonder why this is the first time it has become significant, since Meji is 7 years ago and TW/HK get swept by typhoons on a regular basis.

I also hope that there won't be managerial retaliation. After all, it is management's screw up to allow FA/Pilot to take typhoon holiday.


(PS While I sympathize with the FAs, BR should have listed favourable conditions in their contract to ensure smooth operations and crew safety.)