Dozens of former employees of Japan Airlines Corp (JAL) yesterday held a protest at Taipei International Airport (Songshan) accusing the company of illegally laying off 70 Taiwanese flight attendants.
Holding the protest to coincide with the launch of direct flights between Songshan and Tokyo International Airport (Haneda) after a 31-year hiatus, dozens of former JAL employees and labor activists gathered outside the airport, holding banners and shouting: “JAL’s illegal layoffs bullying Taiwanese employees.”
At one point, the protesters stormed past a police line and shouted words of protest, attracting the attention of passersby.
PHOTO: CNA
Former JAL employees have been protesting in recent weeks against the airline’s layoff in July of Taiwanese JAL union members and senior employees that were close to retirement.
Two months ago, JAL announced a restructuring plans that included a 30 percent cut in its global workforce and additional financing to keep it flying after filing for bankruptcy protection in January.
The protesters said that while JAL had cited financial difficulties as the reason behind the move, laid off employees claimed the real reason for the company’s action was intentional discrimination against Taiwanese and women, since female Taiwanese flight attendants were replaced by Japanese.
As some of the senior flight attendants that were laid off were originally scheduled to retire from the airline within a year, the former employees alleged they were laid off because the company did not want to pay their pensions.
A former JAL flight attendant surnamed Lin (林), who had worked at the company for about 20 years, said the company’s claims that she was laid off because it was in financial troubles was a deception.
“The company’s financial statements show they still made a good profit as of June,” Lin said.
“The direct flights between Songshan and Haneda will expand their business, so it doesn’t make sense for the airline to cut back,” she said, adding that if the -company really needed to cut costs related to salary, JAL would not have hired Japanese to replace Taiwanese.
Mao Chen-fei (毛振飛), convener of the Solidarity Union of Labor Confederations and chairman of the Taoyuan County Confederation of Trade Unions, accused the airline of “profiting off Taiwanese, while stepping on their dignity.”
He urged the Council of Labor Affairs to step in and resolve the dispute.
In response, Jerry Liu (劉傳名), director of the council’s Department of Labor Relations, said the council had sent official letters strongly urging the company to cooperate with the Taipei City Government’s Labor Bureau to resolve the labor-management dispute, adding that the council would follow up on the matter.
UPGRADE: The Kang Ding-class frigate is replacing its Chaparall missiles with Tien Chien II and Hua Yang VLS, which would provide it with long-range, 360° air defense Taiwan plans to produce 1,200 to 1,376 Hai Chien II missiles (海劍二, Sea Sword II) — also known as TC-2N — to serve as the standard air defense system of the navy’s surface combatant fleet, a source said yesterday. Last week, the Hai Chien II, the naval version of the Tien Kung II missile (天劍二, Sky Sword II), completed a live-fire test in waters off the National Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology’s Jiupeng facility (九鵬) in Pingtung County’s Manjhou Township (滿州). The MIM72 Chaparral and other dated air defense missiles that currently arm Taiwanese ships have inadequate range to combat Chinese
REASONS FOR TRAVEL: An assistant professor said that proposed amendments to penalize drivers if they used drugs overseas would not deter people from traveling People who operate a motor vehicle under the influence of marijuana would have their driver’s license revoked, even if they used the substance while overseas, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday, citing proposed amendments to the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰條例). The amendments would also authorize the government to revoke the licenses of people determined to have used Category 1 or Category 2 narcotics, even if they were not operating a vehicle while under the influence of drugs, as well as ban them from taking the license test for three years, the ministry said. People aged 18 or
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
RSS