Pilots Stage Luxury Strikes in China

Pilots in China are going on strike one after another this year.

They face mounting criticism that their walkout is “luxury strikes” as they receive high paychecks ranging between 100,000-900,000 yuan (about 14 million to 125 million won) per year.

The Chinese government, however, has been showing a new attitude of no intervention into the labor-management dispute. Experts say that such a change in stance shows the new philosophy on labor-management relations of the second-term Hu Jintao regime (2007-2012).

On Monday, some 50 pilots of the Yunnan branch of China Eastern Airlines flew near to airports in Kunming, Lijiang, Dali and Xishuangbanna, with travelers on-board, only to turn back mid-flight and return to the place of departure.

Pilots blamed the bad weather. But considering the planes of other flight companies arrived normally, their returns can be construed as a strike attempt under the cover of bad weather conditions.

The reason that pilots of feeder lines connecting small cities staged the strike is because their salaries are lower than those of the pilots of main lines linking large cities.

While pilots of domestic main lines receive about 200,000-400,000 yuan annually and international line pilots receive as much as 960,000 yuan, domestic feeder line pilots earn 100,000-200,000 yuan.

Due to their strike, some 1,800 passengers were unable to arrive at their destinations on that day. China’s Civil Aviation Administration, which is responsible for superintending airliners, however, announced Thursday that it had “no intention to intervene (in the labor dispute) because China Eastern Airlines claimed that the planes had returned because of the bad weather,” according to China’s main TV network CCTV on Friday.

Previously, on March 14, some 40 pilots of Shanghai Airlines who fly Boeing 737 went on a strike demanding better treatment, resulting in the cancellation of all flights that day.

orionha@donga.com