Korean Air and Asiana Unions: "Unilateral Merger Excluding Labor Opinions... Reconsider from the Start"

"Labor-Management-Government Council Must Be Formed for Discussion"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Yu Je-hoon] Five labor unions affiliated with Korean Air and Asiana Airlines collectively opposed the recent acquisition of Asiana Airlines by the Hanjin Group, demanding the authorities withdraw the deal and restart discussions from scratch through the formation of a tripartite consultative body involving labor, management, and government.

The five unions?Korean Air Pilots Union, Korean Air Employees Solidarity Branch, Asiana Airlines Pilots Union, Asiana Airlines Open Pilots Union, and Asiana Airlines Labor Union?held an emergency meeting on the morning of the 16th at the Korea Private Pilots Association in Gangseo-gu, Seoul, to announce their stance.

In their statement, they urged, "Immediately halt the secret negotiations reminiscent of authoritarian regimes in the past," and emphasized, "Guarantee the participation of the labor unions of both companies, who are the stakeholders, and transparently disclose the contents of the bilateral agreement between the government and the companies."

They further expressed concerns, stating, "Given the global aviation industry's difficulties due to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the goal of increasing choices by allocating surplus personnel to develop new routes and improve the quality of air services is unrealistic," and warned, "The acquisition within the same industry will cause employment insecurity due to overlapping personnel."

Accordingly, they demanded a restart of discussions from the beginning through the formation of a tripartite consultative body on the 19th. They declared, "Stop the collusion between politics and business that uses COVID-19 as a pretext to shift the responsibility for management failures onto workers and resolve it with taxpayers' money," and added, "Re-discussions must be held from scratch through a tripartite consultative body involving workers."

Meanwhile, it was reported that the Korean Air Labor Union, composed of general employees, did not participate in the meeting. They plan to listen to the company’s explanation on the 17th and then organize their position.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.