The Korean Air Pilot Union has announced the withdrawal of its 2nd strike call. The union had announced a strike since no wage agreement was concluded for 2015 or 2016. The 1st strike was from 22 December to 29 December 2016.
Korean Air stated that “the pilots’ union withdrew a strike call scheduled from midnight of 24 March to 26 March 2017. Management respects the union’s decision, and will do its utmost to come to an amicable settlement in the near future.”
The union also withdrew another strike call scheduled for 9 a.m. 24 March, in front of the Korean Air shareholders meeting. Since aviation is one of the essential public services, only 20% of the pilots’ union members can participate in strikes at one time. On top of this, only 65 pilots decided to participate in the strikes despite the fact that 230 pilots had said they would participate when the strike schedules were first set. Because of this, the union felt the strike would not carry much influence and thus decided to not go forward with it.
Of particular note is that the president of Korean Air had a meeting with the union on 21 March, and both sides exchanged opinions on the review of wage negotiation agendas.