MEA Promises On-Time Flights as Pilots Union Calls 48-Hr Strike

Pilots at Lebanon's national carrier, Middle East Airlines (MEA), on Monday overwhelmingly voted in favor of a 48-hour strike in protest at the dismissal of a colleague undergoing cancer treatment.

The pilots' union said in a statement that the employee was fired while he was on sick leave and therefore his sacking “violates the labor law.”

The strike will begin at 10:00 pm Monday and end at the same time on Wednesday, it added.

In addition to the sacking, the statement revealed that MEA’s failure to comply with the union's demands had forced it to launch the strike.

It explained that it had taken a decision last week to delay flights between 2:00 and 7:00 pm on 25, 26, and 27 November for two hours but that the MEA administration did not respond to this demand.

“The administration’s action does not only violate the pilots’ rights, but their dignity as well in a manner that poses a direct danger to the pilots’ profession,” said the statement.

MEA had announced in a statement on Monday that the sacked pilot’s deteriorating health has affected his ability to maintain his duties.

It explained that he is suffering from a chronic illness, which forced him to stop his work.

This policy has been adopted by the airlines for years, it added.

“The company has not financially or morally abandoned the pilot who has loyally served it for 38 years,” it stressed.

The airline is still covering all the expenses of his medical treatment, it said.

Captain Fadi Khalil, head of the pilots' union, told Agence France Presse that the work stoppage covered all flights.

"We have a colleague, a captain who has served MEA for 38 years, and as soon as he went on sick leave, they terminated his contract," Khalil said.

He said the pilots were demanding that their sick colleague be given 75 days of full pay and 75 days of half pay, in accordance with Lebanese law.

Khalil said the company was offering compensation, but outside the framework of the law.

MEA chairman Mohamed El-Hout, however, dismissed the strike call as "illegal and arbitrary."

"You cannot announce a strike at 5:00 pm for the same evening," he said, adding that the company in the past had given similar compensation to other sick pilots.

"They are portraying the company as inhumane and this is not justified," El-Hout told AFP.

He did not believe all pilots would follow the strike call and said that flights to Paris, Brussels, Frankfurt and London were still on schedule for Monday evening. This was confirmed by a statement issued later on Monday by the company's board after an emergency meeting.

"In light of the surprising strike announced by the pilots’ union, and in light of the willingness of a significant number of pilots to secure the normalcy of the company’s flights … the company announces as a first step that it will operate the following flights, from and to the Rafik Hariri International Airport between 1:00 am and 12:00 pm Tuesday, November 29, 2001: Paris (ME 209/210), Brussels (ME 215/216), Paris (ME 211/212), London (201/202), Frankfurt (ME 217/218), Istanbul (ME 265/266) and Baghdad (ME 322/323),” MEA said.

“Efforts are underway to secure the progress of other flights aboard the company’s airplanes, which will be announced at a later time. Anyhow, the departure of passengers will be secured via the airplanes of other companies if the need arises,” it noted.

“The company will announce later the timetable of flights previously scheduled for Tuesday between 12:00 pm and 12:00 am,” MEA added.