MIAT Airline Strike Called Off

Two-day job “boycott” at the MIAT Mongolian Airline, a national flag carrier, ended last Wednesday with dismissal of its chief executive officers as well as those who went on strike.
At least 1,100 passengers were stranded, and many international flights to Beijing, Seoul, Moscow and Berlin were canceled because of the strike called by around 100 ground engineering and technical inspection staffs of MIAT Airline, who refused to ensure safety of aircrafts of scheduled international flights, and all signed in voluntary resignation letter. As preliminary estimation by MIAT, more than MNT385 million losses have been incurred
MIAT’s management described the strike as a “kidnap” attempt by taking their professional advantage. In order to allow aircrafts to take off for flight, ground engineering and technical staff workers make detailed ground inspection according to international standards and sign in a document ensuring safety of each aircraft leaving. All international flights of MIAT were stopped because none of the technical staff workers refused to ensure safety of scheduled Boeing 737-800 aircraft.

“At the technical inspection department, there are more than 120 workers are working, which we believe too many for an airline company that has three aircrafts in its fleet,” said Kh.Battulga, Minister of Road, Transport, Construction and Urban Development. MIAT has a fleet of two Boeings 737, and one Airbus A310 aircrafts.

The government may cut it down to 30-40 workers. The fired engineers and technical inspectors were immediately prohibited (pictured right) to enter restricted areas of the airport. The strikers claimed that latest appointments made by the management to the professional technical inspection team, as well as cabin crew members are not “highly educated”, and old enough to fit international requirements. Recent incidents of safety failures at the MIAT Airlines are largely connected to those appointments, they said.

The government made a decision on Wednesday to dismiss members of the board of directors together with its executive officers. Chairman of the State Property Committee G.Sugar late Wednesday evening called S.Batmunkh, Director General of the Mongolian Civil Aviation Authority, for an urgent meeting to appoint new chief executive officer of MIAT and its members of the new Board of Directors.

In a closed door meeting that lasted for an hour, new nine-member Board of Directors, led by B.Makhbal, an official at the Ministry of Road, Transport, Construction and Urban Development, appointed Tseyen-Oidov Orkhon to work as Chief Executive Officer of the MIAT Airlines. Orkhon, 43, worked as Head of the Marketing Department of the MIAT Airlines since 2009. He graduated from Civil Aviation Academy in Leningrad (former name of today’s St.Petersburg, Russia) in 1990.

Another group of aviation officers at the Mongolian Civil Aviation Authority, who claimed they represented more than 1,000 workers, have joined their voice in the protest demanding a management reform at the authority.

All international flights have resumed normal operation on Thursday after the government invited ground engineers and technical staff workers from South Korea to ensure safety of passengers
source: The Ub Post