May 20 – Middle East Airlines (MEA) has announced that it will take strict measures if pilots insist on carrying out a strike, said sources from the airline on Tuesday. “MEA management will definitely not treat the second pilots’ strike as it did the first. This decision has been adopted on the highest levels,” they added. However, they failed to say what kind of action will be taken.
Almost all political groups in Lebanon are against the strike as they feel it will adversely affect the tourism industry. Pilots of the airline have put forth several demands to the management, some of which include increasing the retirement age to 64, increasing the minimum wage of fresh graduate pilots to $4,500 a month from $3,100 and medical insurance even after retirement.
MEA Chairman Mohammad Hout has been talking to pilots in order to prevent the strike, but nothing concrete has been achieved so far as both sides remain unwilling to compromise. Hout said pilots had signed an agreement with the airline two years ago that said they would not make more demands. The pilots agreed because the company was not making money. “But MEA is making good profits and that’s why we have every right to improve conditions,” they said.
