Cathay Pacific ground staff and cabin crew are considering co-ordinated strike action over Christmas, threatening the holiday plans of thousands of travellers.
The workers are at loggerheads with the airline's management over recent changes to the medical benefits scheme.
Staff who joined the company after June 1997 now have HK$30 taken out of their pay for each visit they make to a general practitioner and HK$50 for each specialist consultation, which the union believes is unfair.
A meeting between the two groups of staff - the first ever - is to be held tomorrow at the Airport Regal Hotel. They will decide whether to proceed with industrial action following the breakdown of communication between the union and management.
Cathay Pacific Airways Flight Attendants Union chairwoman Becky Kwan Siu-wa said yesterday members had been forced to take the drastic step because management was refusing to negotiate.
The introduction of the medical charge was considered a de facto pay cut because it would be taken directly from salaries.
