Cabin crew union members are planning to stage its "biggest" walkout in protest against the suspension of National Union of Flight Attendants Malaysia (Nufam) president Ismail Nasaruddin and alleged mistreatment of staff by MAS.

According to Nufam secretariat, its members will vote next week on the decision to hold the walkout after more than 1,000 cabin staff and other Nufam members had voiced their displeasure at the national air carrier for failing to retract Ismail's suspension letter.

"This will be the biggest ‘walkout' to be staged by the airline's cabin crew union members," the secretariat said in a statement, adding that if agreed upon, the protest will likely take place next month.

Ismail was suspended on Nov 8, following a statement he made to the media calling for the removal of MAS chief executive officer Ahmad Jauhari Yahya over the latter's alleged failure to attend to the welfare of the MAS cabin crew and engage in collective agreement negotiations with the union.

The union chief was suspended without allowances with immediate effect following the report in SunBiz which had quoted him, and which had been published on the same day.

MAS being 'too arrogant'

In its statement, Nukam claimed that MAS crew were being increasingly marginalised, and that "all negotiations to redeem the trust towards the company had failed, and we believed MAS is being too arrogant to do anything in the best interest of their own cabin crew".

"Nufam had also met several officials to request intervention in helping to resolve the issues, however, it appears things are moving ‘too slow'," it said, adding that the union was "fed up" with the "bullying" of the crew members.

"MAS management should do the best thing, which is to sit and talk with Nufam officials and help resolve these issues."