A protest by 500 Far Eastern Air Transport Corp (FAT, 遠東航空) employees in Taipei turned violent yesterday as demonstrators clashed with police after running to greet a limousine they mistakenly thought was carrying President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).
The demonstrators had gathered at the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) at 11am yesterday to ask the government to help the 50-year-old airline through its current financial crisis.
Shouting prepared slogans, the demonstrators called on the government to lock up former FAT chairman Steven Tsui (崔湧) and former general manager Philip Chen (陳尚群) for their alleged embezzlement of FAT’s operational funds.
PHOTO: CHU PEI-HSIUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
The ministry dispatched a specialist to accept their petition.
Not satisfied with the ministry’s response, FAT employees demanded that MOTC minister Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國) come and speak with them.
However, Mao was attending a legislative assembly meeting yesterday, while the two vice ministers had been assigned to attend meetings elsewhere in the morning.
The rally at the ministry ended at 12:42pm. The employees then marched on to Ketagalan Boulevard, where they continued their protest.
Someone spotted a cavalcade of limousines driving by and thought that one of them was carrying the president. A number of people ran to greet the limousines, only to be stopped by the police. Tussles occurred when demonstrators tried to get past the police.
The police detained three protesters, who were released later yesterday.
As the demonstration was brought to a halt by barbed wire set up on Gongyuan Road (公園路), some protesters accused the police of being too rough in their handling of the demonstration.
MOTC Vice Minister Chang Chiu-chuen (張邱春) showed up at the rally after the scuffle with police.
Chang told the employees that the ministry would create a task force to handle the matter.
The rally was dispersed at around 5:30pm.
Lin Chih-ming (林志明), director of the ministry’s department of navigation and aviation, reiterated yesterday that Mao has stated categorically that the ministry would not offer any financial assistance to the airline.
Rather, the company’s major shareholders should come forward and do something, he said.
The FAT Labor Union said in a statement yesterday that the government should take over the company’s operations immediately while seeking new management for it.
Employees have not received their salaries in almost two months, it said.
The union said that China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空), which holds 5.73 percent of FAT’s shares, should increase its investment in FAT immediately, which would encourage other major shareholders to follow suit.
The union added that FAT should join other domestic carriers in offering cross-strait direct flight services next month.
The Civil Aeronautics Administration suspended FAT’s right to operate domestic flights on June 3. The administration is scheduled to decide whether to suspend FAT’s international flights next week.
“I have been with the company for 15 years,” said flight attendant Maggie Wu (吳致美), 37, who is also a cabin director.
“I started working for FAT immediately after graduating from college. I spent the prime years of my life here. Now we will soon become the first airline in the history of the Republic of China to go bankrupt,” she said.
“With about 0.01 percent of hope, we are asking the government to help us,” Wu said.
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