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Emergency centers to monitor holiday travel

Passengers rush to board a train yesterday ahead of a proposed Railway Labor Union meeting scheduled for today. The meeting would prevent approximately 12,000 union employees from showing up for work during the busy Mid-Autumn Festival. The Taiwan Railway Administration has promised the trains will operate smoothly. PHOTO: WANG MING-WEI, TAIPEI TIMES

The Ministry of Transportation and Communications and the Taiwan Railway Administration (TRA) established emergency centers yesterday to oversee travel during the Mid-Autumn Festival -- despite promises from top officials that the Taiwan Railway Labor Union's (TRLU) protest plans would not affect train operations today.

The ministry's emergency center is headed by Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Ling-san (林陵三) and manned by officials from the Taiwan Area National Freeway Bureau, the Institute of Transportation, the Highway Bureau and the TRA.

The TRA's emergency center will also serve as an information hub, overseeing train operations nationwide. Even though TRA Director General Huang Te-chih (黃德治) has promised that trains will operate smoothly, the agency has arranged for trains that fail to operate as scheduled to be reported to the center immediately.

People can call 0800-081-911 for more information on holiday transportation or check a special government Web site (moon.iot.gov.tw).

The union has called a members' conference for today and predicted that the meeting would prevent approximately 12,000 union members from reporting to work.

Union chairman Chang Wen-cheng (張文正) said union members were to meet at the main entrance to the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial at 12 noon. The conference is scheduled to run from 2 pm to 4 pm in front of the Presidential Office.

On the agenda is a vote to decide whether the union will carry out a week-long strike during the Lunar New Year holiday next January.

Chang said that according to Article 26 of the Union Law (工會法), the union cannot legally strike without conducting a vote.

Chang said the TRLU wants the government to respect its requests. It has asked the government stop the corporatization of the TRA, settle the TRA's debts and make employment restructuring a priority.

Vice Minister of Transportation and Communications Yu Fang-lai (游方來) said the government, just like the TRLU, sought to safeguard the TRA's future and make it a better system through corporatization.

Premier Yu Shyi-kun also pledged yesterday to safeguard the interest of people planning to return home for today's festival, saying the government has contingency plans to counter the union's efforts to disrupt service.

"We don't care if we lose money while safeguarding the interest of passengers," Cabinet Spokesman Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) quoted Yu as saying after the weekly closed-door Cabinet meeting.

More trains have been added to the TRA schedule and bus companies have been encouraged to add extra buses.

Holiday traffic controls will be imposed on highways and tolls will be waived from 12am to 6am today.

Yu also reiterated that it is government policy to privatize state-run enterprises despite the union's call to halt the railway's privatization.

Meanwhile, a group of mothers took to the streets yesterday, beseeching the government and the TRLU to cooperate so that their children could return home.

"We're not taking sides today. All we want is for our children to be with us during the Moon Festival. We hope that both the government and the labor union can adopt a more understanding attitude in their discussions," said Huang Fang-fen (黃芳粉), organizer of the mothers' lobby.

The protest sparked a heated debate as several passersby, attracted by the commotion, stopped to express their opinions.

When Yang Wei-chung (楊偉中), the TRLU's director in charge of railway corporatization policies, appeared at the event, many people rushed him to complain.

additional reporting by Ko Shu-ling
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