The Taiwan Post Co (台灣郵政) said yesterday it would soon change its name back to Chunghwa Post (中華郵政), a measure expected to cost NT$8 million (US$260,000).
The company changed its name from Chunghwa Post to Taiwan Post in February last year at a cost of around NT$12 million.
The move at the time upset the Chunghwa Postal Workers’ Union, which staged a protest outside the company’s headquarters.
The second name change was passed unanimously at a board meeting yesterday and won praise from the workers’ union.
Taiwan Post chairman Wu Min-yu (吳民佑) said 30 post offices countrywide would need to have signs replaced, which would be completed by Monday.
Wu said the name change was being carried out in response to a resolution passed by the legislature in April. The resolution said the company had not completed the required legal procedures to change its name to Taiwan Post and said it must change its name again within six months.
Wu said customers with Taiwan Post savings accounts would still be able to use account books with “Taiwan Post” printed on the cover. Postage stamps issued by the Taiwan Post will also still be valid.
“The interests of our customers remained unchanged,” he said.
Chunghwa Post vice president Su Tien-fu (蘇添富) said NT$8 million was only an estimate for the cost of the name change.
The bottom line may add up to less than that, Su said.
“When we took the Chunghwa Post signs and billboards down last year, we put them in our storage just in case we might need them again,” Su said. “And to save all the trouble, we simply put ‘Taiwan Post’ stickers on top of the name ‘Chunghwa Post’” on smaller signs such as at ATMs.
“Now, we only need to wash those billboards and tear off those stickers,” he said.
The meeting yesterday also confirmed the reappointment of former board member Liu Cheng-chi (劉政池).
Liu was removed from the board by Vice Minister of Transportation and Communications Ho Nuan-hsuen (何煖軒) for allegedly leaking information to the press. Ho later also filed slander charges against Liu, accusing him of seeking to damage the company’s reputation by divulging negative information.
Wu dismissed speculation that Liu had been reappointed because of pressure from Liu’s brother, Miaoli County Commissioner and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) member Liu Cheng-hung (劉政鴻). Liu Cheng-chi was appointed to the board to “help the company’s business,” Wu said.
But anonymous postal workers upset by the decision wrote in a letter distributed to reporters: “What makes Liu so special that he should be employed again and again by the board? ... There are about 5,000 people in this company who are experts in the postal business. Can they all be appointed too?”
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