Talks with sacked editors collapse

Talks between sacked editorial staff members of the China Times and the newspaper's management broke down yesterday after three hours of negotiation.

Holding pictures taken at the newspaper's 50th anniversary celebrations, 33 editorial staff members from Kaohsiung protested in front of the newspaper's Taipei office yesterday following the breakdown of talks.

On June 1, hundreds of workers from the newspaper's Taichung and Kaohsiung bureaus were unexpectedly fired.

While Taichung employees lodged a petition with their local Bureau of Labor Affairs on June 5, nearly 60 workers from Kaohsiung have been waiting for their former employer to explain the reason for the sudden dismissal.

However, the explanation they got yesterday has left them disappointed.

"Six months ago, the publisher, Yu Chion-hsin (余建新) came to Kaohsiung and promised that no one would be laid-off within a year. But today he didn't even listen to us," said Yu Ping-yao (余秉瑤), a spokeswoman for the laid-off employees from Kaohsiung.

"We begged him and cried in the negotiation, but he just refused to negotiate. With that attitude, we have nothing else to say," Yu said.

Lin Sheng-Fen (林聖芬), the executive editor of the newspaper said that the sackings were necessary to solve the newspaper's financial problems.

"We have tried to restructure the newspaper's makeup to reduce paper usage and some other measures, but we need to do more to solve the problem. We have no choice but to downsize the company," Lin said.

The labor union of the China Times argued, however, that the sackings were too sudden.

"We have tried to stand up for the employers and find some way to help them out. But the process of the layoffs has been haphazard," said Chang Tien-chiang (張天強), a standing committee member of the paper's labor union.

"The company should offer some alternative for laid-off employees, not just fire them. For instance, the Tomorrow Times offered other options for laid-off employees, and there was no conflict," Chang said.

Following the breakdown of negotiations yesterday, the sacked workers from Kaohsiung plan to petition Kaohsiung City Government's Bureau of Labor Affairs to mediate in their quarrel with their former employer.

Former employees are to have a mediation session arranged by the Taichung City Government on June 11.

According to the China Times, the sackings are the first step in the enterprise's restructuring and it is possible that more cutbacks will still have to be made.

The China Times' labor union plans to hold a meeting on June 24 to find ways to handle additional layoffs.

"Then the conflict will be between the 1,000 members of the labor union and the employers, not just the 100 employees who have already been sacked," Chang said.