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Workers protest for victims of Hsuehshan Tunnel

Members of the Taiwan Association for Victims of Occupational Injuries yesterday act out a skit outside the Ministry of Transportation and Communications as part of a campaign to urge the government to set up a monument in memory of those who sacrificed their lives in constructing the Hsuehshan Tunnel. PHOTO: LO PEI-DER, TAIPEI TIMES

While officials at the Ministry of Transportation and Communica-tions (MOTC) are busy preparing for the formal inauguration of the Hsuehshan Tunnel, labor rights advocates are also gearing up to remind them about the sacrifices that workers have made for one of the nation's major public construction projects.

Supporters of the Taiwan Association for Victims of Occupational Injuries protested in front of the ministry yesterday, asking it to set up a monument to remember the laborers who died when constructing the tunnel.

The association charged that officials were only concerned with showing the public how they have met their goal, while ignoring the lives and safety of the workers.

Huang Hsiao-ling (黃小陵), the secretary general of the association, said the ministry have underreported the actual number of deaths and injuries that had occurred over the course of the construction.

The ministry, she said, estimated that 13 workers died and three were injured between 1998 and last year. No statistics were available before 1998, she said.

"Many contractors did not dare to report occupational injuries because they either did not have insurance for the workers or they simply did not want to report the accidents," Huang said.

Huang also said that the ministry did not seem to take them seriously when they demanded the establishment of a monument.

Huang said the association plans to stage a walkout near the tunnel on the day it opens to the public.

The association also asked the ministry to build monuments for public construction projects if any occupational deaths were reported.

In response, the Taiwan Area National Expressway Engineering Bureau said a monument has already been made to honor these workers.

The names of 25 workers who died because of the project will be listed on the monument, including 12 Taiwanese workers and 13 Thai workers.

Yin Chen-pong (尹承蓬), deputy director of the ministry's Department of Railways and Highways, represented the ministry in accepting the association's petition.

Meanwhile, the ministry held a final drill for the Hsuehshan Tunnel yesterday, in which experts were supposed to create simulation exercises to test and evaluate how quickly the staff could react to them.

They, however, said that the drill yesterday fell short of their expectation of an "unscripted" drill.

Kurt Lee (李克聰), associate professor at the department of traffic and transportation engineering and management at Feng Chia University, said inspectors originally planned to drive into the tunnel and press the button in any one of the hydrants without giving prior notice.

However, the ministry refused to let them do so, he said, and insisted that they stay at the traffic control center and give the order from there.

The bureau, however, defended the results of the drill, saying that the main controversy lies in the different definitions of an unscripted drill.
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