Following two derailments, a major flood that paralyzed Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and a strike by China Airlines (CAL) flight attendants — all within one month — Vice Premier Lin Hsi-yao (林錫耀) yesterday held the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) responsible, urging it to conduct a detailed and thorough review of its functions.
Speaking at a weekly Cabinet meeting, Lin said that the flooding, the derailed trains and the strike, which started at midnight yesterday, are all problems that involved management to various extents, and as the ministry in charge of transportation, it should conduct a thorough review of its businesses.
“First it was the CAL pilots who protested labor conditions [last month] and now it is the flight attendants,” Lin said. “With the appointment of a new CAL chairman, we must take the initiative to negotiate between the employer and the employees at CAL.”
The vice premier said poor management of the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) was to blame for the second derailment in a month due to warped tracks in Hualien County.
“We still do not know the exact reason the rails were bent, leading to the second derailment in a month yesterday [Wednesday],” Lin said. “The TRA said it was because of high temperatures, but I am not convinced that the temperature was not taken into consideration when building the railroad — and the railroad should not become deformed however high the temperature is.”
As for the flooding that paralyzed Taoyuan airport earlier in the month, Lin blamed the management.
“Whether it is Taoyuan airport or the TRA, I am sure many problems have accumulated in both organizations and I would like the ministry to continue to review the problems and make changes,” Lin said. “Besides holding people responsible and changing those who are accountable, the ministry should find out the real causes of the problems.”
Meanwhile, Lin responded to former premier Mao Chi-kuo’s (毛治國) criticism in an interview published yesterday by the Chinese-language United Daily News that a proposal by Democratic Progressive Party lawmakers to move some flights to Taichung and Kaohsiung airports to help ease the burden for Taoyuan airport was “bowing to populism.”
Lin said that the government is trying to solve problems and regretted Mao’s criticism.
“Mao has served as the minister of transportation for five years, can he explain why he was talking as if all these problems have nothing to do with him?” Lin asked.
In related news, during a news conference after the Cabinet meeting, Cabinet spokesman Tung Chen-yuan (童振源) said that the Cabinet is to withdraw as many as 115 legislative proposals forwarded to the Legislative Yuan prior to the presidential inauguration last month.
Proposals to be withdrawn include bills on monitoring cross-strait negotiations and agreements, long-term care insurance, and amendments to the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法) and the Presidential and Vice Presidential Election and Recall Act (總統副總統選舉免法).
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