Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) train drivers yesterday said they would work during the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday as they plan to continue negotiations over the cutting of train services and improving drivers’ work conditions until the agency changes its timetable next month.
The Train Drivers’ Workers Association made the announcement through a notice circulated within the TRA.
Prior to the announcement, the association had proposed that all train drivers go on strike starting yesterday. The proposal had secured the signatures of 1,152 drivers.
The association said in the notice that their negotiation with the agency’s management did not target the Mid-Autumn Festival or other national holidays.
As the agency planned to present a new train schedule on Oct. 20 and the drivers’ work schedule would have to change accordingly, the association decided to continue negotiations until after the new schedule is made public.
The decision was made to ensure that the fundamental problem with the arrangement of the train drivers’ work schedules can be resolved, the association said.
Despite the announcement, the TRA can not yet relax over the possibility of an imminent workers’ strike during one of the nation’s important family holidays.
The Taiwan Railway Union, which is composed of train service personnel and ticket clerks, on Tuesday asked the TRA to respond to its demands within one week or it could see a large number of members choose to take the holiday off.
In other developments, the TRA said that residents of Hualien and Taitung can start booking tickets for six express trains reserved for them from 6am today after glitches in Chunghwa Telecom’s mainframe prevented them from doing so yesterday.
In addition to people born in Hualien and Taitung, whose ID numbers begin with U or V, the trains are also open for people who became registered residents of those cities before Aug. 1.
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