More than 12,000 Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) employees, including 90 percent of its drivers, have vowed not to work on May 1 to protest the government’s proposal to corporatize the transportation agency, the TRA said yesterday.
Based on shift schedules, 1,200 TRA drivers should be working on Workers’ Day, which falls on a Sunday this year, but fewer than 40 of them might actually show up for work, the TRA said.
As a result, all train services on eastern lines would be canceled that day, while only a few commuter trains would operate on western lines, the TRA said.
Photo: CNA
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications said that contingency plans to provide people with alternative means of transport amid the expected disruption, as well as to refund TRA tickets, would be announced next week.
The Taiwan Railway Labor Union (TRLU) on Friday asked its members to take a rest day on Workers’ Day, as they are entitled to, rather than follow their shift schedule, to force the government to recall a draft bill on converting the TRA into a corporation.
The labor union is not opposed to the ministry’s plan to corporatize the TRA, but the draft bill referred to the legislature for deliberation was introduced without properly consulting TRA workers, union chairman Chen Shih-chieh (陳世杰) said.
The union is insisting that the bill be withdrawn from the legislature and replaced with a new version after the ministry and the labor union hold discussions and reach a consensus, Chen said.
Minister of Transportation and Communications Wang Kwo-tsai (王國材) on Friday called a meeting with leaders of the TRLU and the National Train Drivers’ Union to try to iron out their differences, but the talks broke down in less than an hour.
The draft bill was approved by the Cabinet early last month as part of the government’s efforts to reform the TRA amid public calls for reform following a deadly train crash in 2018 and another last year.
One of the major disagreements between the two sides lies in how to pay off the TRA’s debts after it is corporatized.
As of the end of last year, it had accumulated NT$420.801 billion (US$14.45 billion) in debt, TRA Director-General Du Wei (杜微) has said.
The TRLU last month issued a statement saying that all TRA debts should be handled by the government, as opposed to having the train operator assume its debt, as proposed in the draft bill.
The draft bill also did not give any guarantees regarding salaries, promotions or pensions, the TRLU said.
Wang told reporters after Friday’s meeting that he was ready to discuss issues related to salaries, benefits and safety management, but the labor union leaders demanded that the bill be recalled before any talks could begin.
Wang said he has refused to recall the bill and would continue the push for TRA reform even though it has encountered more difficulties than expected.
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