Scholars yesterday condemned the Chung Hua Telecommunication Corporation and the KMT for their alleged intervention in the election campaign of the Chinese Telecommunication Workers' Union.
They supported a union accusation that the two parties had mobilized administrative resources in an attempt to influence the election result.
Chiu Hei-yuan (
PHOTO: CHUANG CHUNG-LUNG, LIBERTY TIMES
The election for union representatives is set to take place next Friday.
According to union cadres, the election is one of the most important in the history of Taiwan's union movement, because of ramifications with the presidential election in March.
Over 50 scholars supported the union's aim of a free and fair election. They included, Hsu Cheng-kuan (
At a press conference yesterday, Chiu said an organized and independent union was a significant force in Taiwan's process of civil and social reform.
He called upon the KMT and management at Chung Hua Telecommunication to respect the development of a third force, namely Non-Government Organizations (NGOs).
"Otherwise we cannot expect the coming of age of Taiwan's social democracy," Chiu said.
As the biggest industrial union in Taiwan -- with 40 sub-unions and 35,000 members -- the union election has been particularly intense this year because of the presidential election.
Campaigning for the union election, which began three months ago, has been tumultuous, Chang Shu-chung (
"We have 35,000 votes and if we add in members of other public enterprise unions that we organize, there will be 160,000 votes. This is a number that any presidential candidate wants to strive for," Chang said, explaining the keen competition of the campaign.
According to Chiu Yu-bin (
These included a meeting of the KMT's telecommunication department on April 20th, which Minister of Transportation Lin Feng-cheng (
Chiu said in the last week executives had held extravagant dinners, treating employees and promoting particular factions as candidates running for union representative positions.
The union election is scheduled to be held on Dec. 23 and 24.
He said employees who showed support for candidates from the union faced meetings with their bosses. "Some of our colleagues have already been transferred as a result," Chang said.
Responding to the union's accusation, Lin was quoted as saying "nonsense" in a Chinese language newspaper.
On Thursday, the union went to the Cabinet-level Council of Labor Affairs demanding the council reprimand the KMT and the Transportation Ministry.
Chan Ho-shen (
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