The Taiwan Railway Labor Union (台灣鐵路工會) says it won't meet with Minister of Transportation and Communications Yeh Chu-lan (葉菊蘭), and may stage a second protest against the ministry in addition to the one they have planned for this morning.
Despite her strongly worded criticism of the Taiwan Railway Administration (
The union is upset with Yeh over remarks she made earlier of the administration.
After five accidents within the space of a week earlier this month, Yeh criticized the administration for its "big boss" attitude, which she said prevented the state-run transportation agency from providing quality service to the public.
As a result of the accidents, Chen Te-pei (陳德沛), director-general of the bureau, has resigned to be replaced by Huang Te-chi (黃德治).
The union said that the minister's comments reflected a lack of understanding of the problems facing the administration.
One of the union's major concerns, according to Chen, is that the government has not promised the same rights to railway workers as it has to the railway's management in the agency's privatization process.
In a letter distributed to 10,000 rail passengers yesterday, the union took responsibility for the overall inferior quality of rail service.
Chen said that the downsizing of the railway to comply with its privatization policy was the cause of its poor service.
Chen also blamed the ministry for not providing sufficient training to railway staff.
Most of all, Chen said, union workers feared what competition from the high-speed railway (
Regardless of the pressures that come with privatization of the railway system, "the threat of the high-speed rail to the Taiwan Railway Administration is always there," said Chen, who also accused the ministry of partiality toward the high-speed rail project at the expense of the railway administration.
Although Yeh has invited union officials to sit down and talk, Chen said that the times chosen by the minister were inconvenient to union members.
Chen suggested that Yeh chose the weekend to talk to make it appear to the public that "the union was irrationally rejecting any communication."
Yeh told media yesterday that the railway union was welcome to come to her office.
Chen was pessimistic about the possibility of talks between Yeh and the union.
He said the union was ready for today's planned protest, in which hundreds of union members are expected to take part.
The union has not ruled out the possibility of staging a large-scale demonstration that may impact train operations.
In addition, the railway union may work with other unions of state-run companies, such as the Chunghwa Telecom Workers' Union (
A subsidiary of a Hong Kong-based company that has lost control of two critical ports on the Panama Canal said it is seeking US$2 billion of compensation in damages from Panama over its “illegal” takeover of the ports. Panama Ports Co, a unit of Hong Kong’s CK Hutchison Holdings (長江和記實業), on Friday said in a statement that it is demanding the sum under international arbitration proceedings that it had already started. The Panamanian government last week seized control of the Balboa and Cristobal ports on each end of the Panama Canal, after the country’s Supreme Court declared earlier that a concession allowing
DETERRENCE: With 1,000 indigenous Hsiung Feng II and III missiles and 400 Harpoon missiles, the nation would boast the highest anti-ship missile density in the world With Taiwan wrapping up mass production of Hsiung Feng II and III missiles by December and an influx of Harpoon missiles from the US, Taiwan would have the highest density of anti-ship missiles in the world, a source said yesterday. Taiwan is to wrap up mass production of the indigenous anti-ship missiles by the end of year, as the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology has been meeting production targets ahead of schedule, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said. Combined with the 400 Harpoon anti-ship missiles Taiwan expects to receive from the US by 2028, the nation would have
POSSIBILITIES EMERGE: With Taiwan’s victory and Japan’s narrow win over Australia, Taiwan now have a chance to advance if South Korea also beat the Aussies Taiwan has high hopes that the national baseball team would advance to the World Baseball Classic (WBC) quarter-finals after clinching a crucial 5-4 victory over South Korea in a nail-biting extra-inning game at the Tokyo Dome yesterday. Boosted by three home runs — two solo shots by Yu Chang (張育成) and Cheng Tsung-che (鄭宗哲) and a two-run homer by Stuart Fairchild — the triumph gave Taiwan a much-needed second victory in the five-team Pool C, where only the top two finishers would advance to the knockout stage in Miami, Florida. Entering extra innings with the game tied at four apiece, Taiwan scored
MISSION OF PEACE: The foreign minister urged Beijing to respect Taiwan’s existence as an independent nation, and work together to ensure peace and stability in the region Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday rejected Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi’s (王毅) comments about Taiwan, criticizing China as a “troublemaker” in the international community and a disruptor of cross-strait peace. Speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of the Chinese National People’s Congress, Wang said that Taiwan has always been a territory of China and that it would be impossible for it to become its own country. The “return” of Taiwan to China was the natural outcome of the Chinese people’s resistance against Japan in World War II, and that any pursuit of independence was “doomed
RSS