Having been unemployed for more than half a year, dozens of former freeway toll collectors, alongside labor rights activists, yesterday demonstrated outside a conference center at National Taiwan University in Taipei, where Minister of Transportation and Communications Yeh Kuang-shih (葉匡時) was attending a meeting.
The protesters accused the ministry of breaking its promise to help them find jobs after it eliminated their positions last year.
“Keep your word; let’s talk now,” and “Stop deceiving your ex-employees, Minister Yeh,” were among phrases shouted through a loudspeaker by dozens of protesters kept outside by police officers.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
More than 900 toll collectors — many who had held the job for their entire working lives — were laid off when almost four decades of human toll collection ended on Dec. 29 last year to make way for the electronic toll collection (ETC) system.
At the time, the ministry and the Far Eastern Electronic Toll Collection Co (FETC) said they would help the workers find new jobs; however, more than half a year has passed and the majority are still jobless.
“So far, only 9 percent of former toll collectors have found new jobs, because the way that the FETC ‘helps’ us to find job is to give you a position, forcing you to take it, regardless of whether the job suits you or where the work site is,” protester Lin Pi-huang (林碧煌) told reporters. “This is not how you ‘help’ us to find jobs as you promised before.”
Lin added that the ministry seems to ignore the FETC’s broken promise and kept postponing the deadline for finding new jobs.
“After our protests, the ministry finally made an agreement with us on June 24, saying it would create a joint commission — including the participation of former toll collectors — to resolve the issue,” Lin said. “However, the ministry now says that we misunderstood the minister and it formed a third-party commission for the matter instead.”
The protesters failed to force their way into the meeting room, sparking a clash with police.
Wu Jing-ru (吳靜如), president of Taiwan International Workers Association and an adviser at the workers’ self-help organization, vowed to paralyze the freeway on Nov. 22, a week before the nationwide seven-in-one elections on Nov. 29, if the problem is not solved by then.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
Many Japanese couples are coming to Taiwan to obtain donated sperm or eggs for fertility treatment due to conservatism in their home country, Taiwan’s high standards and low costs, doctors said. One in every six couples in Japan is receiving infertility treatment, Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare data show. About 70,000 children are born in Japan every year through in vitro fertilization (IVF), or about one in every 11 children born. Few people accept donated reproductive cells in Japan due to a lack of clear regulations, leaving treatment in a “gray zone,” Taichung Nuwa Fertility Center medical director Wang Huai-ling (王懷麟)
PROXIMITY: Prague is closer to Dresden than Berlin is, so Taiwanese firms are expected to take advantage of the Czech capital’s location, the Executive Yuan official said Taiwan plans to boost cooperation with the Czech Republic in semiconductor development due to Prague’s pivotal role in the European IC industry, Executive Yuan Secretary-General Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said. With Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) building a wafer fab in the German city of Dresden, a Germany-Czech Republic-Poland “silicon triangle” is forming, Kung said in a media interview on the weekend after returning from a visit to Prague. “Prague is closer to Dresden than Berlin is, so Taiwanese firms are expected to take advantage of the Czech capital’s location,” he said. “Taiwan and Prague have already launched direct flights and it is
RSS