The Next TV Workers’ Union yesterday threatened to go on strike as it accused the network of trying to curtail reporters’ benefits in order to reduce company losses.
The network, which was previously owned by Next Media, was purchased by ERA Communications last year.
Saying ERA had canceled many of the workers’ benefits, the union passed a resolution last week making it legitimate to go on strike. It became the first television network whose workers had approved the legal right to strike.
The union further demanded that ERA not unilaterally cancel paid leave and holidays previously enjoyed by Next TV employees — including Labor Day, 12 days of sick leave and three typhoon holidays.
Union president Cheng Yi-ping (鄭一平) said he stopped getting assignments and was demoted from his position as a television reporter to working full-time as union president after the union approved the resolution.
“Some of the senior management officials have met with employees over the past two days and tried to persuade them to let this matter go. They said employees would be compensated in other ways for canceled paid leave, and that everybody would be out of work if the employer decides to close the company if the conflict continues. They were using this tactic to intimidate union members so that they would not go on strike,” he said.
Cheng said workers in Next TV’s engineering department have been asked to sign a consent form stating that they are ERA employees, and the company is scheduled to collect all the forms this afternoon.
This is another move by ERA to prevent a strike because a majority of the engineering department workers are union members, he said.
Cheng added that ERA has neither tried to negotiate nor communicate with union members since the union passed the resolution. Instead, it is pressuring union members to stop fighting for their rights, he said.
“We have been proud to call ourselves a gutsy television network that dares to report issues that no other media dare to cover, but who will believe our news reports if we have an employer like this?” he asked.
Cheng said the union has filed a complaint with the Ministry of Labor accusing ERA of inappropriate conduct.
In response, ERA Communications assistant manager Chen Yong-ren (陳勇仁) said the company has never made any announcement that it is transfering Cheng to a different position, and it only wanted Cheng to focus on facilitating communication between the union and the firm during this period.
Chen added that management had begun negotiations with the union on Monday and denied that the company plans to use other means to compensate workers for canceled holidays or has threatened to dissolve the company.
Chen defended the company’s decision to move workers at Next TV’s engineering department to ERA’s, saying it was a strategic move to protect employees at Next TV.
“Next TV is still in debt and short of cash,” Chen said. “These employees will return to Next TV as soon as the network becomes profitable again.”
Chen added that the company would not let the planned strike disrupt Next TV’s operations.
Chan Yi-lien (詹懿廉), a specialist at the National Communications Commission’s (NCC) communication management department, said that one of the conditions under which the commission approved the sale of Next TV to ERA Communications was that Next TV and ERA TV would remain separate networks and have different reporting styles.
She said that the ERA was also asked to recruit enough reporters for Next TV’s news department, and the commission had confirmed in March that the company had fulfilled this commitment.
“Even though the commission has mandated that they remain separate networks, it does not mean they cannot share engineering resources. However, we still need to find out more information from the company about the personnel changes in the engineering department,” she said.
Sources familiar with the dispute said that Next TV can continue to function despite the potential strike as only one-third of its employees are union members.
Taipei City’s Department of Labor said the union has the right to appeal to the Ministry of Labor if it thinks its employer has attempted to interfere in the union’s operation.
The Association of Taiwan Journalists said that the ERA has failed to fulfill the promises it made when it acquired Next TV.
The association added that it is gathering evidence and will report its findings to the NCC on Sept.1, when the nation observes Journalists’ Day.
REASONS FOR TRAVEL: An assistant professor said that proposed amendments to penalize drivers if they used drugs overseas would not deter people from traveling People who operate a motor vehicle under the influence of marijuana would have their driver’s license revoked, even if they used the substance while overseas, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday, citing proposed amendments to the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰條例). The amendments would also authorize the government to revoke the licenses of people determined to have used Category 1 or Category 2 narcotics, even if they were not operating a vehicle while under the influence of drugs, as well as ban them from taking the license test for three years, the ministry said. People aged 18 or
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
MULTIPRONGED APPROACH: China has sought to pressure Palau across a number of fronts, but the island nation has staunchly resisted overtures to ditch Taiwan Palau has been firm in backing Taiwan despite Chinese pressure that uses tourism economics, cyberattacks and criminal infiltration as tools to threaten the Pacific ally into renouncing its recognition of Taiwan as a sovereign state. The Presidential Office yesterday announced that Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) would visit Palau from Saturday to Wednesday next week at the invitation of Palauan President Surangel Whipps Jr. Whipps in April said in an interview that China had outspokenly asked Palau to “denounce Taiwan.” “And we have said: ‘We have no enemies, but nobody tells us who our friends are,’” he said. Whipps has told reporters multiple times
RSS