The National Civil Servant Association will no longer participate in meetings of the Alliance for Monitoring Pension Reform, association president Harry Lee (李來希) said yesterday, as divisions over fundraising solidified.
Lee said the association would not participate in alliance meetings “for the time being,” also ruling out restoring alliance convener Huang Yao-nan’s (黃耀南) administrative rights to the group’s Facebook page until National Federation of Education Unions members “admit their mistake.”
Huang also serves as the association’s director-general, but was stripped of his administrative rights to the group’s Facebook page after a squabble over what account information should be provided when soliciting donations.
National Federation of Education Unions vice president Liu Ya-ping (劉亞平) issued a series of heated missives last week over the incident, accusing Lee of being avaricious and violating previous alliance resolutions.
Lee had posted accounted information for the National Civil Servant Association, stripping Huang of administrative rights after he posted that the alliance had passed resolutions dictating that donations be funneled through the union’s account.
“They want to be the primary leadership, but lack the ability,” Lee said yesterday, adding that union leaders had “blown a fuse.”
“Administrative authority is in our hands because the Facebook group was created by us. We brought teachers union members in to help push back against the government, not slam people on the same side,” he said. “We have to handle those roles getting mixed up because we have a readership of more than 70,000, making the site influential. We will not permit any mistaken ideas or behavior.”
“Telling us to contribute after sewing our pockets closed is asking too much,” he said. “Unions already have the healthiest finances out of all groups because they can rely on membership fees, but civil servants are not required to contribute to our association. How are we supposed to carry on the fight over the next year or so without funding?”
Lee’s association has rented office space next to the Legislative Yuan and begun hiring staff for what is expected to be a heated battle over passage of pension reforms.
“I am the convener of the alliance, so of course I should have administrative rights over our official page,” Huang said.
While individual organizations were welcome to independently raise funds, past alliance meeting resolutions said that the union’s account information should be used on the official site, he said, adding his group was still negotiating with the civil servant association.
POLAM KOPITIAM CASE: Of the two people still in hospital, one has undergone a liver transplant and is improving, while the other is being evaluated for a liver transplant A fourth person has died from bongkrek acid poisoning linked to the Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said yesterday, as two other people remain seriously ill in hospital. The first death was reported on March 24. The man had been 39 years old and had eaten at the restaurant on March 22. As more cases of suspected food poisoning involving people who had eaten at the restaurant were reported by hospitals on March 26, the ministry and the Taipei Department of Health launched an investigation. The Food and
CHANGES: After-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during vacations or after-school study periods must not be used to teach new material, the ministry said The Ministry of Education yesterday announced new rules that would ban giving tests to most elementary and junior-high school students during morning study and afternoon rest periods. The amendments to regulations governing public education at elementary schools and junior high schools are to be implemented on Aug. 1. The revised rules stipulate that schools are forbidden to use after-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during summer or winter vacation or after-school study periods to teach new course material. In addition, schools would be prohibited from giving tests or exams to students in grades one to eight during morning study and afternoon break periods, the
Advocates of the rights of motorcycle and scooter riders yesterday protested in front of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications in Taipei, making three demands. They were joined by 30 passenger vehicles, which surrounded the ministry to make three demands related to traffic regulations — that motorcycles and scooters above 250cc be allowed on highways, that all motorcycles and scooters be allowed on inside lanes, and that driver and rider training programs be reformed. The ministry said that it has no plans to allow motorcycles on national highways for the time being, and said that motorcycles would be allowed on the inner
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition