The Taiwan Railway Labor Union on Wednesday said it might hold a protest and go on strike next month if the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) presents its proposal to transform itself into a state-run corporation to the Ministry of Transportation and Communications without first reaching an agreement with the union.
After a derailment of a Taroko Express train in Hualien County on April 2 last year killed 49 people, Minister of Transportation and Communications Wang Kwo-tsai (王國材), who took office on April 20, vowed to transform the agency into a state-run corporation within three years.
Wang has since last month met with union representatives, trying to convince them that the transformation would solve the railway operator’s problems.
Photo: CNA
However, union members opposed the plan, saying that it was not the reform they had expected.
The agency has over the past decades accumulated more than NT$400 billion (US$14.376 million) of debt, and the ministry has proposed that earnings after tax would be used to pay off the debt, the union said in an online statement.
“How can TRA employees get better pay and benefits under such circumstances? Once the agency becomes a corporation, employees would also have to give up their qualifications as government workers. An employee in a firm that makes no profit could be laid off at any time,” it said.
Union chairman Chen Shih-chieh (陳世杰) said the union is not against reforming the agency, but questioned whether the planned railway corporation would mean a true reform and increase operational safety.
“We urge the Ministry of Transportation and Communications to resolve the debt and other issues first, and reach an agreement with the union before sending statutes governing the establishment of a railway corporation to the Legislative Yuan. Otherwise, we cannot accept the proposal,” he said.
The union said it had originally planned to organize a protest on Feb. 23, to which 3,748 members had signed up.
However, the rally would be postponed, as COVID-19 regulations limit crowd sizes, it said.
The ministry said that the state-run corporation would keep the TRA’s employees
Chunghwa Post Co, Taiwan International Ports Corp and Taoyuan International Airport Corp used to be government agencies, and none of them have laid off significant numbers of workers since the transformations, the ministry said.
TRA employees would not be paid less in the state-run railway corporation and might get 4.4 months of salary as performance-based bonuses, even if the company does not post profits, it said.
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) working group for Taiwan-related policies is likely to be upgraded to a committee-level body, a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is increasingly likely to upgrade the CCP’s Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, Taiwanese authorities should prepare by researching Xi and the CCP, the report said. At the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP, which ended on Thursday last week, the party set a target of 2029 for the completion of some tasks, meaning that Xi is likely preparing to
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to