The National Train Drivers’ Union yesterday said that it has canceled a plan for drivers to take the Mid-Autumn Festival long weekend off after Minister of Transportation and Communications Wang Kwo-tsai (王國材) showed goodwill and gave assurance about the benefits they would receive when the railway agency is corporatized next year.
More than 99 percent of union members last week endorsed a resolution to collectively take the Mid-Autumn Festival and Double Ten National Day long weekends off to protest potential cuts in workers’ benefits when state-run Taiwan Railways Corp Ltd is established in January next year.
They were also dissatisfied with proposed supporting laws for the Act for Establishment of State-owned Taiwan Railways Corp Ltd (國營臺灣鐵路股份有限公司設置條例), which do not cover measures to be taken to improve safety.
Photo courtesy of the Taiwan Railway Labor Union
They submitted a petition to Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) Director-General Du Wei (杜微) on Thursday last week.
Union leaders had a three-hour meeting with Wang yesterday morning, union chairman Huang Lung-hua (黃隆華) told reporters.
“The transportation minister pledged to address issues that the union has told him about, including safety of railway services and train drivers... We were also assured that there would be a railway safety committee that would be directly under the oversight of Taiwan Railways Corp’s board of directors. Train drivers would serve as members on the committee,” Huang said, adding that this particular issue is what train drivers are concerned about the most.
“Since the minister has shown goodwill and agreed to the union’s requests, we decided to halt the plan to take the Mid-Autumn Festival long weekend off,” he said.
Huang said that the TRA has legalized the provision of benefits by listing them in the enforcement rules of the act, but they are slightly different from current practices.
The agency promised to change the wording of the rules before submitting them to the Ministry of Transportation and Communications for final approval, he added.
Although the union accepted Wang’s pledges, it would continue monitoring whether the ministry practices what it preaches, he said.
“We will believe him if the pledges are fulfilled, and train drivers will fulfill their duty to passengers. If none of the promises are kept, we will make sure that all the 1,500 train drivers vote in next year’s presidential and legislative elections,” Huang said.
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