More than 1,000 Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) workers yesterday protested the Ministry of Transportation and Communications’ plan to corporatize the agency, saying that the ministry drafted the statute establishing Taiwan Railway Corp without thoroughly communicating with the workers’ unions.
Members of the Taiwan Railway Labor Union (TRLU) and two other unions in the railway agency marched from Taipei Railway Station to the Legislative Yuan and handed a petition to lawmakers serving on the legislature’s Transportation Committee.
TRLU chairman Chen Shih-chieh (陳世杰) said that the union organized the protest because the ministry sent the draft statute for legislative review without first reaching an
TRA to become state-run firm: minister
REFORM: The agency’s transformation would happen over three years and would be conducted by communicating with its personnel, the transportation minister said
By Shelley Shan / Staff reporter
The ultimate goal of reforming the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) is to turn the government agency into a state-run corporation, Minister of Transportation and Communication Wang Kwo-tsai (王國材) said yesterday.
Wang made the remarks at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee in Taipei, where he and new TRA Director-General Du Wei (杜微) briefed lawmakers about the details of reforming the nation’s oldest and largest railway agency, after a Taroko Express train derailed in Hualien on April 2, killing 49 people and injuring more than 200.