Brian Hioeby Brian Hioe
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Photo Credit: 臺灣鐵路產業工會
THE TAIWAN RAILWAYS UNION (TRU) has criticized a 40% increase in salary for the chair and general manager of the Taiwan Railways Corporation (TRC). This means that the chair of the TRC will make 191,380 NT per month and the general manager will make 187,130 NT per month.
The TRU has criticized the two positions as the biggest winners of the corporatization of what was once the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA), then. This has been criticized in light of the fact that subsidies for night shifts for TRC workers are only 120 NT, and risk pay for workers is only an additional 40 NT. Nevertheless, the Taiwanese government has defended the salaries as competitive, and in line with that of the heads of other state-run enterprises.
The corporatization of the TRA, changing it from an agency of government into a state-owned enterprise in the form of the TRC, took place earlier this year. This occurred at the end of a yearslong struggle by TRA workers against corporatization, which was often framed as a de facto form of privatization. That the corporatization occurred in spite of many years of struggle reflects the weakness of Taiwanese labor, in many ways.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications justified the transition on the auspices of safety. This cited the deadly 2021 rail crash that involved a Taroko express train crashing into a truck that slid into the path of a tunnel.
Facebook post on the salary raise for the Taiwan Railway Corporation’s executives
49 were killed and 213 injured in what was Taiwan’s deadliest rail crash in history, surpassed only by a 1948 fire. It was later found that the contractor had won the tender for the construction despite a repeated history of violations and was working despite that there should have been no work going on that day, seeing as it was a public holiday that would see increased rail traffic.
After the crash, the MOTC claimed that the corporatization of the TRA would add to the safety of railways in Taiwan. Precedents such as the corporatization of the Japan Railways were pointed to as positive examples.
Concerns from workers were, however, that this would worsen conditions for them in that they would lose the benefits they enjoy as public servants. Workers suggested that poorer working conditions would add to rather than alleviate safety concerns.
Oftentimes, workers would point to a decline in the number of TRA workers despite increasing riders as worsening such dangers. The TRA cut workers by close to half from 22,500 to 12,500 between the 1970s and 2000s, even as the number of riders increased for the Taiwan Railways as a whole.
The significant labor unrest that the corporatization of the TRA led to–and that this was insufficient to prevent it from taking place. A strike on International Workers’ Day in 2022, involving 12,000 of 16,000 TRA workers, including 1,300 train drivers, reveals the degree to which workers oppose the corporatization of the TRA. A subsequent strike that was originally planned for the Dragon Boat Holiday before being called off involved 1,348 of 1,400 train drivers.
A significant concern for the government in pushing for corporatization was likely TRA’s lack of profitability and growing debt, seeing as this amounts to more than 170 billion NT. The government currently claims that the TRA will be profitable by 2026, though workers expressed hesitation about such plans, citing that the TRA made more money from other revenue sources. A new fund will be set up to handle the TRA’s debt, which will allow the newly formed TRC to become profitable more quickly. Nevertheless, it is self-evident that the TRA’s debt was not an obstacle to increasing the salaries of its executives.
It is unclear what further labor activity will take place in the TRC, after corporatization. Certainly, it seems to be too late to reverse the process, even if TRC staff remain overworked in a manner that may prove detrimental to the safety of riders. While there have been significant gains in the wake of increased organizing in the transportation industry in past years, it is still to be seen what comes next for such labor discontents.