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進入《TAIPEI TIMES 焦點》 Ex-toll workers ratchet up protest on joblessness
Laid-off freeway toll collectors and labor rights activists hold up signs and demonstrate yesterday outside a conference center at National Taiwan University in Taipei, where Minister of Transportation and Communications Yeh Kuang-shih was attending a meeting. Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
By Loa Iok-sin / Staff reporter
Having been unemployed for more than half a year, dozens of former freeway toll collectors, alongside labor rights activists, yesterday demonstrated outside a conference center at National Taiwan University in Taipei, where Minister of Transportation and Communications Yeh Kuang-shih （葉匡時） was attending a meeting.
The protesters accused the ministry of breaking its promise to help them find jobs after it eliminated their positions last year.
“Keep your word; let’s talk now,” and “Stop deceiving your ex-employees, Minister Yeh,” were among phrases shouted through a loudspeaker by dozens of protesters kept outside by police officers.
More than 900 toll collectors — many who had held the job for their entire working lives — were laid off when almost four decades of human toll collection ended on Dec. 29 last year to make way for the electronic toll collection （ETC） system.
At the time, the ministry and the Far Eastern Electronic Toll Collection Co （FETC） said they would help the workers find new jobs; however, more than half a year has passed and the majority are still jobless.
“So far, only 9 percent of former toll collectors have found new jobs, because the way that the FETC ‘helps’ us to find job is to give you a position, forcing you to take it, regardless of whether the job suits you or where the work site is,” protester Lin Pi-huang （林碧煌） told reporters. “This is not how you ‘help’ us to find jobs as you promised before.”
Lin added that the ministry seems to ignore the FETC’s broken promise and kept postponing the deadline for finding new jobs.
“After our protests, the ministry finally made an agreement with us on June 24, saying it would create a joint commission — including the participation of former toll collectors — to resolve the issue,” Lin said. “However, the ministry now says that we misunderstood the minister and it formed a third-party commission for the matter instead.”
The protesters failed to force their way into the meeting room, sparking a clash with police.
Wu Jing-ru （吳靜如）, president of Taiwan International Workers Association and an adviser at the workers’ self-help organization, vowed to paralyze the freeway on Nov. 22, a week before the nationwide seven-in-one elections on Nov. 29, if the problem is not solved by then.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
