Chunghwa Telecom Union to Launch Worker's Party?

The China Post is reporting that workers at Chunghwa Telecom may form a new workers' party....

The Chunghwa Telecom Workers' Union (CTWU) may team up with other industrial workers unions to organize a new political party and field its own candidates in the next legislative election, CTWU Chairman Chang Hsu-chung said yesterday.

In a recent CTWU board of directors meeting, Chang was appointed to establish a new political party for the purpose of representing members of all workers' unions around the country, including teachers' unions, in the legislature.

According to Chang, members of national federations of different industries from around the island, as well as the CTWU and the Formosa Plastics Workers' Union, met July 19 for a preparatory meeting to form what is tentatively called the "Workers Solidarity Union." Chang stressed that it is still too early to confirm whether the current party name will hold. Another possibility is the "Third Force Reform Union."

Representatives from each union are expected to meet again on August 21 when the party might be formally established, said Chang.

Regardless of the name, the workers' party will make it easier for workers to advance and protect their rights and interests. Once established, the party will campaign for a nationwide referendum to add a workers' version of the annuity policy to Executive Yuan's current annuity policy, ban dispatch workers, and guarantee stabilized employment opportunities, Chang remarked.

Chang confirmed that the workers party has received NT$10 million in funding, which is enough for the party to field 10 of its members in the next legislative election slated for Jan. 12, 2008.

Political analysts said the prospective workers' party could potentially control substantial political sway if Taiwan's 8.6 million workers join its ranks.

Chen Jie, a Changhua County legislator, said that establishing a party "is no easy task and will take some time." He added that he welcomed and encouraged its establishment if the party is to be formed in the interest of workers by increasing their rights and benefits.

A letter about the profitability of CHT, layoffs, and other issues from the CWTU Director Chang is online here; it will give you a feel for.....something.. A-gu notes that the new party is already sending feelers to the Farmer's Party -- but the Farmer's Party is run by a longtime pro-Blue hack. I'm curious to see where this goes....

The Taiwan Review has a great article on the whole unions vs. privatization issue. The government's policy is frankly anti-union (emphasis mine):

Tung and his members are worried that such uncertainty will have an adverse effect on staff morale, which in turn could blight the island's power supply, thus slowing economic development. The TPWU is accordingly looking for ways to per suade the government to put the program on hold, pending a review of the results of previous privatizations. "We hope to provide government authorities with practical analyses, based on our years of experience," Tung says. "We are also pushing for the right to participate in the CEPD's screening process, which will determine the ultimate content of the privatization package."

So far, however, the union is not having much luck. Instead, the CEPD has commissioned academics and consultants to map out what Tung describes as an impractical plan riddled with problems. He says flatly that he does not hold out much hope for the future of Taipower after it is privatized. "The result will be a mixture of layoffs and wage cuts."

Again, this is hardly how CEPD Vice Chairman Chi Schive sees it. He is frankly dismissive of the notion that union leaders should be invited to participate in the CEPD-organized screening process. "Unions ought to be talking about privati zation with management on the company's premises, where company policy is formulated," he contends. "But when dealing with the outside world, it's the directors of the company who have to represent its interests and those of its employees."

In accordance with this policy, the CEPD invites only presidents and chief executive officers to attend its planning meetings. "The council is in no position to debate privatization policy with union leaders, because the government has already laid down what that policy is to be," Schive says. "The relevant debates will take place in the legislature and will involve both the executive and the legislative branches. We have to go by the standard procedures. The alternative is chaos."

What the CEPD is prepared to do is continue its existing dialogue with union leaders and the employees they represent as a means of educating them about the ways in which privatization can benefit the work force. The relevant statutory framework actually entitles them to preferential treatment, rather than the reverse, and with a view to emphasizing this, the council has organized several seminars in recent months at which union leaders and SOE employees have been urged to express their concerns. Despite opposition from some labor unions, Schive believes that many employees support privatization, because they recognize that it is for the good of Taiwan's industrial environment as a whole, quite apart from benefiting individual enterprises.

Despite this, Tung is resolute in his hostility to privatization. Any union in the power-generation industry has a number of tricks up its sleeve, and the TPWU is no exception. "We have about 30,000 mem-bers, or 97.8 percent of the Taipower work force," he points out. "We don't rule out the possibility of large-scale protests."

Chi Schive is a local establishment academic with a long history of writing on Taiwan's industrialization and foreign direct investment.

Many of the island's government workers, in addition to being concerned about layoffs, and about the employment situation and stagnant incomes, are also upset about the loss of preferential 18% interest rates on their savings. One reason the bureaucracy supported the KMT is that they received enormous bribes in the form of unreal interest rates (as well as those special funds that got Ma Ying-jeou and Chen Shui-bian in so much trouble) -- interests rates that taxpayers outside the government regarded as theft. Because unions in Taiwan are so weak, one viable solution is a political party that would look out for their interests. If it is really such a party, and not just another faction supporting someone's dreams of power, or Blue or Green sham, it would be an important step forward for the island.

[Taiwan]