Taiwan News
Date: 2016-07-26
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – If the Taiwan Railways Administration did not cut 200 train services in 
The train drivers were but the latest in a long series of employees in the transportation sector to threaten strikes or other industrial action. The wave of demands began when a flight attendants union at China Airlines walked out on June 24 and management soon gave in to their demands.
As new labor legislation requires workers to take one day off after each six working days, train drivers pointed out that there would not be enough staff left to allow them to take up the days off they had a legal right to. Even superiors would have to come down and drive trains, and people falling ill would find it hard to take sick leave, drivers said.
During negotiations with the TRA Tuesday, union delegates demanded that the state-run company cut 200 so-called “mosquito trains,” meaning train services which remained mostly empty. If the rail company refused to do so in August, drivers would start taking legal leave and weekends off beginning September 1, the union said. They would also refuse to work overtime, causing 200 services to be scrapped, reports said. [FULL STORY]