Communication is key to solving problems

Now that the strike of the State Railway of Thailand's union has come to an end, the SRT management and unions should seriously work out how they can best serve the country. Hundreds of SRT employees returned to work on Tuesday evening after paralysing much of the national rail service for 36 hours, stranding several thousand travellers who were not informed of the strike.

The government was trying to come to a compromise with the union. Deputy Prime Minister Sanan Kachornprasart, assigned as the lead negotiator, said the SRT labour union had agreed to end the strike following a government pledge that the union could participate in reorganising the money-losing state agency.

However, the end of the strike is not necessarily a happy ending because it does not mean the chronic problems inside the SRT will be solved.

First of all, the SRT union should learn that holding travellers hostage would gain no public support. It disrupted travel and cost several millions of baht as a number of companies still use the rail for transporting goods.

The SRT union was protesting against the rehabilitation plan that the Cabinet had approved. Under the plan, two separate units would have to be established: a rail service unit and an asset management unit to promote efficiency in the SRT operation.

SRT management hopes the rehabilitation plan would turn around the operation, which currently has an accumulated debt of more than Bt70 billion. SRT hopes that if the plan runs as planned, then the railway agency would earn total revenues worth Bt109.52 billion in ten years, starting from this year.

On Tuesday, the government brought the negotiations to an end by agreeing to allow the SRT union to take part in the management meeting to discuss the future of SRT.

Nonetheless, the underlying concern of SRT workers was job security. For instance, several thousands of train drivers were worried they would lose their jobs if a separate unit was set up to take over the operation. The SRT management and the government should be able to tell the workers what they plan to do with their jobs once the reorganisation is in place. They should try to make SRT workers understand the need to overhaul the organisation because the agency could not be allowed to operate in its current manner.

Meanwhile, the SRT management faces the challenge of turning the operation around and making it into an efficient agency. SRT, which has been losing money hand over fist, became quite a joke with people saying that its glory days ended after the reign of King Rama V, who commissioned the construction of several railways. Unfortunately, since then, the railway lines were barely extended or developed, with the service severely lagging behind train services in other countries.

The SRT management must learn to better communicate with its workers and make them understand the need for reform. This is because restructuring the SRT would not yield any results if the union workers don't cooperate.

Besides, they must clear issues of concern such as alleged corruption in the operation of the two separate units. For instance, investors chosen by the government or the SRT to operate the train service and property management should be qualified, instead of just being selected because of their political connections.

On the other hand, SRT workers and union members should learn that they won't gain any public support if they keep going on strike. They have to be aware of the problems within their organisation, and instead of trying to stick to the status quo, which would be impossible in the long run, they should instead join forces and improve the agency so the SRT prospers in a sustainable manner.

Some union workers wrongly believed that the government was planning to sell SRT assets to the private sector under its reorganisation plan. After all, other state enterprises have started inviting private-sector participation to help their agencies operate more successfully, especially in sectors that require flexibility such as telecommunication and energy.

Most importantly, every involved party should realise that the SRT belongs to the public and its sole purpose is to serve the public efficiently. Failure in management would only waste SRT's resources and the taxpayers' money, which provides the subsidy to keep the organisation alive.

The SRT should become a key agency to develop the nation's logistics as the foundation for future economic development.

President of Thai Airways International, Piyasvasti Amaranand, who was once the energy minister, has said that the era of cheap oil is over. Therefore, railway would inevitably become the key means of transport in the future, as people would be forced to give up driving.

However, he noted that trains were not a popular choice, due to the poor service and negative image. Many people refuse to commute on trains.

Unfortunately, the SRT union has never asked why the railway agency was not able to improve its service, only coming out to protest when they heard about plans of the organisation being overhauled.

Without rehabilitation, the SRT will become another obsolete state enterprise that will eventually cease to exist like some that are only vaguely remembered today. Then, it would be too late for SRT workers to resist change.