SRT seeking to sack 18 more

Trains that had been suspended since October 17 startฌed running yesterday as the State Railway of Thailand went ahead with punishing 18 employees for instigatฌing the strike, including Sawit Kaewwan, head of the labour union.

An SRT source said 10 of the employees facing the sack work at the Hat Yai station, where the protest began, while the remaining three work for various other SRT divisions. On Wednesday, six SRT workers were disฌcharged for their role in the strike and disruption of train services.

The schedule was slightly disrupted yesterday because Train 452 (Sungai KolokNakhon Si Thammarat) and Train 448 (Sungai KolokSurat Thani) could not do all their runs because some of the locomoฌtives had not been retrieved, Thanongsak Phongprasert, chief of SRT operations in the South, said.

Meanwhile, a train travelling from Bangkok's Wong Wian Yai to Samut Sakhon's Mahachai area derailed yesฌterday morning though nobody was injured. Initial inspection found no signs of sabotage, though an SRT safety team did find that a 300metre section of the track had been damaged after the screws had broken from rust.

Meanwhile, Sawit spoke before the House commitฌtee on human rights and consumer protection yesterฌday, defending his and the protesting workers' moves to suspend services. He said the strikes were held because they wanted to ensure the safety of all passengers and avoid the repeat of another derailment like the one that happened earlier this month in Prachuap Khiri Khan.

He said all protesters were following the law that said ensuring the safety of the passengers was the most important thing in public transport. He said protesting workers and labour unions had been vilified and misฌunderstood by the media and the public.

The six SRT workers who have been discharged said they would appeal against the dismissal and want a fair investigation into their acts.

Transport Minister Sophon Saram yesterday expressed "opposition" to negotiations between SRT management and protesting workers brokered by Deputy Interior Minister Thaworn Senneam "behind his back", saying that soft stances and other preconditions set in the talks would set a bad example for labour unions of other state enterprises.

Sophon said he had set up four committees to look into the strike and sort out other issues engulfing the SRT, including its Bt80billion in debt and longstanding record of poor services.