By Xinhua,
Bangkok : Board members of the State Railway of Thailand (SRT) on Monday resigned en masse after its labor union joined anti-government protests by taking on a strike, paralyzing nearly half of train services nationwide for the fifth consecutive day.
SRT Board Chairman Somsak Boonthong announced that all board members decided to resign to take responsibility for the strike, which had left many passengers stranded at train stations in the past few days, according to Thai News Agency.
Somsak was quoted as saying that the board didn’t agree with the labor union, who linked the country’s political issues to their jobs and caused much trouble to the public.
The SRT labour union, whose leaders were said to have close relation with the anti-government civil coalition the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD), had called on its members to take sick-leaves effective from last Friday to show support for the PAD-led protesters. The protesters launched their “final showdown” against the government by raiding a state-run TV station and seizing the Government House on Aug. 19 and have occupied the Government House compound for five days, demanding Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej and his cabinet to resign.
Seventy-six SRT rail route services nationwide were disrupted, with many services suspended altogether, paralyzing railway cargo transport, the report said.
Out of 244 trains nationwide, 115 trains have stopped operation so far. However, it was reported that the northern route had resumed service at 10:00 a.m. (0300 GMT) Monday morning.
More trains in northern routes were expected to resume operation Monday afternoon.
Meanwhile, SRT governor Yutthana Thapcharoen negotiated with representatives of railway union in Nakhon Sawan province in the North and Saraburi in the central region, attempting to get technical and engineering staff to resume services of at least 40-50 trains a day.
The railway strike has caused losses of more than 60 million baht (1.76 million U.S. dollars) to the SRT directly.