The Railwaymen's Union of Malaya held a picket today to protest the move by Keretapi Tanah Melayu Berhad (KTMB) to allow its Electric Train Services (ETS) to be managed by a subsidiary company, ET Sdn Bhd (ET).

NONE The main objective of the picket was to urge company president Aminuddin Adnan to resign as they deemed him unfit for the position.

"He (Aminuddin) has totally ignored our request to sit down and negotiate a deal with us," said union president Abdul Razak Md Hassan.

"You (Aminuddin) have got higher education, we only went to secondary school. What are you worried about?

"We will not wait any longer for negotiations as we have already given him ample time to respond," Abdul Razak added.

He also said that they have given the KTMB president 30 days to resign from his post, after which the union will request that the Finance Ministry ends Aminnudin's contract.

300-strong picket

The 300-strong picket started with the gathering of the railwaymen outside the terminal building in Jalan Hishamuddin in Kuala Lumpur at 5.20 pm.

Carrying posters which read 'KTMB president, you are a blank sheet' and 'Appreciate our hard work', they marched through the underpass to the management office of KTMB on the opposite side.

The protestors lined the front of the office building, disregarding the rainy weather.

NONE The chanting of "KTMB president, resign" led by Abdul Razak reverberated through the energetic crowd.

"Firefly was established to compete with AirAsia, so who is ETS going to compete with?" said Abdul Razak.

The last time KTMB faced a major strike was in 1962, when some 9,000 workers went on a 22-day protest demanding a monthly salary instead of daily wages.

Earlier, Abdul Razak told Malaysiakini that the union had been forced to resort to this action as the union's written and verbal requests not to set up the subsidiary was ignored by the management, the Transport Ministry and the Finance Ministry.

He said a work-to-rule action will follow should the KTMB management refuse to budge from their decision to set up a new subsidiary to manage five ETS units.

The union had last December sent a letter objecting to the formation of the subsidiary, stressing that there was no need for it as the five ETS units could be managed either by a new department or a new strategic business unit directly under KTMB.

The union also has also objected to the proposed relocation of its headquarters.