TOT, CAT employees descending on Bangkok to protest ‘privatisation’

By The Nation

 

FILE photo

 

TOT employees in Trang set out for Bangkok on Wednesday morning to join their counterparts from other provinces and CAT Telecom workers at a rally protesting the state agencies’ possible privatisation.

 

Unionists of TOT Plc and Cat Telecom planned rallies outside the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society on Wednesday and Thursday to oppose the planned transfer of assets to two spinoff companies, which they regard as the first step towards privatisation.

 

The government has approved the establishment of the National Broadband Network and the Neutral Gateway & Data Centre, referred to as “daughter companies” of TOT and CAT, respectively.

 

TOT and CAT are required to transfer their assets to the two firms, which are initially 100-per-cent owned by the parent state firms.

 

Unionists said the assets belong to the people and cannot be transferred to private companies. They fear the government will sell shares in the two firms to Thai and foreign investors, as happened with PTT Plc.

 

Sompong Rodthook, manager of the TOT office at Huay Yod in Trang, said about 3,000 TOT and CAT employees from that province would attend the rallies.

 

He said the unionists would call on the state firms’ top executives and directors to resign.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30343918

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-04-25

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