Leading Ohio Democrat Backs Chunghwa Workers

Rep. Sherrod Brown, (D-Ohio), co-chair of the Taiwan Caucus of the U.S. House of Representatives, has asked the Securities and Exchange Commission to withhold its determination on the effectiveness of the registration statement filed by Chunghwa Telecom Co. Ltd., until the pending legal and constitutional challenges to the proposed sale are resolved.

In a letter to the SEC, Brown noted that the secondary public offering of Chunghwa stock "has generated considerable controversy in Taiwan and has precipitated a legal crisis."

CWA and the AFL-CIO are supporting the Chunghwa Telecom Workers Union in the fight to stop privatization of the company and prevent the devastating loss of jobs and retirement security that would occur if the privatization goes forward.

Chunghwa Telecom is the government-owned telecom company of Taiwan. The Ministry of Transportation and Communications is seeking to sell about 17 percent of the company through investment banks Goldman Sachs International, UBS and Morgan Stanley.

Brown summarized the current and pending actions of the Legislative Yuan and three dissenting directors of the Chunghwa Telecom board in opposition to the sale and expressed concern that premature action in the United States "may be undermining the democratic process in Taiwan and denying the sovereign status of their constitutional and legal systems."

Separately, three members of the board of directors of Chunghwa Telecom Co. Ltd. and the Chunghwa Telecom Workers Union filed for a temporary restraining order from the Taipei High-Administrative Court to block the U.S. sale of Chunghwa shares.