Tens of thousands of labor union members and workers from various industries yesterday braved intermittent rain and took to the streets in Taipei on International Workers’ Day, demanding an immediate end to overwork, long working hours, stagnant salaries and the employment of temporary workers.
Holding flags and signs outlining their demands, more than 10,000 nurses, police officers, firefighters, migrant workers, flight attendants, pilots, teachers and finance workers gathered along Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office Building yesterday afternoon to protest against work exploitation and accuse the government of having turned a blind eye to their predicaments.
“We workers are no fools,” Taiwan Confederation of Trade Unions director-general Chuang Chueh-an (莊爵安), the leader of the rally, told the large crowd of protesters.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
“The government has rolled out several draft bills concerning basic-level employees since the nine-in-one elections and the awakening of civic groups last year … but without a stiff penalty and a government agency overseeing corporations, these bills will only end up creating more loopholes for employers,” Chuang said.
Singling out amendments to the so-called “four laws for pay raises” recently proposed by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), Taoyuan County Confederation of Trade Unions chairman Chuang Fu-kai (莊福凱) said that even if the four draft bills were passed, they would still not be binding on corporations because there were no penalties stipulated for non-compliance.
“If corporations refuse to negotiate with labor unions and workers, there is nothing the government can do about it,” Chuang Fu-kai said. “These draft bills are just another ‘guava check’ issued by the government and legislators that aims only to attract votes and does workers no good.”
Photo: Reuters
Guava check (芭樂票) is a common colloquial Taiwanese term used to refer to bounced checks or broken promises.
Chuang Fu-kai was referring to draft amendments to the Company Act (公司法), the Factory Act (工廠法), the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法) and the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Act (中小企業發展條例).
If passed, they would require companies to distribute profits, if any, to employees in the form of pay increases and bonuses. Tax cuts would also be provided for firms that offer salary increases to their employees.
Walking at the head of the rally — which set out from Ketagalan Boulevard at about 2pm and ended in front of the Legislative Yuan at about 3:30pm — were medical personnel, firefighters, police officers, flight attendants and foreign workers, because they are commonly perceived as the most exploited groups of employees in the nation.
A 23-year-old nurse, who wished to be identified only by her surname Chang (張), said there was a time during her previous employment at the Taipei Veterans General Hospital’s Hsinchu Branch that she passed out after her heavy workload allowed her to consume only a bottle of juice the entire day.
“Most of the time, only two nurses were on duty in the emergency department due to a severe personnel shortage. Not only were our health and well-being in jeopardy because of this, but also the lives of our patients,” Chang said.
Another 23-year-old hospital nurse, named Huang Yi-hsuan (黃奕萱), said her job often required her to work 16 hours straight and that she has been rushed to an emergency room three times since she started her current job due to exhaustion.
“Hospital authorities never understand the amount of pressure and work we face on a daily basis. All they care about is profit,” Huang said, adding that she was thinking about finding a less stressful job in the medical aesthetics industry.
A 28-year-old man surnamed Chen (陳), who identified himself as the close acquaintance of a police officer, said that because of staff shortages, police officers suffer from working hours that last as long as 12 hours a day and add up to 88 hours a month.
“Police work requires a high level of focus and often involves dangerous tasks. Having them work long hours is as hazardous as asking an exhausted surgeon to perform a delicate, complex surgery,” Chen said.
After arriving in front of the Legislative Yuan, protesters pelted papier-mache guavas toward the building in a symbolic gesture of giving back the “guava checks” to lawmakers.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary