Labor activists and laid-off workers staged another protest yesterday against the Council of Labor Affairs’ (CLA) NT$20 million (US$688,000) budget for suing workers over a disputed loan and vowed more intense action if the council does not withdraw the proposal.
Wearing masks of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and CLA Minister Pan Shih-wei (潘世偉), two activists outside the legislature shoveled sand over a model coffin with the word “life savings” written on it.
The protesters accused the council of trying to take away their life savings by suing them over disputed loans that, in their understanding, were given to them in place of their retirement payouts when their employers absconded 15 to 16 years ago.
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
“Most of these workers had worked at Lienfu Textile Co — and other companies — for decades, but they were not given proper retirement payment when their employers ran away,” Taiwan International Workers Association researcher Wu Yung-yi (吳永毅) said.
“The council intervened, saying it would pay the workers in the form of loans. It promised then that it would not ask the workers to pay them back, but would get their employers to repay the debt,” he said.
However, 15 years later, the council has filed lawsuits against the more than 400 workers who received payments.
Although the council agreed in August to suspend the lawsuits for four months after repeated protests by the workers and Pan promised to come up with to come up with a solution within a year when he took office early last month, no solution has been forthcoming and the council continues to list the lawsuit budget for the next fiscal year.
“Fifteen to 16 years ago, the workers were owed money by their employers, and now they owe money to the government. It doesn’t make any sense,” unionist Lin Tzu-wen (林子文) said.
“If the council is sincere about solving the problem, it should at least withdraw the budget,” he said.
The council has not only sued those who accepted the loan, but also their guarantors and heirs.
One of the protesters, Lee Tzu-feng (李志豐), 64, said he had nothing to do with Lienfu, but he, along with 30 other members of his family, have all been sued by the council.
“My wife was one of Lienfu’s laid-off workers. She accepted the council’s plan at the time, and asked her mother — my mother-in-law — and my father to be her guarantors,” Lee said.
“Since my wife could not afford to pay the loan, 31 people on my side of the family and on my wife’s side of the family are being sued as we all inherited the debts from my father and my mother-in-law,” he said.
Confederation of Taoyuan Trade Unions chairman Mao Chen-fei (毛振飛) urged the council to respond positively to their demand, “otherwise we’re planning to organize more intense protests.”
In addition to the annual autumn rally on Nov. 25, he said the unions also plan to mobilize workers from across the country to protest before the president on Dec. 31 and Jan. 1 during the New Year celebrations.
“We may throw eggs as well as cow droppings during those protests,” he said.
Several lawmakers, including the Democratic Progressive Party’s Tien Chiu-chin (田秋堇), Liu Chien-kuo (劉建國), Tuan Yi-kang (段宜康) and Yang Yao (楊曜), Taiwan Solidarity Union’s Lin Shih-chia (林世嘉) and Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Huang Chih-hsiung (黃志雄), have voiced their support for the workers and promised to delete the budget once it is raised in the budget review.
Hong Kong-based American singer-songwriter Khalil Fong (方大同) has passed away at the age of 41, Fong’s record label confirmed yesterday. “With unwavering optimism in the face of a relentless illness for five years, Khalil Fong gently and gracefully bid farewell to this world on the morning of February 21, 2025, stepping into the next realm of existence to carry forward his purpose and dreams,” Fu Music wrote on the company’s official Facebook page. “The music and graphic novels he gifted to the world remain an eternal testament to his luminous spirit, a timeless treasure for generations to come,” it said. Although Fong’s
China’s military buildup in the southern portion of the first island chain poses a serious threat to Taiwan’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply, a defense analyst warned. Writing in a bulletin on the National Defense and Security Research’s Web site on Thursday, Huang Tsung-ting (黃宗鼎) said that China might choke off Taiwan’s energy supply without it. Beginning last year, China entrenched its position in the southern region of the first island chain, often with Russia’s active support, he said. In May of the same year, a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) force consisting of a Type 054A destroyer, Type 055 destroyer,
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was questioned by prosecutors for allegedly orchestrating an attack on a taxi driver after he was allegedly driven on a longer than necessary route in a car he disliked. The questioning at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office was ongoing as of press time last night. Police have recommended charges of attempted murder. The legally embattled actor — known for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代) — is under a separate investigation for allegedly using fake medical documents to evade mandatory military service. According to local media reports, police said Wang earlier last year ordered a
POLICY UNCHANGED? Despite Trump’s remarks, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio assured that US policy toward Taiwan has remained consistent since the 1970s US President Donald Trump on Wednesday again refused to make clear his stance on protecting Taiwan from a hypothetical takeover by China during his presidency. Asked by a reporter during a Cabinet meeting whether it was his policy that China would never take Taiwan by force while he is president, Trump declined to give a definitive answer. “I never comment on that,” he said. “I don’t comment on it because I don’t want to ever put myself in that position.” Trump also reiterated that he has a “great relationship” with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and said that Washington welcomes good relations with
RSS