Retired Hualon Group employees who say they are owed retirement payouts by the company yesterday were involved in several protests in Taipei and began an overnight demonstration in the lobby of Taipei Railway Station, saying they would continue their actions today.
“You see Taiwan, but do you see the laborers?” members of the Hualon Self-Help Organization shouted at a press conference held jointly by Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) and director of the film Beyond Beauty: Taiwan From Above (看見台灣) Chi Po-lin (齊柏林) following a special screening of the documentary.
The protesters shouted the slogan in reference to the Chinese title of the documentary, part of which literally means “seeing Taiwan.”
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
The protesters were not removed by force immediately, instead, Jiang, who was interrupted, stopped and listened to them, and asked his assistant to take the petition from some women who were speaking about their situation.
Later when Jiang was about to leave the theater after watching the documentary, National Tsing Hua University student Sun Chih-yu (孫致宇), who was with the labor group, threw a pair of red and white slippers, but the shoes all missed the premier.
Earlier yesterday, more than 100 former Hualon employees also demonstrated outside the Control Yuan and the Executive Yuan buildings, asking for help from the government.
“I’ve worked for 31 years at Hualon, but I didn’t get a penny of my retirement payout,” 65-year-old Chang Chiu-shun (張秋順) said during a demonstration outside the Executive Yuan building in front of a line of police shields. “We’re not asking the government to pay us, we’re merely asking it to help us pursue our bosses to give us our money.”
Chang said she began to work for Hualon in 1978 and retired in 2009 and though she is entitled to a NT$1.3 million (US$44,000) retirement payout, the company said that it is out of cash and promised to repay the debt within three years.
However, the promise has never been fulfilled, she said.
“We’ve worked so hard and paid so many taxes to the government, I don’t understand why is it not willing to help us” she said.
Lee Tsui-ming (李翠明), president of the self-help organization, said that to protect the interests of employees at Chang Chi Foodstuff Factory Co, which is now under investigation for allegedly adulterating its edible oil, the Changhua County Government has made efforts to seize some of the company’s property.
“If the county government is prepared to go this far to protect workers’ rights, why can’t the Council of Labor Affairs do the same?” Lee said.
The protesters planned to stay overnight in the lobby of Taipei Railway Station, and to stage another protest outside Hualon’s headquarters in Taipei at 7:30am today.
Additional reporting by Shih Hsiu-chuan
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS