Labor activists yesterday rallied to protest a meeting between Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and representatives from major manufacturing and business groups, billing it as a “job interview” that indicates the “servility” of the nation’s politicians to corporations and their indifference to workers’ rights.
More than 30 protesters from the Workers’ Struggle Alliance — a coalition of labor groups, including the National Alliance for Workers of Closed Factories, the National Highway Toll Collectors’ Self-Help Association and others — protested outside the meeting at the Howard Plaza Hotel in Taipei.
“The ‘Ing clique’ gives workers phony forms, the job interview is servile,” the protesters chanted.
Workers’ Struggle member Lu Chih-hung (盧其宏) said that Tsai’s labor platform is “hollow,” and that Tsai and her party have repeatedly ignored the demands of labor groups, citing as an example the DPP’s absence from the Workers’ National Conference last month and the faltering negotiations over the presidential debate on Monday next week.
“She has no time for us, but she makes time immediately if seven business representatives want to see her,” Lu said.
In spite of being the largest opposition party in the legislature, the DPP and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) have been “co-conspirators” over a biased agenda favoring big business, while retaining a “noncommittal attitude” on key labor issues, National Alliance for Workers of Closed Factories secretary-general Chen Hsiu-lian (陳秀蓮) said.
DPP Legislator Lee Ying-yuan (李應元) told the protesters that the DPP supports the legal rights of workers and that when the DPP becomes the ruling party, it would mediate between employees and employers to solve labor disputes.
“The DPP supports the five-day working week,” Lee said.
The standoff was not resolved until Lee promised to arrange a meeting between Tsai and the labor groups in two weeks’ time.
Hong Kong singer Andy Lau’s (劉德華) concert in Taipei tonight has been cancelled due to Typhoon Kong-rei and is to be held at noon on Saturday instead, the concert organizer SuperDome said in a statement this afternoon. Tonight’s concert at Taipei Arena was to be the first of four consecutive nightly performances by Lau in Taipei, but it was called off at the request of Taipei Metro, the operator of the venue, due to the weather, said the organizer. Taipei Metro said the concert was cancelled out of consideration for the audience’s safety. The decision disappointed a number of Lau’s fans who had
Commuters in Taipei picked their way through debris and navigated disrupted transit schedules this morning on their way to work and school, as the city was still working to clear the streets in the aftermath of Typhoon Kong-rey. By 11pm yesterday, there were estimated 2,000 trees down in the city, as well as 390 reports of infrastructure damage, 318 reports of building damage and 307 reports of fallen signs, the Taipei Public Works Department said. Workers were mobilized late last night to clear the debris as soon as possible, the department said. However, as of this morning, many people were leaving messages
A Canadian dental assistant was recently indicted by prosecutors after she was caught in August trying to smuggle 32kg of marijuana into Taiwan, the Aviation Police Bureau said on Wednesday. The 30-year-old was arrested on Aug. 4 after arriving on a flight to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Chang Tsung-lung (張驄瀧), a squad chief in the Aviation Police Bureau’s Criminal Investigation Division, told reporters. Customs officials noticed irregularities when the woman’s two suitcases passed through X-ray baggage scanners, Chang said. Upon searching them, officers discovered 32.61kg of marijuana, which local media outlets estimated to have a market value of more than NT$50 million (US$1.56
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm early yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, less than a week after a typhoon barreled across the nation. The agency issued an advisory at 3:30am stating that the 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, of the Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, with a 100km radius. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA
RSS