Having camped outside the Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) for eight days and been ignored by officials, more than 100 laid-off workers launched a wheelchair march yesterday, while some of the protesters remained at the council’s headquarters to continue with their hunger strike.
The laid-off workers started marching to the New Taipei City (新北市) District Court and are to continue to the Taoyuan District Court, where most of their cases are being handled.
“We want to show them that, even though these workers may not in the best physical condition, they do not fear lawsuits filed against them by the Council of Labor Affairs and they will fight until the end,” Taiwan International Workers’ Association secretary-general Chen Hsiu-lien (陳秀蓮) said.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
“It was the government’s fault that they did not make sure that these workers’ employers had prepared retirement funds for them, so the workers will not repay a penny of the money they received [from the council] 16 years ago,” he added.
In the 1990s, hundreds of workers lost their jobs when several factories closed, many of them owing several months’ back salaries. Unable to get their retirement payouts or salaries from their employers, the workers staged a series of demonstrations. Eventually the council proposed to give the laid-off workers retirement payments in the form of loans, and promised that it would ask their employers to repay the money.
However, the council last year began to file lawsuits against the workers, asking them to repay the loans because the council had failed to get their employers to repay the debt. This triggered a new wave of protests by the workers.
Photo: Lee Chung-hsien, Taipei Times
After an eight-day camp-in in front of the council, with some protesters on hunger strike, which received no response from officials, laid-off workers who were not on hunger strike and their supporters decided yesterday to start marching.
Fifty workers in wheelchairs were pushed along by 50 student volunteers, while other protesters followed behind them.
“[The workers] are just getting what they deserve and the CLA [at the time] promised that they would not have to repay the loans — there’s no doubt about it, because it was even broadcast on the news at the time,” said Kuo Hsun-yeh (郭璇燁), a senior student from National Taipei College of Business.
“It makes no sense that the council is breaking its promise now, and that’s why I have to come and give them my support,” he said.
Liu Yi-chun (柳毅群), a senior student from Tung Hai University’s Department of Social Work, said he and his classmates volunteered to push the wheelchairs because they think the government should not lie.
“About 40 of us left Taichung, where our school is, at 6am this morning by bus to show our support for the workers,” he said.
Before the march started, the protesters went to nearby temples to pray for help, and burned ghost money, asking the immortals to refer the “money” to CLA Minister Pan Shih-wei (潘世偉).
The marchers spent last night in Yingge District (鶯歌), New Taipei City (新北市). They plan to continue the march today to the Taoyuan District Court.
Meanwhile, the National Alliance for Workers of Closed-Off Factories rebutted a remark made by Pan in a radio interview that the laid-off workers have terminated their hunger strike and dispersed, after many of them accepted the council’s discounted repayment program.
A message on the alliance’s official Facebook page said that some protesters are still in front of the council continuing their hunger strike and they are not prepared to compromise.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, would pose a steep challenge to Taiwan’s ability to defend itself against a full-scale invasion, a defense expert said yesterday. Institute of National Defense and Security Research analyst Chieh Chung (揭仲) made the comment hours after the PLAN confirmed the carrier recently passed through the Taiwan Strait to conduct “scientific research tests and training missions” in the South China Sea. China has two carriers in operation — the Liaoning and the Shandong — with the Fujian undergoing sea trials. Although the PLAN needs time to train the Fujian’s air wing and
Taiwanese celebrities Hank Chen (陳漢典) and Lulu Huang (黃路梓茵) announced yesterday that they are planning to marry. Huang announced and posted photos of their engagement to her social media pages yesterday morning, joking that the pair were not just doing marketing for a new show, but “really getting married.” “We’ve decided to spend all of our future happy and hilarious moments together,” she wrote. The announcement, which was later confirmed by the talent agency they share, appeared to come as a surprise even to those around them, with veteran TV host Jacky Wu (吳宗憲) saying he was “totally taken aback” by the news. Huang,
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) put Taiwan in danger, Ma Ying-jeou Foundation director Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) said yesterday, hours after the de facto US embassy said that Beijing had misinterpreted World War II-era documents to isolate Taiwan. The AIT’s comments harmed the Republic of China’s (ROC) national interests and contradicted a part of the “six assurances” stipulating that the US would not change its official position on Taiwan’s sovereignty, Hsiao said. The “six assurances,” which were given by then-US president Ronald Reagan to Taiwan in 1982, say that Washington would not set a date for ending arm sales to Taiwan, consult
RSS