The 2024 Labor Struggle (工鬥) yesterday criticized presidential candidates from all three parties, saying their responses to the group’s demands were “lackluster” and failed to convince the group that their policies would safeguard worker rights.
Taoyuan City Industrial Association president Chu Mei-hsueh (朱梅雪) said the opposition party’s response to the demands fared slightly better in some respects, adding that the ruling party’s response was the most arrogant.
“The workers will remember the responses from our presidential candidates, and the votes of 10 million workers nationwide on Jan. 13 will reflect their opinions of these responses,” he said.
Photo: CNA
The government’s solution for the Labor Insurance Fund, which it said was on the brink of insolvency, was for workers to pay more, take out less and delay retirement, but more than 70 percent of retired workers only receive up to NT$20,000 in pension, while living expenses in Taipei came up to NT$30,000 and numbered NT$25,000 in other cities and counties, he said.
He said there is an evident lack in the government’s efforts to guarantee that workers could live on retirement pensions and that the presidential candidates’ promises of subsidies are not the solution.
Politicians voted into office should be obligated to facilitate labor conditions instead of making pre-election promises — such as basic monthly wages reaching NT$30,000 and claiming that the government stands with workers — whereas, in the post-election period, such promises are abandoned, he said.
He said the government must emphasize the long-term healthcare program more, citing instances in which labor dispatch companies’ profits are cutting into the minimum wages that migrant workers are entitled to.
He also urged the government to relax regulations that prevented workers from forming unions.
The group gathered before the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei yesterday and announced that a 22-day march it had organized to promote labor rights was completed, spanning 389km from southern to northern Taiwan.
The seven demands were for the government to resolve the issues of low wages; to ensure labor retirement and pension payout remain viable; to reinstate seven guaranteed days of state holidays; to make the Occupational Safety and Health Act (職業安全衛生法) applicable to firefighters; to cut out intermediary agencies and allow long-term healthcare facilities to hire migrant workers directly; to increase occupational hazard insurance payouts and to relax union formation thresholds.
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