Following several rounds of unsatisfactory negotiations with the management, the labor union of the Bank of Overseas Chinese (
The union has garnered the support of 828 employees -- or 97 percent of those who attended the vote in May -- to stage a strike at an opportune time. The vote was initiated as the union claimed that employee working conditions had worsened since Polaris Group (
With the rumor that the Bank of Overseas Chinese has engaged in investment or buyout talks with Citibank buzzing for months, the union has pressured the bank to guarantee employee working rights and to provide better redundancy compensation.
"If the company still fails to demonstrate its sincerity, the union will not hesitate to launch a strike in exchange for all the employees' jobs," said Chen Huei-chih (
Chen said the union would start raising funds and holding seminars at the bank's branches nationwide to raise awareness in preparation for the strike, which is scheduled for Dec. 29.
Mega International Commercial Bank's (
Tsai said the claim for a 4 percent pay rise is fair, considering that the banking unit accounts for 80 percent of parent Mega Financial Holding Co's (
Chang Hwa Commercial Bank's (
The Bank of Overseas Chinese union yesterday also took legal action to protest against alleged strongarm activities. The union claimed the bank compelled employees to make "politically correct" statements about its plans.
The bank on Monday claimed that more than 90 percent of the employees supported the bank's decision to introduce foreign capital as well as the pension plan proposed by the management, and had agreed not to participate in strikes.
Chen said that the bank violated Article 304 of the Criminal Code (刑法) by forcing employees to agree to its terms.
"We've issued a lawyer's letter to the bank, with copies sent to the Department of Labor and the Financial Supervisory Commission ... What the management has done is very controversial," Chen said.
The union called the bank's credibility into question as the latter has refused to promise that there will not be any layoffs and has not made public the content of the pension program.
"The union has repeatedly expressed its willingness to negotiate with the management, but the bank has over and over again wasted social resources and engendered conflicts which have been damaging to the bank's corporate image," read the union's statement issued yesterday.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the