China has ordered owners of a huge Taiwan-backed shoe factory to address striking workers’ grievances about unpaid social security, an official said yesterday.
Thousands of employees at a factory owned by Yue Yuen Industrial (Holdings) Ltd (裕元工業), which calls itself the world’s largest branded footwear maker, in Dongguan City have been on strike since Monday last week, although some have returned to work, according to a labor rights group.
The Chinese Communist Party fears an independent labor movement could threaten its grip on power, so it only allows one government-linked trade union.
However, activists say government officials have been more sympathetic to individual grievances against factories, especially those funded by foreign companies or investors from Hong Kong or Taiwan. Yue Yuen is a company owned by a Taiwanese family.
A Chinese Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security official said the government was aware of the Yue Yuen issue and Dongguan officials had ordered the company to rectify the situation.
“According to our preliminary investigation, the Dongguan Yue Yuen shoe factory really has the problem of not strictly submitting social security payments,” ministry spokesman Li Zhong (李忠) told a news conference in Beijing, according to a transcript posted online.
“The Dongguan City social security bureau... has ordered the enterprise to carry out rectification in accordance with the law by April 25,” he said, adding the ministry would seek to protect the legal rights of workers.
ACTIVIST FREED
Meanwhile, a Chinese labor activist has been freed after being detained for more than two days by security agents whom he says tried to convince him not to make contact with workers involved in the Yue Yuen labor strike.
Zhang Zhiru’s (張治儒) brief detention underscores nervousness among officials about the strike. A colleague of Zhang’s at the Shenzhen Chunfeng Labor Dispute Service Center, which he runs, was detained separately on Tuesday and has not been released, Zhang said by telephone yesterday.
Labor activists say the strike is one of China’s biggest since market reforms started in the late 1970s. It is already starting to have ripple effects on businesses.
Zhang had been working with other activists and lawyers to help workers at Yue Yuen organize and press their demands regarding social insurance payments. He visited the Dongguan site on Monday after an attempt last week was thwarted by security agents.
Speaking from the southern city of Shenzhen, next to Dongguan, Zhang said domestic security agents summoned him to a meeting on Tuesday and asked him to promise he would not make contact with the workers.
He refused and was taken to what the agents said was a “vacation area” in the suburbs of nearby Guangzhou, where they confiscated his mobile phone, confined him to a room and barred him from making outside contact, he said.
‘FUN TRIP’
They tried to convince him to write a statement that he was “safe and on a trip for fun with friends,” but he refused. He was allowed a telephone call to his wife on Wednesday afternoon.
Late on Thursday morning, he was driven back to Shenzhen, where he lives, and released. Zhang said he was again told not to make contact with the striking workers.
“They said this would be going against the work of the government,” which he was told was trying to facilitate an arrangement to end the strike.
“But, definitely, if the workers have a need or if they have some questions and come to us we will still give them opinions and suggestions, telling them how they can better protect their interests,” Zhang said.
The domestic unit of the Chinese-owned, Dutch-headquartered chipmaker Nexperia BV will soon be able to produce semiconductors locally within China, according to two company sources. Nexperia is at the center of a global tug-of-war over critical semiconductor technology, with a Dutch court in February ordering a probe into alleged mismanagement at the company. The geopolitical tussle has disrupted supply chains, with some carmakers reportedly forced to cut production due to chip shortages. Local production would allow Nexperia’s domestic arm, Nexperia Semiconductors (China) Ltd (安世半導體中國), to bypass restrictions in place since October on the supply of silicon wafers — etched with tiny components to
Singapore-based ride-hailing and delivery giant Grab Holdings Ltd has applied for regulatory approval to acquire the Taiwan operations of Germany-based Delivery Hero SE's Foodpanda in a deal valued at about US$600 million. Grab submitted the filing to the Fair Trade Commission on Friday last week, with the transaction subject to regulatory review and approval, the company said in a statement yesterday. Its independent governance structure would help foster a healthy and competitive market in Taiwan if the deal is approved, Grab said. Grab, which is listed on the NASDAQ, said in the filing that US-based Uber Technologies Inc holds about 13 percent of
Taiwan is open to joining a global liquefied natural gas (LNG) program if one is created, but on the condition that countries provide delivery even in a scenario where there is a conflict with China, an energy department official said yesterday. While Taiwan’s priority is to have enough LNG at home, the nation is open to exploring potential strategic reserves in other countries such as Japan or South Korea, Energy Administration Deputy Director-General Chen Chung-hsien (陳崇憲) said. While the LNG market does not have a global reserve for emergencies like that of oil, the concept has been raised a few times —
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday received government approval to deploy its advanced 3-nanometer (3nm) process at its second fab currently under construction in Japan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a news release. The ministry green-lit the plan for the facility in Kumamoto, which is scheduled to start installing equipment and come online in 2028 with a monthly production capacity of 15,000 12-inch wafers, the ministry said. The Department of Investment Review in June 2024 authorized a US$5.26 billion investment for the facility, slated to manufacture 6- to 12nm chips, significantly less advanced than 3nm process. At a meeting with
RSS