More laborers take to the streets

Some 2,000 workers took to the streets of Taipei to demand government action to combat record unemployment yesterday, organizers said.

Protesters wearing black baseball caps chanted "Jobs for the jobless" and "Take care of the unemployed" as they marched in their annual "autumn fight" (秋鬥) protest with banners bearing the slogans "It's horrible to be unemployed" and "People have no work, the government is in trouble."

One march leader said "each political party should offer beef instead of a war of words," referring to mud-slinging between parties ahead of the Dec. 1 legislative elections.

The march comes at a time when the country is facing record unemployment and a severe economic downturn.

The nation's unemployment rate in September hit a record 5.26 percent, up from 3.1 percent a year earlier and 5.17 percent in August.

Two economic think tanks, the Chung-Hua Institute for Economic Research and the the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research, forecast the country's GDP to fall by more than 1.7 percent year-on-year. Last year, the country's economy expanded a healthy 6 percent.

Protest organizer Wang Yao-tzu (王耀梓), who is also the director of the Labor Legislation Action Council (工人立法行動委員會), said that more than 80 organizations took part in the rally, where a list of nine proposals was issued to the government.

"First of all, we ask the government to come up with a solution to help laid-off workers find new jobs," Wang said. "Secondly, if a company wants to move to China, the government should ask the owner to continue to run the business in Taiwan to avoid laying off more workers.

"Third, if an enterprise removes all the capital and wires it to China, the government should ask the company to take responsibility for the economic loss once the company moves out," he said.

Expansion of labor rights took up the rest of the activist's list.

"The government should create more job opportunities for laid-off workers. ... Laid-off workers should continue to have their health insurance and the government should pay for it.

"The government should pay the tuition fees for laid-off workers if they want to go back to school. [Also] all laborers should be insured in case they get laid off suddenly, [and] employers should not decrease the funds they pay to workers once the workers are laid off or when they retire.

"[Finally] we strongly disagree that foreign workers can legally receive extra benefits from their employers, such as housing allowances."

According to the statement from the action council, DPP Chairman Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) did not sign the proposals because he said they needed to be further reviewed by related government bodies.

TSU Chairman Huang Chu-wen (黃主文) signed six of the proposals, KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) disagreed with four items on the list, while People First Party Secretary-General Chung Jung-chi (鐘榮吉) signed his name to seven proposals.

"Nobody wants to be jobless," said Chuang Miao-tze (莊妙慈), secretary-general of the Committee for Action for Labor Legislation. "We hope the government not only takes care of jobless workers but also helps them find their next jobs or create more job opportunities."