Following a series of suicides by Chinese employees at the Foxconn (富士康) plant in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, more than 150 academics and researchers yesterday called for an end to sweatshops and urged the government to stop offering subsidies and economic incentives to companies like Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密).
The petition, which was initiated on June 6 by Lin Thung-hong (林宗弘), associate research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Sociology, and Daniel Yang (楊友仁), associate professor of sociology at Tunghai University, said comments by Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) that he “hopes everyone will give [Hon Hai chairman] Terry Gou (郭台銘) encouragement” was a form of complicity in corporate exploitation of human labor and encouraged Taiwanese companies to violate labor rights.
Six professors and researchers from the fields of sociology, public policy and others yesterday attended a press conference to petition the government not to turn a blind eye to violations of workers’ rights to avoid harming Taiwan’s international image in the name of economic growth.
“When Yahoo provided its lists [of personal information] to the Chinese government, they were grilled at a congressional hearing [in the US],” Lin said. “However, throughout the entire Foxconn crisis, the people who acted with the most indifference are Taiwanese government officials.”
Lin said Foxconn’s treatment of its workers constituted a form of financial crime, but rather than getting punished, the government is offering subsidies and favorable policies to allow Hon Hai to bring its production facilities back to Taiwan and continue to expand its operations.
Huang Te-pei (黃德北), professor and director at Shih Hsin University’s Graduate Institute for Social Transformation Studies, called Gou “the shame of Taiwan” and said that all advertisements that feature endorsements by Gou should be taken down.
“The Taiwanese government should not encourage Hon Hai to bring its factories back to Taiwan, along with all the social problems associated with its treatment of its workers,” Huang said.
He said that even though Hon Hai had announced wage increases in response to the suicides at the Shenzhen plant, the root of the problem — the almost perpetual overtime that workers must put in if they want to earn enough to support the high cost of living in the city — persists.
Consumers should boycott goods made by companies like Apple, which buys Hon Hai’s products and indirectly contributes to workers’ exploitation, until Apple’s suppliers can make significant improvements in labor conditions, the petition said.
Academics also said that Hon Hai should open its factories to independent academics so they could conduct investigations into working conditions there.
The US government has signed defense cooperation agreements with Japan and the Philippines to boost the deterrence capabilities of countries in the first island chain, a report by the National Security Bureau (NSB) showed. The main countries on the first island chain include the two nations and Taiwan. The bureau is to present the report at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The US military has deployed Typhon missile systems to Japan’s Yamaguchi Prefecture and Zambales province in the Philippines during their joint military exercises. It has also installed NMESIS anti-ship systems in Japan’s Okinawa
‘WIN-WIN’: The Philippines, and central and eastern European countries are important potential drone cooperation partners, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung said Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) in an interview published yesterday confirmed that there are joint ventures between Taiwan and Poland in the drone industry. Lin made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper). The government-backed Taiwan Excellence Drone International Business Opportunities Alliance and the Polish Chamber of Unmanned Systems on Wednesday last week signed a memorandum of understanding in Poland to develop a “non-China” supply chain for drones and work together on key technologies. Asked if Taiwan prioritized Poland among central and eastern European countries in drone collaboration, Lin
ON ALERT: Taiwan’s partners would issue warnings if China attempted to use Interpol to target Taiwanese, and the global body has mechanisms to prevent it, an official said China has stationed two to four people specializing in Taiwan affairs at its embassies in several democratic countries to monitor and harass Taiwanese, actions that the host nations would not tolerate, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. Tsai made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, which asked him and Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) to report on potential conflicts in the Taiwan Strait and military preparedness. Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) expressed concern that Beijing has posted personnel from China’s Taiwan Affairs Office to its
BACK TO WORK? Prosecutors said they are considering filing an appeal, while the Hsinchu City Government said it has applied for Ann Kao’s reinstatement as mayor The High Court yesterday found suspended Hsinchu mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) not guilty of embezzling assistant fees, reducing her sentence to six months in prison commutable to a fine from seven years and four months. The verdict acquitted Kao of the corruption charge, but found her guilty of causing a public official to commit document forgery. The High Prosecutors’ Office said it is reviewing the ruling and considering whether to file an appeal. The Taipei District Court in July last year sentenced Kao to seven years and four months in prison, along with a four-year deprivation of civil rights, for contravening the Anti-Corruption
RSS