More than 1,000 labor union members, activists, medical interns, nurses, migrant workers, teachers and students expressed their dissatisfaction with working conditions and the employment environment in a protest in Taipei on Workers’ Day yesterday.
Holding flags and signs outlining their demands, workers from various industries gathered at Liberty Square at noon to protest against poverty and worker exploitation.
Among a series of demands, groups called for the abolition of the responsibility system in the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法), a reduction in the number of temporary workers and measures to protect young people’s right to work.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
Leading the parade, more than 200 nurses shouted: “We refuse to allow patients to take care of patients” and “patients can only be healthy when nurses get enough rest.”
Taiwan Radical Nurses Union member Liang Hsiu-mei (梁秀眉) said that in addition to protesting against insufficient manpower and rest hours, this year the union is emphasizing the serious problem of “freakish shift arrangements” — the unreasonable and frequent shift changes with only a few hours of rest in between, leading to exhaustion and sleep disorders.
Other protesters looked to future generations.
Photo: AFP
“We are standing out here not just for our generation, but also for our children. Many of our members’ children face difficulties in finding a stable job and often end up relying on their parents’ income,” said Yang Chun-hua (楊俊華), chief secretary of the Labor Union of the Taipei City Government’s Department of Environmental Protection.
Yang said about 20 percent of union members’ children were on student loans and about one-third of the members were still paying back credit card debt with their salary.
South Taiwan Passenger Transportation Ltd Liability Co Trade Union chairperson Chen Yun-hsiang (陳韻翔) said bus drivers were often forced to work excessive hours under poor health conditions, endangering the lives of passengers.
Holding signs that read “equality” and “minimum wage covers all workers,” foreign workers called for the same wage as local workers.
On Ketagalan Boulevard in the morning, hundreds of labor rights activists from about 30 civic groups held a protest against deteriorating labor conditions by performing sports competitions that symbolized exploitation or economic burdens faced by workers.
The “events” — a race to show that workers cannot catch up financially, weightlifting to represent the heavy economic burden on families and a pole-jumping competition to symbolize rising consumer and energy prices — highlighted the reality that the losers in the system are “guaranteed an unfair game,” said the Taiwan Labor Front, which organized the event.
Taiwan Labor Front secretary-general Son Yu-lian (孫友聯) said about one-fourth of salaried workers are unable to save more than NT$50,000 (US$1,714) a year and the majority barely make a living with their low wages.
A generation of breakdown and collapse is being created, Son said.
“Why is it that we workers only earn about 44 percent of the total income, but have to pay about 75 percent of the total income tax in Taiwan?” Alliance for Fair Tax Reform convener Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋) said, adding that the government was lying to the public with its promises of imposing a tax on the rich.
“The Executive Yuan recently announced it would raise the stock income tax threshold from NT$3 million, as initially proposed, to NT$4 million, but the income tax deduction for workers is only about NT$104,000,” Wang said.
Near the end of the rally, the activists pasted pieces of paper that read “poverty,” “exhaustion,” “blind,” “debt” and other characters on a large board decorated with a printout of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) Facebook page.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said it expected to issue a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-Wong tomorrow, which it said would possibly make landfall near central Taiwan. As of 2am yesterday, Fung-Wong was about 1,760km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving west-northwest at 26kph. It is forecast to reach Luzon in the northern Philippines by tomorrow, the CWA said. After entering the South China Sea, Typhoon Fung-Wong is likely to turn northward toward Taiwan, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張峻堯) said, adding that it would likely make landfall near central Taiwan. The CWA expects to issue a land
Taiwan’s exports soared to an all-time high of US$61.8 billion last month, surging 49.7 percent from a year earlier, as the global frenzy for artificial intelligence (AI) applications and new consumer electronics powered shipments of high-tech goods, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. It was the first time exports had exceeded the US$60 billion mark, fueled by the global boom in AI development that has significantly boosted Taiwanese companies across the international supply chain, Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) told a media briefing. “There is a consensus among major AI players that the upcycle is still in its early stage,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said it is expected to issue a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong this afternoon and a land warning tomorrow. As of 1pm, the storm was about 1,070km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, and was moving west-northwest at 28 to 32kph, according to CWA data. The storm had a radius of 250km, with maximum sustained winds of 173kph and gusts reaching 209kph, the CWA added. The storm is forecast to pass near Luzon in the Philippines before entering the South China Sea and potentially turning northward toward Taiwan, the CWA said. CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張峻堯) said
PREPARATION: Ferry lines and flights were canceled ahead of only the second storm to hit the nation in November, while many areas canceled classes and work Authorities yesterday evacuated more than 3,000 people ahead of approaching Tropical Storm Fung-wong, which is expected to make landfall between Kaohsiung and Pingtung County this evening. Fung-wong was yesterday morning downgraded from a typhoon to a tropical storm as it approached the nation’s southwest coast, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, as it issued a land alert for the storm. The alert applies to residents in Tainan, Kaohsiung, Pingtung and Taitung counties, and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春). As of press time last night, Taichung, Tainan, Kaohsiung, and Yilan, Miaoli, Changhua, Yunlin, Pingtung and Penghu counties, as well as Chiayi city and county had
RSS