Thousands of Indonesian workers yesterday held Asia’s biggest May Day rally, demanding better pay and job security, watched warily by a heavy police and army contingent.
Colorful protests organized by trade unions and left-wing parties across Asia shared the theme of better wages and conditions, and denunciations of government policy, as living costs spike in fast-growing economies.
Carrying banners saying “raise our salaries” and “stop outsourcing contracts,” more than 9,000 workers gathered at Jakarta’s main roundabout before marching to the state palace.
Photo: AFP
About 16,000 police and soldiers were deployed to control the protest, Jakarta police spokesman Rikwanto told reporters.
“Living costs have gone up, but our salaries remain unchanged. We only make enough to eat, but there is no money in the bank, no money for our children’s education,” protest leader Muhamad Rusdi said.
Raising the minimum wage was the main demand for about 5,000 workers, domestic helpers and activists who held a noisy procession through central Hong Kong, clashing cymbals and chanting demands on the territory’s incoming government.
In Manila, about 3,000 workers and activists marched to the presidential palace, bearing a giant effigy of Philippine President Benigno Aquino III, which depicted him as a dog obedient to foreign capitalists.
However, in a Labor Day speech, Aquino said: “If our wages go even higher, what foreign investor will put his money here? Our economy could fall even further behind.”
Meanwhile, thousands of workers across southern Europe protested against spending cuts in May Day rallies, before weekend elections in Greece and France.
Unions in Greece, Spain, Portugal, Italy and France were using the traditional marches to express their anger over an austerity drive across the eurozone, aimed at shoring up public finances, but criticized for forcing countries deeper into recession.
About 5,000 Greek workers, pensioners and students marched peacefully to parliament in Athens holding banners reading “Revolt now” and “Tax the rich.” Another 1,500 supporting the Communist PAME rallied outside a steel factory.
In Portugal, the country’s two main labor unions expected tens of thousands of workers to join rallies in Lisbon and other main cities.
Additional reporting by Reuters
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary