Union representatives from South Korea’s Hydis Technologies have launched a second wave of protests in Taipei, calling on Taiwan’s E Ink Holdings Inc (EIH, 元太科技) — of which Hydis is a subsidiary — to revoke its decision to shut down two factories in South Korea.
Traversing national boundaries, the heated labor dispute has raged since January, when EIH — which supplies e-paper displays for Amazon.com Inc and Sony Corp — announced its intention to dismiss more than 350 Hydis workers.
About 30 South Korean workers yesterday rallied in front of the Ministry of Labor building, urging authorities to facilitate talks between the workers and the Yuen Foong Yu (YFY Group) — with which EIH is affiliated.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
Union representatives rebuked EIH’s claims that Hydis was unprofitable, saying that Hydis made more than NT$2.8 billion (US$89.81 million) last year from its patent royalties in Fringe Field Switching (FFS) — a key technology in the LCD electronics industry.
They said the closures would cost the jobs of more than 350 Hydis workers, adding that it was against South Korean labor regulations for a profitable company to engage in a mass layoff of its employees.
Hydis union president Woo Boo-ki said the workers intend to continue their protests until they are allowed to keep their jobs.
The workers accused EIH of stripping investment after absorbing the South Korean company’s key technologies.
“When the dismissals were announced, we felt robbed of our heritage, as FFS was something we worked hard together to build; how would you feel if somebody took away your national treasures from a museum?” said Sean Kim, an assistant manager in international sales.
Hydis has experienced a turbulent recent history since it was acquired by China’s BOE Technology Group Co (京東方) in 2003. The troubled company later filed for court receivership in 2006 after BOE executives were accused of leaking key patented technologies to China. It was acquired by EIH in 2008.
South Korean labor activist Chong Hye-won called on Taiwanese authorities to step in over the case, as YFY Group chairman Ho Shou-chuan (何壽川) is a national policy adviser to President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and is seen as well-connected with the current administration.
Despite repeated efforts, the workers’ demands to arrange a meeting with Ho and YFY Group board members have failed to materialize, Chong said.
The activists said it was within the Ministry of Labor’s power to ensure that the YFY Group does not evade its responsibilities in negotiating with the South Korean workers.
However, the ministry’s Union Affairs section head Hsu Ken-kuei (許根魁) said that the Collective Agreement Act (團體協約法) does not hold binding authority over labor disputes that occur overseas.
He said the ministry would continue to facilitate talks between the workers and YFY Group, adding that the two parties need to overcome their disparate views on the company’s financial wellbeing.
EIH said in a statement that its decision to close down its South Korean factories was obliged by local law.
“The accusation is not true. It is a rumor from certain union representatives, which have caused social unrest in Taiwan,” EIH said in the statement.
The company again urged Hydis employees to return to the negotiation table.
E Ink plans to shut down two factories in Icheon, South Korea, at the end of this month after its multi-year turnaround efforts failed.
The company said it is offering a new early retirement program for Hydis employees, job relocation and education subsidies for children of Hydis workers, which is better than its standard offering.
“The board decided to shut down factories that are uncompetitive because of high manufacturing costs,” EIH said. “The closure is fully obliged by South Korean law.”
Hydis has lost more than US$100 million since 2008, primarily due to low factory utilization and a poor yield rate, EIH said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) on Wednesday said that a new chip manufacturing technology called “A16” is to enter production in the second half of 2026, setting up a showdown with longtime rival Intel over who can make the fastest chips. TSMC, the world’s biggest contract manufacturer of advanced computing chips and a key supplier to Nvidia and Apple, announced the news at a conference in Santa Clara, California, where TSMC executives said that makers of artificial intelligence (AI) chips will likely be the first adopters of the technology rather than a smartphone maker. Analysts said that the technologies announced on
NO RECIPROCITY: Taipei has called for cross-strait group travel to resume fully, but Beijing is only allowing people from its Fujian Province to travel to Matsu, the MAC said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday criticized an announcement by the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism that it would lift a travel ban to Taiwan only for residents of China’s Fujian Province, saying that the policy does not meet the principles of reciprocity and openness. Chinese Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism Rao Quan (饒權) yesterday morning told a delegation of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers in a meeting in Beijing that the ministry would first allow Fujian residents to visit Lienchiang County (Matsu), adding that they would be able to travel to Taiwan proper directly once express ferry
CALL FOR DIALOGUE: The president-elect urged Beijing to engage with Taiwan’s ‘democratically elected and legitimate government’ to promote peace President-elect William Lai (賴清德) yesterday named the new heads of security and cross-strait affairs to take office after his inauguration on May 20, including National Security Council (NSC) Secretary-General Wellington Koo (顧立雄) to be the new defense minister and former Taichung mayor Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) as minister of foreign affairs. While Koo is to head the Ministry of National Defense and presidential aide Lin is to take over as minister of foreign affairs, Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) would be retained as the nation’s intelligence chief, continuing to serve as director-general of the National Security Bureau, Lai told a news conference in Taipei. Koo,
MANAGING DIFFERENCES: In a meeting days after the US president signed a massive foreign aid bill, Antony Blinken raised concerns with the Chinese president about Taiwan US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and senior Chinese officials, stressing the importance of “responsibly managing” the differences between the US and China as the two sides butt heads over a number of contentious bilateral, regional and global issues, including Taiwan and the South China Sea. Talks between the two sides have increased over the past few months, even as differences have grown. Blinken said he raised concerns with Xi about Taiwan and the South China Sea, along with China’s support for Russia and its invasion of Ukraine, as well as other issues