More than 80 former RCA Taiwan employees from the RCA Self-Help Association (RCA, 員工自救會) yesterday protested in front of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) in Taipei, demanding the US-based electronics giant take full responsibility for a high incidence of cancer among the company's employees.
The AIT, however, yesterday shut its doors and refused to receive the petitioners.
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES
Security guards at the AIT office later agreed to hand over the petition letter to relevant officials.
The employees, accompanied by Taiwan Association for Victims of Occupational Accidents and Diseases (工作傷害受害人協會) representatives who jointly organized the petition, later turned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and recited their sufferings to officials at the ministry's North American Affairs department. A ministry official received the petition letter and promised to pass it on to relevant officials.
According to the workers, soil and ground water pollution at the RCA Taiwan plant in Taoyuan County is suspected of causing more than 1,000 cases of cancer and 157 deaths among employees. Thirty employees have died from cancer alone over the past few years.
The workers also revealed that RCA Taiwan had repeatedly dumped toxic waste into wells near the plant, which seriously polluted local groundwater.
RCA first set up its production facilities in Taiwan in 1970. The company subsequently relocated its production line and its Taiwan operations were subsequently run by GE and the French company Thompson at different times until 1992.
In February 1998, the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) officially confirmed that the area where the plant located had been designated a permanently polluted zone.
According to the EPA report, even after several years of clean-up work, groundwater downstream from the plant still shows high concentrations of toxic chemicals. The EPA also confirmed that the pollution extended up to 1km from the plant.
The workers therefore made two appeals yesterday to all three companies:
First, RCA, as well as GE and Thomson, should immediately send representatives to Taiwan to look into the case.
Second, the US and French governments should closely examine the three companies' overseas investment plans. No capital increase should be approved before labor-management disputes overseas are properly solved.
The former RCA workers said they will demonstrate again on April 12 when a US-sponsored environmental protection meeting will be held in Taipei City.
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
SHIFT: Taiwan’s better-than-expected first-quarter GDP and signs of weakness in the US have driven global capital back to emerging markets, the central bank head said The central bank yesterday blamed market speculation for the steep rise in the local currency, and urged exporters and financial institutions to stay calm and stop panic sell-offs to avoid hurting their own profitability. The nation’s top monetary policymaker said that it would step in, if necessary, to maintain order and stability in the foreign exchange market. The remarks came as the NT dollar yesterday closed up NT$0.919 to NT$30.145 against the US dollar in Taipei trading, after rising as high as NT$29.59 in intraday trading. The local currency has surged 5.85 percent against the greenback over the past two sessions, central
RSS