Workers accuse Chen of reneging on his promises

Hundreds of workers yesterday accused President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and the DPP government of reneging on campaign promises to protect workers' rights and introducing amendments to legislation that in fact curtailed such rights.

The Cabinet's Council of Labor Affairs (CLA 勞委會), however, issued rebuttals before the event, telling reporters at a press conference before the march that the government has always worked in the interest of workers.

On the second anniversary of Chen's inauguration, the Chinese Federation of Labor (中華民國全國總工會) led a rally of unions, labor activists and opposition legislators on a march against the governments' labor policies.

The federation had expected some 5,000 workers to turn out, but the crowd appeared to the Taipei Times reporter on the scene to number no more than 1,000. The Central News Agency yesterday put the figure at a mere 600, while AFP reported 2,000.

The groups gathered outside the Legislative Yuan before marching to the presidential palace.

Lin Huei-kuan (林惠官), president of the federation and a PFP legislator, claimed that only 25 percent of the promises made by Chen in his white paper on labor policy, published before the 2000 presidential election, had been fulfilled.

"It is time for the president to take responsibility and start implementing more effective action to realize his promises, otherwise he will face the consequences of failing those who have supported him and his party," said Lin.

The protesters condemned the government for establishing "confusing" rules for retirement pensions that they said take too little account of workers' interests by placing few obligations on companies, as well as for enshrining into law the corporate right to lock out workers.

They also said that the government, in the name of "freedom of choice," aims to destroy the unions by lifting regulations that oblige workers to join unions.

Lin Kuo-cheng (林國成), a member of the federation and the chief organizer of the march, said that if the government refused to listen and failed to make improvements according to workers' needs, the labor groups would take more robust action.

But deputy chairperson of the CLA, Kuo Ji-jen (郭吉仁), said at the CLA's pre-demonstration press conference, that while, in a democracy, protesters were entitled to express their views, many of the nation's labor laws had become outdated and that amendment had become necessary "for the benefit of the workers."

The CLA issued no further statements yesterday, but CLA spokesman Yang Hsi-sheng (楊錫昇) told the Taipei Times last night, "It is unfair to accuse the CLA of not doing enough for workers.

"The CLA has passed twice as many regulations in the past two years as it had previously passed in the first thirteen years of its existence." The CLA was established in 1987.