Thousands of plastic-industry workers are expected to demonstrate in Taipei today to fight against a restrictive environmental policy that they claim has breached their right to work.
Yesterday, dozens of unemployed demonstrators protested in front of the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) in a warm up for today's rally, which will focus on the government's intention to limit the use of plastic bags and utensils.
PHOTO: SEAN CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
Chang Wen-wei (張文緯), representative of unemployed plastic industry workers, said that the demonstration aims to highlight the government's short-sightedness.
"We support environmental protection but refuse to become victims of the implementation of an irresponsible policy like this," Chang said.
Chang said that the government is acting too quickly because the implementation of the policy would lead to the loss of 50,000 jobs.
Protesters called for a five-year delay of the policy in order to ensure workers' rights.
The first stage of the controversial policy was launched on July 1, when all government-run stores were banned from providing free plastic shopping bags to customers. Three months later, the ban on disposable utensils and food containers was imposed at government-operated grocery stores and restaurants.
The second stage of the policy will begin on Jan. 1. Places affected will include department stores, supermarkets, convenience stores, fast-food restaurants and almost every type of retailer, except street vendors.
Peng Li-tsai (彭理才), manager of Cheng Fong Plastics, told the Taipei Times that, like many others in the business, the company had visited China several times in a bid to move production.
Since July, Peng said, more than 200 firms had gathered information about moving to China.
"The policy is actually a social disturbance," Peng said.
According to Hsieh Sheng-hai (謝勝海), secretary-general of Taiwan Plastics Industry Association, more than 10 major manu-facturers of disposable dining utensils have closed since July, leaving more than 1,000 workers unemployed.
"The EPA's insistence on the implementation of the policy will become the driving force that pushes us to move firms to China," Hsieh said.
He added that even more firms will move out of Taiwan next year if the second stage of the policy is imposed on schedule.
"Representatives of more than 300 firms in the plastic industry discussed an idea of visiting China together early next year look for opportunities," Hsieh said.
Chen Hsiung-wen (陳雄文), director-general of the EPA's Bureau of Solid Waste Management, said that it was impossible to postpone the policy.
"The EPA will spend NT$240 million next year on creating 2,400 jobs for workers who originally worked for plastic firms," Chen said.
He added that statistics from the Industrial Technology Research Institute show that total annual sales of plastic bags and utensils last year was NT$5.5 billion and only about 30 percent of it would be affected.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,