Over 4,000 labor union protesters congregated outside the Legislative Yuan yesterday to urge legislators to sign an agreement to delay the privatization of state-run enterprises.
Despite the cloudy and chilly weather yesterday, the protesters marched from Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall to the Legislative Yuan yesterday.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
The protest was organized by the Taiwan Confederation of Trade Unions (TCTU), and participants included employees of many large companies.
"Employees from state-run enterprises such as Chunghwa Telecom, China Steel, Taipower and the Taiwan Cooperative participated in the protest today," said Huang Ching-hui (黃竫蕙), a TCTU official at the scene of the protest. Nearly 2,000 of the protesters were Chunghwa Telecom employees.
"Before the end of the year, Chunghwa Telecom and China Steel will become privatized as scheduled and many protesters are employees of these two enterprises," TCTU president Lu Tien-lin (盧天麟) said.
The protesters displayed a huge black banner with the word "integrity" in Chinese characters.
According to Huang, only pan-blue camp and independent legislators responded favorably to the protesters' request to sign the agreement.
Independent Legislator Yen Ching-piao (顏清標), People First Party caucus whip Liu Wen-hsiung (劉文雄) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus whip Tseng Yung-chuan (曾永權) all signed the agreement.
"So far, no Democratic Progressive Party or Taiwan Solidarity Union legislators have signed the agreement. When we paid them a visit, the legislators told us that certain wording in the agreement needed to be revised," Lu said.
The goal of the agreement is three-fold: to request state-run enterprises to hold off from putting the companies' stock on the market, have these enterprises sign a written agreement with unions before privatizing, and minimizing government interference in the administration of state-run enterprises.
At 3pm, after the protesters dispersed, about a dozen labor union leaders remained behind at the Legislative Yuan to begin a hunger strike.
Last February, President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) promised not to privatize state-run enterprises.
In 1991, the Statute Governing the Privatization of State-Run Enterprises (公營事業移轉民營條例) cleared the way for privatization. Since then, 13 state-run enterprises have been privatized, eight of which are now out of business.
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