Premier Su Tseng-chang (
"Labor strikes have been proposed during recent protests against the president, but I felt that workers' legal rights must be protected, and they should not be used as political tokens," Su said at yesterday morning's Cabinet meeting.
He said that although workers' right to go on strike was protected by both the Constitution and the Labor Union Law (
Going on strike for political reasons is not protected by any law, and a political strike will not be regarded as a legal protest or part of the protest mechanism, he said.
Law enforcement personnel would be forced to act if striking workers were to take to the streets, as it would constitute an unauthorized protest activity, he added.
"What we have today has been achieved by the 23 million people of Taiwan. We have never had a political strike by workers. If such a strike took place, it would definitely damage the economy as well as the country's image abroad," Su said.
Although it is important for everybody's voice to be heard and respected equally, nobody has the right to do this at other people's expense, Su said.
At a separate press conference held later yesterday, Council for Economic Planning and Development Chairman Hu Sheng-cheng (
"An economic growth rate of 4.28 percent is still expected for next year. However, the rate will definitely change if the protest situation were to take a turn for the worse," Hu said.
He added that he was also opposed to a political strike by workers, as the nation needed to maintain a constant annual economic growth rate of 5 percent to achieve the government's goal of raising per capita income to US$30,000 by the end of 2015.
"If workers go on strike for political reasons, it will make this goal more difficult to achieve," Hu said.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
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