The Chunghwa Telecom Workers' Union (CTWU) may team up with other industrial unions nationwide to form a new political party and field their own candidates in the next legislative elections, union chairman Chang Hsu-chung (張緒中) said yesterday.
Chang said the CTWU's board of directors held a meeting and agreed that he would be appointed to organize a new party to represent members of all workers' unions nationwide -- including teachers -- so that union members might be represented independently in the legislature.
Workers groups have been dependent on other political parties to fight for their rights and interests, Chang said, but by organizing their own party, the workers would have a better means to advance their causes.
He said that NT$10 million (US$304,000) in funding had already been secured, enough for the proposed party to field 10 candidates in the Jan. 12 polls.
Chang said members of national federations of industries, as well as the CTWU and the Formosa Plastics Workers' Union met on July 19 for a preparatory meeting for the establishment of the new party, tentatively named the "Workers Solidarity Union." These representatives will meet again on Aug. 21, when the party could be formally established, he said.
He said the new party would campaign for a nationwide referendum on a workers' version of a pension policy, instead of an Executive Yuan's annuity policy; a referendum on banning dispatch workers and guarantees that would stabilize employment opportunities.
He said it was too early to speculate on whether the name of the new political party would be be the "Workers Solidarity Union Party." It could also be called the "Third Force Reform Union" or something else, Chang said.
With 8.6 million workers in Taiwan, political analysts said the proposed party could turn into a force to be reckoned with if it wins the support of union members around the country.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
Taiwan’s two cases of hantavirus so far this year are on par with previous years’ case numbers, and the government is coordinating rat extermination work, so there should not be any outbreaks, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said today in an interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper). An increase in rat sightings in Taipei and New Taipei City has raised concerns about the spread of hantavirus, as rats can carry the disease. In January, a man in his 70s who lived in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) tested positive posthumously for hantavirus, Taiwan’s
RSS