The Cabinet yesterday approved an amendment to the Teacher Education Law (
"Whether teachers should be granted the right to strike has been controversial in Taiwan. Given the lack of consensus, we have decided not to allow it," said Ke Jeng-feng (柯正峰), executive secretary of the Ministry of Education's Education Research Committee.
Ke hailed the amendment for including a new chapter on the negotiation and mediation process, which teachers can use when labor disputes arise.
Ke made the remarks at a press conference after the weekly Cabinet meeting.
The amendment, however, was criticized by the National Teachers' Association, a nationwide organization composed of teachers' associations around the country.
Liu Chin-hsu (劉欽旭), secretary-general of the association, said he suspected that the law was changed to hinder a proposed amendment to the Labor Union Law (工會法).
Activists in support of the right to strike for teachers have been pushing for a revision of Article Four of the Labor Union Law, which denies government employees, teachers and munitions industries the right to strike, but the amendment is still pending approval by legislature.
"Today we made progress in agreeing to exclude teachers from the article, but the Cabinet's amendment to the Teacher Education Law apparently runs counter to that," Liu said.
Liu said negotiations on the article, attended by lawmakers across party lines sitting on the legislature's Sanitation and Environment and Social Welfare committees, were held yesterday, and giving teachers the right to organize trade unions was accepted by all.
According to the consensus reached in the negotiation, teachers would be allowed to organize trade unions on condition that the right to strike be postponed for a year.
"We agreed to temporarily put off the right to strike to facilitate the amendment to the Trade Labor Law, but that doesn't mean the Cabinet should deprive teachers of their right to strike, as stipulated in the amendment to the Teacher Education Law," Liu said.
Liu said it was also regrettable that the amendment to the Teacher Education Law also denied teachers the right to organize trade unions and the right to collective bargaining, which, together with the right to strike, make up the three basic labor rights.
Taiwan would benefit from more integrated military strategies and deployments if the US and its allies treat the East China Sea, the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea as a “single theater of operations,” a Taiwanese military expert said yesterday. Shen Ming-shih (沈明室), a researcher at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said he made the assessment after two Japanese military experts warned of emerging threats from China based on a drill conducted this month by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Eastern Theater Command. Japan Institute for National Fundamentals researcher Maki Nakagawa said the drill differed from the
‘WORSE THAN COMMUNISTS’: President William Lai has cracked down on his political enemies and has attempted to exterminate all opposition forces, the chairman said The legislature would motion for a presidential recall after May 20, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday at a protest themed “against green communists and dictatorship” in Taipei. Taiwan is supposed to be a peaceful homeland where people are united, but President William Lai (賴清德) has been polarizing and tearing apart society since his inauguration, Chu said. Lai must show his commitment to his job, otherwise a referendum could be initiated to recall him, he said. Democracy means the rule of the people, not the rule of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), but Lai has failed to fulfill his
A rally held by opposition parties yesterday demonstrates that Taiwan is a democratic country, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that if opposition parties really want to fight dictatorship, they should fight it on Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) held a protest with the theme “against green communists and dictatorship,” and was joined by the Taiwan People’s Party. Lai said the opposition parties are against what they called the “green communists,” but do not fight against the “Chinese communists,” adding that if they really want to fight dictatorship, they should go to the right place and face
A 79-year-old woman died today after being struck by a train at a level crossing in Taoyuan, police said. The woman, identified by her surname Wang (王), crossed the tracks even though the barriers were down in Jhongli District’s (中壢) Neili (內壢) area, the Taoyuan Branch of the Railway Police Bureau said. Surveillance footage showed that the railway barriers were lowered when Wang entered the crossing, but why she ventured onto the track remains under investigation, the police said. Police said they received a report of an incident at 6:41am involving local train No. 2133 that was heading from Keelung to Chiayi City. Investigators
RSS