Workers nationwide are planning a large-scale demonstration on Labor Day, saying economic growth over the years had failed to improve the lives of many and government policies had only pushed workers into poverty.
Between 2001 and last year, Taiwan’s per capita GDP rose 27 percent and labor productivity grew 40 percent, but average labor cost dropped 25 percent during the period, said Hsieh Tsuan-chih (謝創智), secretary-general of the Taiwan Confederation of Trade Unions (TCTU).
“Workers have not shared the fruits of economic growth. A Taiwanese worker’s average wage now is lower than 10 years ago, while the number of individuals unemployed for longer than 27 weeks is 63.8 percent higher than a decade ago,” Hsieh said.
Gathering outside the Executive Yuan yesterday, leaders of labor groups and trade unions comprising the “2010 Laborers’ Action Alliance against Poverty” appealed to Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) to talk to workers during the protest on May 1 and respond to their four demands.
One of the four demands is that the government should not contract out its businesses and impose a statutory ban on the rapidly growing temporary staffing industry.
Government statistics showed that the number of Taiwanese workers on short-term and temporary contracts reached 687,000 in May last year, a significant increase from 130,000 in 2003 and 60,000 in 1996.
The Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) in January proposed amendments to the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法) that would require employees hired through manpower agencies be covered by the law and that companies in the securities, medical, sea and aviation, mining and transportation sectors be barred from using outsourcing companies.
“It’s not a way to bring more agency workers into the labor protection system [as the CLA claimed] but a way for employers to reduce labor costs and for outsourcing companies to exploit job-seekers. Should it pass the legislature, it would be a disaster for workers,” an alliance statement said.
Senior Employment Alliance president Hsiao Chung-han (蕭忠漢) urged the government to address the problem of unemployed middle-aged and older workers, as they are the groups likely to be threatened by the signing of an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with China.
The alliance demanded the participation of labor groups from both sides in the ongoing ECFA negotiations and adoption of a clause that would blacklist businesses if they shut down their original operations to move to the other side of the Taiwan Strait to cut costs.
Confederation of Taiwan Trade Unions chairman Chiang Wan-king (蔣萬金) said the alliance also urged the government to revise its proposed amendment to the Labor Union Act (工會法), saying it would not protect unions against interference from the government and employers.
The alliance also called on the government to inject public funds to cover the deficit and potential debts in the Labor Insurance Fund (勞工保險基金) as this affects the interests of 9 million workers.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods