Labor activists yesterday rallied to protest a meeting between Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and representatives from major manufacturing and business groups, billing it as a “job interview” that indicates the “servility” of the nation’s politicians to corporations and their indifference to workers’ rights.
More than 30 protesters from the Workers’ Struggle Alliance — a coalition of labor groups, including the National Alliance for Workers of Closed Factories, the National Highway Toll Collectors’ Self-Help Association and others — protested outside the meeting at the Howard Plaza Hotel in Taipei.
“The ‘Ing clique’ gives workers phony forms, the job interview is servile,” the protesters chanted.
Workers’ Struggle member Lu Chih-hung (盧其宏) said that Tsai’s labor platform is “hollow,” and that Tsai and her party have repeatedly ignored the demands of labor groups, citing as an example the DPP’s absence from the Workers’ National Conference last month and the faltering negotiations over the presidential debate on Monday next week.
“She has no time for us, but she makes time immediately if seven business representatives want to see her,” Lu said.
In spite of being the largest opposition party in the legislature, the DPP and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) have been “co-conspirators” over a biased agenda favoring big business, while retaining a “noncommittal attitude” on key labor issues, National Alliance for Workers of Closed Factories secretary-general Chen Hsiu-lian (陳秀蓮) said.
DPP Legislator Lee Ying-yuan (李應元) told the protesters that the DPP supports the legal rights of workers and that when the DPP becomes the ruling party, it would mediate between employees and employers to solve labor disputes.
“The DPP supports the five-day working week,” Lee said.
The standoff was not resolved until Lee promised to arrange a meeting between Tsai and the labor groups in two weeks’ time.
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Monday called for greater cooperation between Taiwan, Lithuania and the EU to counter threats to information security, including attacks on undersea cables and other critical infrastructure. In a speech at Vilnius University in the Lithuanian capital, Tsai highlighted recent incidents in which vital undersea cables — essential for cross-border data transmission — were severed in the Taiwan Strait and the Baltic Sea over the past year. Taiwanese authorities suspect Chinese sabotage in the incidents near Taiwan’s waters, while EU leaders have said Russia is the likely culprit behind similar breaches in the Baltic. “Taiwan and our European
Taiwanese indie band Sunset Rollercoaster and South Korean outfit Hyukoh collectively received the most nominations at this year’s Golden Melody Awards, earning a total of seven nods from the jury on Wednesday. The bands collaborated on their 2024 album AAA, which received nominations for best band, best album producer, best album design and best vocal album recording. “Young Man,” a single from the album, earned nominations for song of the year and best music video, while another track, “Antenna,” also received a best music video nomination. Late Hong Kong-American singer Khalil Fong (方大同) was named the jury award winner for his 2024 album
Hong Kong singer Eason Chan’s (陳奕迅) concerts in Kaohsiung this weekend have been postponed after he was diagnosed with Covid-19 this morning, the organizer said today. Chan’s “FEAR and DREAMS” concert which was scheduled to be held in the coming three days at the Kaohsiung Arena would be rescheduled to May 29, 30 and 31, while the three shows scheduled over the next weekend, from May 23 to 25, would be held as usual, Universal Music said in a statement. Ticket holders can apply for a full refund or attend the postponed concerts with the same seating, the organizer said. Refund arrangements would
The Taipei District Court sentenced babysitters Liu Tsai-hsuan (劉彩萱) and Liu Jou-lin (劉若琳) to life and 18 years in prison respectively today for causing the death of a one-year-old boy in December 2023. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said that Liu Tsai-hsuan was entrusted with the care of a one-year-old boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), in August 2023 by the Child Welfare League Foundation. From Sept. 1 to Dec. 23 that year, she and her sister Liu Jou-lin allegedly committed acts of abuse against the boy, who was rushed to the hospital with severe injuries on Dec. 24, 2023, but did not
RSS