Former freeway toll collectors and other demonstrators camped out outside of the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) headquarters last night, to protest against the party dragging its feet in fulfilling promises to address their demands.
More than 100 protesters gathered for a “National Laborers Banquet” featuring a variety of dishes with names satirizing their demands, such as “Turtle and Water Spinach” (鱉當空心菜), which in Chinese sounds the same as telling DPP president-elect Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) not to be heartless.
“We do not plan to beg for anything now that you will be in power — we win our rights for ourselves,” National Alliance for Workers of Closed Factories member Wu Chia-hung (吳嘉浤) said. “You no longer have any excuse to put off the people’s demands.”
Photo: CNA
Protesters shouted that, while Tsai was about to “move up” and take office, promises to address their demands have yet to “come down.”
“We wanted to invite all groups that are protesting or will protest in the future, because even on the eve of the third transition of power we have yet to see any signs of reform, so what is next is almost certainly another struggle,” alliance member Kuo Kuan-chun (郭冠均) said.
Freeway toll collectors, who have accused the DPP of being too slow to realize its campaign promises to address their plight, held a separate protest outside the party’s headquarters earlier yesterday.
“We had to wait for months before party headquarters was willing to sit down and listen to us,” Kuo said, adding that their first meeting with central party officials was not arranged until earlier this month.
“While Tsai’s promises sounded great, based on current progress, we can only say that, while the thunder was loud, the raindrops that have followed are quite small,” Kuo added.
“It is not that four months is too long to wait, but we have already been protesting for more than two years,” Former Freeway Toll Collectors Self-Help Organization southern chapter deputy head Chan Yi-chen (詹益辰) said, adding that 313 of the organization’s members remain jobless, with those hired before 2008 ineligible to receive unemployment or retirement benefits. These workers were unable to achieve the seniority necessary to receive the benefits as the government chose to hire them on “short-term” yearly contracts.
The workers were laid off after an electronic toll system was introduced on national freeways.
Organization members placed a massive banner on the ground in front of DPP headquarters, kneeling for hours as they wrote the dates of every day they worked for the government.
“Some of these workers were employed for 10 or 20 years, but were not provided even the basic protections of the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法). People need to know that seniority is not just about money, but rather the just reward that workers accumulate for every day, hour, minute and second they spend on the job,” Kuo said.
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