Conflict broke out at a government forum on plans to implement a five-day workweek, after several protesters confronted Deputy Minister of Labor Kuo Kuo-wen (郭國文) accusing him of “bullshit.”
The forum quickly descended into a shouting match after about 10 members of the Workers’ Struggle Alliance took the floor, surrounding Kuo and demanding that he accept a poster describing him as a “bullshit deputy minister [who is a] killer of workers.”
“There has been too much time wasted with you doing all the talking, refusing to let workers voice [their concerns}, alliance member Lu Chyi-horng (盧其宏) said. “Don’t you know that most low-level workers are not allowed to take their yearly vacation days and cutting national holidays will harm their rights?”
Photo: Liao Chen-hui, Taipei Times
Forum tables were pushed aside as protesters repeatedly pressed against Kuo, repeatedly interrupting his calls for dialogue with a blister of angry shouting.
“You’re bullshitting. You just want to receive endorsements, not engage in real dialogue,” Lu said.
“I am only here to respond — not to agree, because that is beyond my authority and because public policy cannot be resolved with just one sentence,” Kuo said, after activists demanded he stake a position on whether the ministry plans to cut seven national holidays as part of the implementation of a universal five-day workweek.
“Social movements should still display a basic democratic spirit,” he said.
Protesters had earlier staged a rally outside before entering the forum site, accusing the ministry of trying to “pat us on the head” rather than engage in serious dialogue.
Following protesters’ questioning the ministry’s resolve to enforce the existing weekly “mandatory day off,” following a U-turn on new rules earlier this month, Kuo said that while new regulations to be announced next month would include exceptions, they would still be a substantial improvement on current rules.
Protesters’ disruption of the forum drew an angry response from several union representatives, one of whom threw a cup of water at an alliance member, while several others engaged in a brief shoving match.
“Do you think we are dead people?” said National Drivers Union secretary-general Huang Shu-hui (黃淑惠), who repeatedly banged on a table while shouting “three minutes” — a reference to the time limit on individual questions after which participants were supposed to surrender the floor.
The protest concluded after about 15 minutes, with the activists marching out while shouting for the restoration of the national holidays.
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