The union at TaiDoc Technology Corp (泰博科技) said yesterday that it will launch a strike campaign to press the medical device maker to meet its demands, including reinstating dismissed union officials.
Union members and labor groups chanted slogans during a protest outside the Ministry of Labor in Taipei yesterday morning.
It was the union’s fourth protest at the ministry, following three demonstrations over what it described as overly strict management rules for migrant workers and alleged union-busting.
Photo: CNA
Fang Chang (張仲方), a labor rights advocate who hosted the protest, said the New Taipei City-based company dismissed all union officials the day after the union’s third protest on Monday last week over the firing of its chair.
Afterward, Chang said, TaiDoc chairman Chen Chao-wang (陳朝旺) offered to reinstate the six officials during a videoconference on the condition that they quit the union, an offer they rejected. They were then forced out of their dormitories the following day.
Union chair Elizabeth Basas said the strike campaign was announced outside the Ministry of Labor on Lunar New Year’s Eve to underscore the union’s determination to continue its actions until the dispute is resolved.
“This is not only a fight for money, but also a fight to defend our dignity, rights and freedom,” she said.
Basas and the six dismissed officials are staying at a shelter run by the labor rights NGO Serve the People Association.
Lennon Wang (汪英達), the group’s director of migrant worker policy and the union’s secretary-general, said the union has close to 30 members, all Filipino workers, adding that reinstating the dismissed officials is a prerequisite for negotiations.
He said the timing of an actual walkout has yet to be decided, adding the company would “definitely fire everyone who goes on strike.”
In response, the Ministry of Labor said the Labor Union Act (工會法) protects the right to organize for both local and migrant workers, and warned TaiDoc could face fines of up to NT$500,000 (US$15,943) if its actions are found to constitute malicious union-busting.
TaiDoc later said it would not respond to the union’s protest or demands.
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