A US labor group plans to sue several Taiwanese firms for allegedly violating US state and federal environmental laws and endangering workers.
Representatives of the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers Union (PACE) arrived in Taiwan on Monday. They plan to sue China Synthetic Rubber Corp and Taiwan Cement Corp, which own Continental Carbon Co in the US. Both firms are in turn owned by the Koo's group.
PACE alleges that Continental Carbon -- a maker of carbon black, a component of tires and other rubber and plastic products -- violated US federal laws designed to ensure resource conservation and recovery.
Specifically, the union says Continental Carbon failed to treat carbon black oil as hazardous waste at a plant outside Ponca City, Oklahoma. Carbon black oil is the residue left over from the oil refining process used in making carbon black. Workers are exposed to the oil, which may contain carcinogens.
Officials from China Synthetic Rubber denied the allegations yesterday and said charges that Continental Carbon violated environmental laws were false.
PACE also alleged that Continental Carbon's operations contaminated groundwater. In addition, the labor union says, the company at its plants in Oklahoma and Texas failed to take steps to deal with hazardous waste -- posing a threat to public health, employees and the environment.
"By the end of April, we will file a federal lawsuit for the company's violation of environmental laws," said Todd Carlson, a PACE representative who has worked at Continental Carbon's Oklahoma plant for 11 years.
In the US, a 60-day notice is required prior to the filing of a federal lawsuit that seeks civil penalties for violations, injunctive relief to stop future violations and recovery of court costs and attorneys' fees.
Carlson said PACE in late February notified Continental Carbon and its Taiwan-based parent companies of its intent to sue.
PACE also filed notices with the US Department of Justice, the US Environmental Protection Agency, the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission and the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality.
Joseph Drexler, director of special projects at PACE, said yesterday that Continental Carbon at its plants failed to properly classify raw materials -- leading to the deterioration of the working environment for employees.
Labor representative Ernie Anderson said workers at the Oklahoma plant have refused to renew their contracts and have been locked-out since May. Anderson said that new contracts offered by Continental Carbon offered less insurance and long working hours.
Labor unions and environmental groups in the US plan to campaign in Chinese communities in California and New York soon, targeting 18 bank branches of Chinatrust, which is also controlled by the Koo's group.
Christine Ying (
"Continental Carbon has done nothing to violate environmental or labor regulations in the US," Ying said.
But Wu Tung-Jye (吳東傑), chairman of the Green Formosa Foundation, pshawed the notion that activists couldn't take their fight to Taiwan or to places where the Koo's group does business.
"During this era of globalization, no parent company should seek to escape responsibility for overseas pollution," Wu said.
China Synthetic Rubber and Taiwan Cement purchased Continental Carbon from Witco Chemical in 1995.
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
DEFENDING DEMOCRACY: Taiwan shares the same values as those that fought in WWII, and nations must unite to halt the expansion of a new authoritarian bloc, Lai said The government yesterday held a commemoration ceremony for Victory in Europe (V-E) Day, joining the rest of the world for the first time to mark the anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe. Taiwan honoring V-E Day signifies “our growing connections with the international community,” President William Lai (賴清德) said at a reception in Taipei on the 80th anniversary of V-E Day. One of the major lessons of World War II is that “authoritarianism and aggression lead only to slaughter, tragedy and greater inequality,” Lai said. Even more importantly, the war also taught people that “those who cherish peace cannot
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
RSS