Workers protesting against the nation's record-high unemployment clashed with police who tried to stop them from entering the offices of the Executive Yuan to submit their petition yesterday.
Thousands of protesters had gathered on Liberty Square in Taipei — the departure point for the May Day parade — hours before the march was scheduled to begin.
“Workers across the country, stand up bravely;” “Solidarity for workers,” the crowd shouted as they waved banners, chanted slogans and sang on the square.
PHOTO: LO PEI-DER, TAIPEI TIMES
The protesters blasted the government of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) for failing to improve the economy and curb growing unemployment.
“We demand that the government do something about the record-high unemployment rate, but they [officials] only came up with some ridiculous and useless policies,” Mao Chen-fei (毛振飛), chairman of the Taoyuan Confederation of Trade Unions and leader of the protest, told the crowd. “We want long-term stable jobs.”
Government statistics showed that unemployment hit 5.81 percent in March. While the government has created many job opportunities, most of them are short-term or seasonal jobs.
Yesterday's demonstration started out peacefully, but a clash broke out when police stopped the marchers about 100m from the Executive Yuan.
Undaunted, the protesters tried to push past and break the police line.
Although they could not get to the Executive Yuan, Minister without Portfolio James Hsueh (薛承泰) and Council of Labor Affairs Minister Jennifer Wang (王如玄) later came out to talk to the demonstrators.
Hsueh promised that he would call a meeting of businesses, government officials and workers to discuss the jobs issue.
However, as soon as Wang took the podium, the crowd began chanting, demanding her resignation. Unable to speak, Wang stepped down from the podium.
“Banks have been hit hard by the economic recession,” said Lin Wan-fu (林萬福), a Taiwan Business Bank employee and vice chairman of the National Federation of Bank Employee Unions. “The situation is especially bad for private banks: About 5 to 10 percent of employees at each bank are laid off a year.”
While layoffs are not as common at state-run banks, they have stopped hiring new staff.
“Take Taiwan Business Bank for example, we used to hire 100 to 200 new employees per year, but we don't have any plan to hire new people this year,” Lin said.
Taiwan Petroleum Workers' Union chairman Wang Ming-huei (王明輝), who works for CPC Corp, Taiwan, panned the government for creating a gap between workers in the private and public sectors.
“The government tries to reduce welfare for workers at government-run businesses, but what it should do is try to raise labor standards instead of bring ours [state-run workers] down so that everybody is equal,” Wang said.
Afraid they would not be able to find a job after graduation, dozens of college students also joined the parade for the first time.
The parade continued on to the Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office, where a rally was held.
Dissatisfied with the government's response, Mao said that labor unions may consider blocking the freeway leading to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on the day Ma is scheduled to visit the nation's diplomatic allies.
Ma met a group of exemplary workers and their families at the Presidential Office yesterday, lauding their contributions and promising to focus his efforts on stemming the rise in unemployment.
The Cabinet has created more than 40,000 jobs to help improve people's livelihoods, Ma said.
Although the government cannot expect workers to do everything it wanted, “I think it's reasonable for [workers and the government] to cooperate with each other while keeping each other's demands in mind,” he said.
Ma said he believed Taiwanese workers are wise and should be able to solve any conflict without confrontation.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY MO YAN-CHIH AND DPA
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