Close to 2,000 workers and labor rights advocates yesterday bombarded Ketaglan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office with eggs while tussling with police as they protested against low wages, unfair labor policies, rising prices and a growing labor insurance deficit.
Despite attempts from the police to calm the crowd, the angry workers — mobilized by various labor organizations, including the Labor Party, Taiwan International Workers’ Association (TIWA), Raged Citizens Act Now and unions from across the country — threw eggs in the direction of the Presidential Office, though they were kept 300m away from the building itself by a line of police.
“Down with the government! Taiwan is finished!” they chanted as they threw eggs across the police line.
Photo Wang Min-wei, Taipei Times
Failing to stop the crowd, hundreds of police officers in riot gear could do nothing but stand behind two large nets and hold their shields high to prevent eggs from hitting them.
Occasionally, officers would advance from behind the police line, trying to arrest protesters who threw more dangerous items, such as smoke bombs, but they were quickly surrounded by the crowd, trying to rescue their fellow protesters, sparking clashes between the two sides.
The demonstration was held in response to several developments affecting labor rights, including the Cabinet’s decision to only partially agree to the Council of Labor Affairs’ proposal to raise the legal minimum wage, the Cabinet’s plan to relax restrictions on hiring foreign laborers and its mulling having separate minimum wages for domestic and foreign workers.
Photo Wang Min-wei, Taipei Times
It also follows the news that the labor insurance system could go broke within two decades and that the government was considering increasing premiums for those who are working, but cutting payments to retired workers.
“President Ma Ying-jeou [馬英九] said that he would work to revive the economy, but when we look at the policies that the government came up with, it’s not hard to realize that they are not working to revive the economy for all, they only work for the benefit of the few,” Taipei City Confederation of Trade Unions secretary-general Chiang Wan-chin (蔣萬金) told the crowd. “They are working for the benefit of big corporations and the wealthy.”
Chiang said that one of the measures that the government was mulling was the relaxation of restrictions on the number of foreign workers that a business may hire.
“This is going to help the big corporations because they can cut costs by hiring more foreign workers and laying off domestic workers,” he said.
TIWA secretary-general Chen Hsiu-lien (陳秀蓮) criticized the government’s proposal to have separate minimum wages for foreign workers and domestic workers.
“If an employer could hire a foreign worker for NT$15,000 a month, why would he or she hire a domestic worker for NT$35,000?” Chen asked.
Chen said that decades ago, big businesses threatened to move their production units overseas unless the government agreed to allow them to import foreign workers, but despite being allowed to hire foreign workers, they still moved their production overseas anyway.
“They are playing the same game again now, we should not be deceived again,” she said.
OPTIMISTIC: The DGBAS sharply upgraded its GDP growth estimate from 3.54 percent to 7.71 percent after the Taiwan-US trade agreement signing and given AI optimism The US imported more from Taiwan than China for the first time in decades, as US President Donald Trump’s tariffs reshape trade flows while a global boom in artificial intelligence (AI) fuels demand for tech products. US purchases of goods from China plunged almost 44 percent in December last year from 2024 to US$21.1 billion, US Department of Commerce data showed on Thursday. By contrast, shipments from Taiwan more than doubled during the same period to US$24.7 billion. The soaring Taiwanese shipments to the US reflect the huge expansion in supplies of chips and servers for AI companies, which has completely changed
NON-NEGOTIABLE: The US president’s action ran counter to one of the US’ ‘six assurances’ on not consulting China about arms sales to Taiwan, US lawmakers said US President Donald Trump’s admission that he is discussing arms sales to Taiwan with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is “alarming and a blatant violation of US policy and the six assurances,” US Representative Ro Khanna said on Tuesday. Trump on Monday said he would decide soon on whether to send more weapons to Taiwan, after Xi warned him not to do so. “I’m talking to him about it. We had a good conversation, and we’ll make a determination pretty soon,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One when asked about warnings raised by Beijing during a phone call with Xi over
US and Chinese fighter jets briefly faced off above waters near the Korean Peninsula this week, Yonhap News agency reported, marking a rare confrontation in that area between the two superpowers. About 10 US fighter jets on Wednesday departed an airbase in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, for drills above international waters off South Korea’s western coast, the news outlet cited unidentified military sources as saying. While the US planes did not enter China’s air defense identification zone, Beijing scrambled planes as they neared that region, the report said. “The Chinese People’s Liberation Army organized naval and air forces to monitor and effectively respond
The Central Election Commission has amended election and recall regulations to require elected office candidates to provide proof that they have no Chinese citizenship, a Cabinet report said. The commission on Oct. 29 last year revised the Measures for the Permission of Family-based Residence, Long-term Residence and Settlement of People from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area (大陸地區人民在台灣地區依親居留長期居留或定居許可辦法), the Executive Yuan said in a report it submitted to the legislature for review. The revision requires Chinese citizens applying for permanent residency to submit notarial documents showing that they have lost their Chinese household record and have renounced — or have never
RSS