After a long wait, teachers in Taiwan officially established their national trade union yesterday after a legal revision that took effect on May 1 finally allowed teachers to unionize.
The National Teachers’ Union (NTU), a successor of the National Teachers’ Association formed 12 years ago, pledged in its inaugural statement to help open a new era in the country’s education system while seeking better protection for teachers’ rights.
However, the amended Labor Union Act (工會法) does not allow teachers’ unions to stage strikes, unlike workers in other industries.
Council of Labor Affairs Minister Jennifer Wang (王如玄) said this provision was mainly to ensure that the right to education for students will not be compromised.
Wang said the NTU was the first step to better protect the basic rights of teachers and that teachers can seek to resolve their disputes with management by way of arbitration.
“In the long run, teachers may one day be given the right to strike,” Wang said.
Speaking at the inaugural ceremony, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said that teaching has been a “profession of conscience” and that teachers’ rights and well-being should be better protected with the establishment of unions.
He expressed the hope that teachers’ unions could serve as the promoters of a harmonious relationship between management and labor, rather than an adversarial one, so that education could become a driving force for national development.
In a press statement, Democratic Progressive Party Chairperson and presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said the NTU would serve as a platform for dialogue within the education sector.
She pledged that her party would fully cooperate with teachers’ unions in cultivating the next generation of talent for the country if she wins the presidency.
Yangmingshan National Park authorities yesterday urged visitors to respect public spaces and obey the law after a couple was caught on a camera livestream having sex at the park’s Qingtiangang (擎天崗) earlier in the day. The Shilin Police Precinct in Taipei said it has identified a suspect and his vehicle registration number, and would summon him for questioning. The case would be handled in accordance with public indecency charges, it added. The couple entered the park at about 11pm on Thursday and began fooling around by 1am yesterday, the police said, adding that the two were unaware of the park’s all-day live
Yangmingshan National Park’s Qingtiangang (擎天崗) nature area has gone viral after a park livestream camera observed a couple in the throes of intimate congress, which was broadcast live on YouTube, drawing large late-night crowds and sparking a backlash over noise, bright lights and disruption to wildlife habitat. The area’s livestream footage appeared to show a couple engaging in sexual activity on a picnic table in the park on Friday last week, with the uncensored footage streamed publicly online. The footage quickly spread across social media, prompting a tide of visitors to travel to the site to “check in” and recreate the
Fast food chain McDonald's is to raise prices by up to NT$5 on some products at its restaurants across Taiwan, starting on Wednesday next week, the company announced today. The prices of all extra value meals and sharing boxes are to increase by NT$5, while breakfast combos and creamy corn soup would go up by NT$3, the company said in a statement. The price of the main items of those meals, if ordered individually, would remain the same. Meanwhile, the price of a medium-sized lemon iced tea and hot cappuccino would rise by NT$3, extra dipping sauces for chicken nuggets would go up
Minister of Digital Affairs Lin Yi-ching (林宜敬) yesterday cited regulatory issues and national security concerns as an expert said that Taiwan is among the few Asian regions without Starlink. Lin made the remarks on Facebook after funP Innovation Group chief executive officer Nathan Chiu (邱繼弘) on Friday said Taiwan and four other countries in Asia — China, North Korea, Afghanistan and Syria — have no access to Starlink. Starlink has become available in 166 countries worldwide, including Ukraine, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, in the six years since it became commercial, he said. While China and North Korea block Starlink, Syria is not
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