Facing a widening boycott of Ting Hsin International Group (頂新集團) products over the use of substandard oil, workers at prominent subsidiary Wei Chuan Foods Corp (味全食品工業) yesterday implored consumers to keep buying their products to save their livelihood.
Wei Chuan workers’ union members told a press conference in Taipei that the fate of their company is on the line and they have to speak out for their right to make a living.
The embattled food giant, acquired by Ting Hsin in 1998, is feeling the heat of consumers angry over the use of oil intended for non-human consumption by Ting Hsin’s subsidiaries Ting Hsin Oil and Fat Industrial Co (頂新製油實業) and Cheng I Food Co (正義股份).
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
Wei Chuan products have been removed from shelves by many retailers, while they are piling up at others, as people fed up with the recent series of food safety scandals avoid any products and services affiliated with Ting Hsin.
Wei Chuan employees yesterday said that the scandal has little to do with Wei Chuan and its products, adding that the Wei Chuan brand meets food safety quality inspection standards.
Union head Chen Hsien-jen (陳賢仁), who has worked at Wei Chuan since 1983, said that in comparison to Wei Chuan’s former owners, the Huang family (黃), Ting Hsin Group’s founders the Wei (魏) family treated the employees simply as laborers and production line workers, unlike the Huangs, who treated the employees as part of a family.
Saying that Wei Chuan workers did not wish to have the kind of boss who lacks business ethics, the union urged the Wei family to back out of Wei Chuan’s management.
The listed company employs nearly 6,000 people who have done nothing wrong, the union said, imploring the public to end calls to boycott Wei Chuan’s products.
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