The China Youth Corps and a branch of its employees’ union yesterday reached an understanding over changes to the union’s office space, following a protest outside the organization’s national headquarters.
The corps has agreed to allow the union officials to continue to use the space for it Chientan Youth Activity Center office until the end of June, and then will offer “suitable” new space.
Dozens of protesters affiliated with the Taipei City Confederation of Trade Unions had earlier protested outside the corps’ headquarters against what they said was the organization’s “repression.”
“Because the government is in the process of confiscating the corps’ assets, we originally did not intend to protest here, but the way we have been treated is unbearable — so there is no other way, even if this looks bad,” branch union president Chang Chih-yuan (張植淵) said.
The Chientan center began to pressure the union after it refused to agree to the reallocation of employees’ holidays, Chang said.
Union officials ran into difficulties in taking time off for union business and were later told to clean out their office in the center with just three days’ notice, he said.
“The China Youth Corps has tonnes of rooms and space, which just goes to show its lack of conscience,” he said, claiming that the organization wants to turn the union’s office into storage space.
“If the corps does not change its ways, we support it being nationalized by the government,” said Chiang Wan-chin (蔣萬金), convener of the Taipei City Confederation of Trade Unions board of supervisors.
Confederation executive director Chen Shu-lun (陳淑綸) said that about 10 of the demonstrators were from the corps’ employees’ union, with the rest coming from allied unions.
“Space is already very tight at Chientan,” corps spokeswoman Chen Chia-hsiu (陳家秀) said.
The employees’ union was asked to pack up its office in January after the corps lost a lawsuit over its headquarters, she said.
Losing the legal case meant the corps had to look for space to house documents and materials as it prepares to move out of its headquarters, she said.
“We have no obligation to provide the union with a free office, and we have to reevaluate what space is available, given our current situation,” she said. “Where were [the union members] when the Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee was holding its first hearing on our case in February?”
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