PCT responds to Autumn Struggle with calls for protection of workers' rights

From "Taiwan Church News" <[email protected]>
Date Fri, 12 Nov 2010 10:05:05 -0800

3063 Edition
November 8~14, 2010

Headline News

PCT responds to Autumn Struggle with calls for protection of workers' 
rights

Reported by Chiou Kuo-rong

Written by Lydia Ma




The annual Autumn Struggle on November 7, 2010, this year began at 
2:00 p.m. just outside of the Ministry of the Interior before 
concluding at 4:00 p.m. on the front steps of the Council of Labour 
Affairs (CLA). Members making up this labor movement now consists of 
people from a variety of backgrounds, including Aborigine, migrant, 
and manual workers.

Demonstrators issued a joint statement on that day decrying unfair 
treatment on the part of employers, especially in the wake of the 
global financial crisis that began in late 2008 which saw record 
number of employees placed on furlough or laid off.

Commenting on this event in an interview with Taiwan Church News, PCT 
Church and Society Committee Secretary Huang Che-yen said Taiwan's 
labor policies barely protect employee rights. He explained that 
whenever labour disputes arise, Taiwanese government's modus operandi 
is to side with the employer – and the CLA is no exception. 

With the advent of new technologies at our disposal, not only did 
manual workers' work conditions or workers' rights fail to improve, 
they worsened quickly instead, Huang underscored.

Though a recent determination to stand up against exploitation is 
what prompted many people to take to the streets, Huang said that 
contrasting the number of people that come out yearly in Japan during 
it's own “Autumn Struggle” and “Spring Struggle”, and their 
effectiveness in prompting change from their own government, the vast 
majority of Taiwanese people who show up at Taiwan's “Autumn 
Struggle” are labor unions and a few left-wing social service 
organizations, such as a Catholic organization that ministers to 
foreign and migrant workers.

As long as age-old and structural government problems such as 
corporate-leaning public policies remain, practices such as habitual 
work overload and work overtime will continue to plague Taiwan, 
regardless of which political party is in charge of Taiwan's 
government, Huang said. 

He added that as a church, it's PCT's calling to stand in solidarity 
with manual workers all the way, but he went on to stress that PCT 
had much self-evaluation to do as well. Reminding PCT members who 
employed maids or factory workers from other countries, Huang asked 
them whether they had a clear conscience when it came to giving out 
fair wages and fair hours, or whether they had also made their 
foreign employees work excessively long and hard. 



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