BY EVA CHENG
Workers in Taiwan have frequently taken to the streets recently — and not only to defend their own conditions. In a clear rejection of neo-liberal propaganda which encourages national chauvinism, a section of the Taiwanese trade union movement is campaigning in solidarity with Nicaraguan workers who are struggling against Taiwanese bosses.
Since the 1980s, Taiwan's capitalists have increased their investments in poorer Third World countries in a bid to lower production costs, i.e., wages. Attacks on militant workers and their organisations have led to wages being squeezed and conditions eroded.
For instance, the Taiwanese owners of the Chentex factory in the Las Mercedes free trade zone in Nicaragua fired 12 trade union officials in July last year. Since May, the owners have sacked at least 200 militant workers, whose campaign for reinstatement has been unsuccessful.
In a strong expression of solidarity, a range of labour organisations in Taiwan are campaigning to defend their counterparts in Nicaragua. A number of smallish public actions have sought to expose the company's crime to a larger audience in Taiwan, where the Chentex struggle has hardly been reported.
Taiwan's workers are well acquainted with the Chentex management's repressive tactics. Such "militarised management" tactics were the order of the day during the decades-long martial law period which ended in 1987.
In a joint statement addressed to Taiwan's President Chen Shui-bian and various officials in Taiwan and the US, five Taiwanese labour organisations said that even though capital flight from Taiwan has aggravated the unemployment problem in Taiwan, "We do not believe that the actions of Taiwanese firms in Nicaragua are only the business of Nicaraguan workers".
The five signatories were: the Taiwan Confederation of Trade Unions (TCTU); the Chinese Federation of Labour, Republic of China; the Committee of Action for Labour Legislation; the Labour Rights Association; and the Taiwan Labour Front. It was also sponsored by Taiwan Solidarity with Nicaraguan Workers, Coolloud [bitter labour] Workshop, Asia Pacific Labour Update and the Ching-Jen Labour Centre.
The statement continued: "Businesses in Taiwan regularly use the excuse of 'moving abroad' to deny workers in Taiwan their most salient demands, such as shorter working hours and better working conditions.
"With imperialist globalisation, capitalists across the world have begun to form groups that serve their common interests. If workers do not organise at the same level, they will be forced to watch helplessly as capitalists chip away all their work. We express our respect and solidarity to workers in Nicaragua who are struggling against Taiwanese businesses."
Chentex's parent company in Taiwan is Nien Hsing, a garment manufacturer with production lines in Lesotho in southern Africa, and in Mexico. In a protest outside Nien Hsing's headquarters in Taipei earlier in November, TCTU deputy secretary Wang Chuan-ping rejected as misconceived the notion held overseas that capital-labour relations in Taiwan are peaceful. He added that support for international workers' struggles assists the struggles of Taiwanese workers.
Taiwan Labour Front official Lin Liang-jung told protesters that Nien Hsing was just one of many Taiwanese firms with questionable labour records overseas.
The protesters were also alerted to the struggles by workers at Chia-ting Printed Circuit Board and Chin-wei Fiber which recently sacked union activists in another attempt to undermine the union's collective strength.
The struggle currently mobilising the broadest support among Taiwanese workers is the campaign to defend the 42-hour work week won recently.
While campaigning for the presidency early this year, Chen promised to reduce the work week from the current 48 to 44 hours in 2001 and 40 hours in 2002. But in June, one month after Chen took office, the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) party, which has the most seats in parliament, succeeded in passing a law to slash the work week to 84 hours a fortnight (42-hour week). This was a clear attempt to outmanoeuvre Chen and his Democratic Progressive Party as the KMT was never a friend to workers during its 55-year dictatorial rule.
On November 22, Chen's administration — the Executive Yuan — decided to impose a 44-hour work week, justifying it with economic imperatives. Chen said while labour rights must be improved, due consideration must also be given to a shorter work week's impact on economic development. "It's like an aeroplane which needs two balanced engines to fly", he said.
Labour organisations around Taiwan are currently fighting tooth and nail to reject Chen's move to remove the shorter working week. Meanwhile, Chen's credibility is plunging.
For more information visit Coolloud Workshop's web site at <http://www.coolloud.org>. Asian Pacific Labour Update can be contacted at <aplu@ms58.url.com.tw> and Ching-Jen Labour Centre at <cjlhassc@ms39.hinet.net>.