Multinational Union Wins Compensation From Factory

TaiwanPlus News

A labor union formed by factory workers from Taiwan, Vietnam, and Thailand has won compensation from a factory in Taoyuan City after decades of illegal practices.

Transcript

00:00It's a labor protest in three languages.

00:06The multinational workforce of the Datong Dyeing and Finishing Company in Taoyuan says

00:10its employer has broken the law for decades.

00:13And with the textile company preparing to close, this is their last shot at some kind

00:17of restitution.

00:21Senior Taiwanese workers say the company stopped paying into their retirement funds in 2005.

00:26From that year, anyone who'd been on for at least 25 years was forced into half-year

00:30contracts that cut their pay by 30 percent and took away all but a week of annual leave.

00:35I worked at the company for 47 years.

00:38When I worked there until 1994, we were asked to change our retirement funds.

00:42They told us to get a new one.

00:44We had to choose a new one.

00:46Someone chose the old one, so we were fired.

00:50The legality of this practice is still in question.

00:53But it wasn't just local workers.

00:55The factory also began hiring migrant workers from Vietnam and Thailand.

00:59Together with their Taiwanese counterparts, they faced unpaid overtime and mandatory unpaid

01:04leave.

01:05For years, none of the workers said anything.

01:07Even those who may have known their rights were being violated kept their heads down

01:10to avoid losing their jobs.

01:12But rumors the factory was closing down changed everything overnight.

01:16The migrant workers were especially panicked, as they would now have to repay hefty fees

01:20to the middlemen who got them their positions.

01:23They were worried that we wouldn't be able to find a job.

01:27If we could find a job, how much would it be?

01:31It would be 80,000, 90,000 or 100,000.

01:35That's too much.

01:38Then in July, something unusual happened.

01:41Workers from Taiwan, Vietnam and Thailand who might otherwise have had conflicting interests

01:45banded together and formed a union.

01:49If migrant workers take away our pay, our pay will go down.

01:54We all know that in the shipyard, people's pay is cheap.

01:57You have to work overtime to keep your pay.

02:00If my pay goes down, does that mean my pay will go down as well?

02:04So there will be some...

02:07should I say harmony?

02:08Or should I say a sense of solidarity?

02:12And it wasn't just this barrier that workers overcame.

02:15Many of the workers don't speak each other's languages.

02:17But everyone understood that once the factory closed,

02:20it would be too late to claim money they felt they were owed.

02:24After several months of negotiation, they got big concessions from the company.

02:28Payment for overtime owed and unused annual leave

02:31and severance of up to two months with an additional lump sum compensation.

02:35Migrant workers also got an offer of either a plane ticket home

02:38or money for lodging as they searched for a new job.

02:41Labor organizers say this shows the importance of solidarity

02:44between Taiwanese and overseas workers.

03:03They see a model here for successfully breaking through national and linguistic barriers

03:07and holding companies that break the law to account,

03:10furthering the welfare of everyone involved.

03:13Patrick Chen and John Van Triest for Taiwan Plus.

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