STRUGGLE AND DEFEND OUR RIGHTS, WAGES AND JOB SECURITY!
Statement of the Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants and the Migrante Sectoral Party - Taiwan Chapter on the occasion of the International Labor Day protest action in Taipei, Taiwan
30 April 2006

In celebrating International Labor Day, migrant workers in Taiwan must more than ever defend their rights, wages and job security. There are a number of regulations and policies being amended and/or implemented by the Taiwanese authorities and which are not being challenged by governments of labor exporting countries that would further reduce the already few rights that these workers have. At the same time, migrant workers should be one in solidarity with all the working people in Taiwan and in other countries to safeguard their labor and human rights.

The Taiwan government has designed a set of goals for the development of its major industries to adapt to a globalized economy. This includes creating a favorable investment environment among both domestic and overseas investors by revising existing laws and regulations, so as to remove current investment obstacles. At the same time it would want to further develop industrial zones and basic facilities for industrial development, which are havens for the Global Empires led by the US, Japan and the EU.

Cause of the Crisis and Effect on the Manufacturing Workers

This is because of the Global Empires desperate try to solve its crisis by imposing its neo-liberal agenda on all countries and peoples of the world. The impositions of these neo-liberal agenda pushed almost all nations in the world especially in countries where the migrants came. It execute policies attacking labor rights such as wage freeze and promotion of labor flexibilization that negates the working masses¡¦ right to security of tenure, to join or form labor unions, to living wage and benefits, to humane working conditions, and other basic rights.

In Taiwan, it exports most of its products besides to HK, to countries of the global empires. This account for 27.45% (15% US) of its exports while another 16.22% is exported to HK. The Taiwan government also wants to attract more foreign investments in developing more industrial zones and in other areas.

From 1952-2005, Taiwan generated US$64.7 billion in foreign direct investments (FDI). Of these, 22% came from the US while 19% were from Japan. Of these, 24% were in electronic and electrical appliances industries, 19% in banking and insurance and the rest in wholesale and retail, chemicals and trade.

That is why the Taiwan government through the Legislative Yuan and the Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) would want to make some changes with regards to foreign workers in the manufacturing and service sectors. The governing unit on the migrants in Export Processing Zones and Industrial Parks would be turned over from the CLA to the management of these industrial enclaves. In fact local workers are already under their governing unit.

If this proposal were approved, the effects of this would be the following:

1. Migrant workers can never file any complaints to the CLA and the local labor bureaus. This is nerve wracking as the main task of the management of industrial enclaves is to ensure industrial peace so there would not be any obstacles to investors from local and foreigner capitalists alike.
2. Their chances of joining unions with locals would be made harder. There are no unions even of locals existing in science industrial parks, while of the 55 trade unions in the export processing zones; the employers organized some of these
3. There might be an increase in termination cases and forced repatriation of workers who assert their labor rights or simply not renewing the contracts of the workers.
4. There have also been numerous calls in the past up to the present to exempt migrant workers in export processing zones to be exempted from the minimum wage law.

Effects on Caretakers

The Taiwan government has liberalized the hiring of foreign caretakers in Taiwan by doing away with the so-called "Barthel" index decided by physicians in determining whether employers can hire migrants. Instead, it is now up to the Department of Health who will determine whether applications for hiring foreign caretakers would be necessary.

This decision reinforces the relegation of this essential social service from the Taiwan government to the private sector. This is consistent with the Taiwan government¡¦s commitment to the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), which is one of the agreements administered by the World Trade Organization (WTO).

The GATS liberalizes services by dismantling traditional restrictions by governments on various services sectors. This includes health care; hospital care; dental care; childcare; and elderly care among others.

With regards to caretakers especially those working in homes, the Taiwan government would want to make the following changes.

a. Amending article 60 of the Employment Service Act and introducing a guarantor system. This means where previously the employer should be the one to shoulder the airfare and detention expenses of their worker/s who run away, now it would be borne by the workers themselves through the guarantor system.
b. When migrant workers run away, the employers should report to the local authorities. After three months, if the police cannot find the run-away workers, the employers can apply for new workers to fill the vacancy. At present as long as the worker is not found, the employer cannot hire another migrant.
c. If the employer does not cause the death of a migrant worker, the fees for the repatriation of the remains and his/her belongings should be paid by the Employment Stabilization Fund, and not by the employer. This would amend the prevailing employment contracts of caretakers working in homes and domestic workers. As of now, it would be the employer who takes care of these costs.

Hand in hand with this is the retention of the broker system and collection of monthly service (brokers) fees from the migrants. The CLA has time and again stated that the monthly brokers fee is in actuality a management fee. Brokers on the other hand are used by the employers to control and even intimidate the workers.

Secondly there is the continuing crackdown on undocumented workers. The CLA has adopted in implementing draconian measures in fighting a losing battle against runaways. Instead of addressing the root causes why these migrants abscond from their work.

At the same time local workers also suffer in the reduction of their wages through labor flexibility and through other schemes imposed by their employers. One of this is outsourcing both inside and outside Taiwan. Others include privatization of state firms and liberalization of investments that has led to mergers and/or takeover of foreign companies like in the banking industry.

The Need to Resist

The only way to change the situation of the migrant workers and all the working people in Taiwan is for them to unite and assert their rights in a collective and militant manner. The three strikes in Formosa Plastics Corporation in Yun Lin County in less than a year is a good example. Despite difficulties at the start and fascist brutality the workers were able to get most of the demands that they were fighting for. This includes being exempt from paying the monthly service fee to brokers. What more if all the workers bind and fight together.

No to neo-liberal globalization, exploitation and oppression!
Migrant workers and Local Workers, Unite!