Laid-off factory workers stage hunger strike

In order to fight for their retirement savings, a group of factory workers have staged a hunger strike. For forty-four year old worker Chen Man-peng (陳滿屏), who is the youngest female in the group of seven, this is her second hunger strike. "We thought that the hunger strike we staged sixteen years ago would put an end to our severance pay and pension problems,... I really did not imagine that we would be staging a similar hunger strike sixteen years later over the same issue. Our hunger strike is an attempt to bring attention to this government’s cold and ruthless treatment of ordinary people,” said Chen Man-peng.

Unfortunately, this wave of hunger strikes saw difficulties right from the outset. Immediately preceding the start of the strike, protestors were denied access to toilets inside the Council of Labor Affairs (CLA), and police deemed the protestor’s makeshift toilets illegal, triggering confrontation between protestors and police.

For sixteen years, the CLA has failed to bring the factory workers’ employers to account, and now have the audacity to file lawsuits against these ordinary folk, asking them to give up their own hard-earned pensions and severance pay. During the protests, the CLA even had the brazenness to instruct the police to "grab the toilet."

PeoPo 公民新聞 by 公民行動影音紀錄資料庫

Laid-off factory workers stage hunger strike

URL:http://www.peopo.org/news/111301

(以下是中文對照)
關廠工人無限期絕食 勞工只剩身體當抗爭工具

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為了拼老本，關廠工人無限期絕食行動中，算是七位絕食者中最年輕的女工陳滿屏，44歲，這次是二度絕食了。 她說：「十六年前，我們以為我們絕食，解決了我們的問題，拿到了我們的資遣費跟退休金...我真的是沒想到，十六年後還要為了這個事情，一樣的又再度絕食。我們用絕食的方式，來表達這個政府對人民的無情無義。」不過這波絕食行動可能對抗爭民眾不太好過。行動才剛開始，勞委會即冷處理面對，不願出借廁所給民眾使用。自行搭建臨時廁所也被警方警告此舉違法，引發關廠工人與警方的對峙。十六年來勞委會沒負起責任，追究資方，反倒是向勞方提起訴訟，要老百姓還這本屬於他們自己的退休金資遣費。勞委會甚至在抗爭行動中交由警方對付百姓「搶廁所」?