I can’t think what the company’s motive would be for banning the migrant workers from using mobile phones.
I can. I know of at least one case of a Thai lady (a “relative” of my former Thai girlfriend) whose abusive employer supposedly forbid her from taking her Sundays off, barely fed her, and forbid her from having a cell phone because she didn’t want her to be able to talk to friends in Taiwan, the government, or relatives back home about how bad her conditions here were. I got personally involved in trying to get the government to intervene in the case (at least to check on the allegations, at the request of my then already ex), to no avail. You can imagine which party was more able to provide the hongbao to shut things up.
I still can’t believe they get paid in coupons. There’s something seriously wrong with that picture.
This has been the topic of conversation with my Philipino friends back home. I don’t know how the Chinese can do such things like this with a straight face. OH BUT…I have to keep in mind as a Caucasion I must keep apologizing for past deeds commited by my ancestors. Excuse me. I’ll bow out now. hides
I was listening to the news this morning, and there was further mention of the coupons. Apparently the workers could only use the coupons at the store which was located at work, and surprise surprise the prices were ramped up compared to outside stores.
Also, there was reports of International Calling cards bought from the store not working. If that is true, I have a great deal of sympathy for the poor bastards getting upset if their only way of keeping in touch with family was literally stolen from them.
You gotta hand it to the Taiwanese on this one. They’ve outdone themselves here 
This morning’s Taipei Times:
TSU (the smart greens 
) and KMT lawmakers attacked the CLA for its apathy with regard to foreign laborers, saying its budget might be suspended if it didn’t act.
TSU Legislator Lai Shin-yuan said that Thai workers are living in conditions worse than jails. Lai said that such maltreatment is just the ti pof the iceberg.
From the Taiwan News:
As to the International Labor Organization’s suggestion to allowing foreign workers to organize unions, the council said it had amended the Labor Union Law and lifted the restriction on foreigners to be elected as union officials. (I wonder if this applies to teachers)
The amendment has yet to be approved by the Legislature, however.
The media also lashed out yesterday at Huapan’s mistreatment of the Thai workers.
According to some reports, each worker was required to pay NT$3,000 each month for room and board, more than the lowest-ranking soldier in Taiwan’s military pays.
The riots not only left behind NT$10 million in damage but also caused further delays to a project that has been repeatedly set back by construction mishaps. Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) asked the KRTC to review its foreign labor quota and hire local workers to make up for the insufficient manpower. He said the city government is focused on meeting the project’s schedule and its overall operation, rather than whether the work is done by local or foreign workers.
In Bangkok, Thailand said yesterday it would delay sending more laborers to Taiwan while it reviews the contracts of all its overseas workers following Sunday’s riots in Kangshan.
Thai Labor Minister Somsak Thepsutin said the violence was an isolated incident and would not affect the country’s reputation.
“We will delay the travel of 800 workers going to Taiwan and we will review all contracts, starting with those in Taiwan,” he told reporters.
Somsak did not say why the contracts would be reviewed but Thai media reports have said that many of the arrangements are unfair to workers.
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said the de facto Thai embassy in Taipai was negotiating with authorities there. He added that he opposed sending unskilled laborers to other countries.
“I disagree with sending unskilled laborers to work in other countries… there are plenty of jobs left in Thailand,” he said, adding that there were 30,000 vacancies at an industrial zone in eastern Thailand alone.
etaiwannews.com/Taiwan/Socie … 847339.htm
One wonders what the local Chinese media had to say about the whole thing, considering the pervasive view of the sub-humanness of the immigrant workers even before this “disturbance”.
The Taipei Times was bad enough, not to mention the inaccuracies and inconsistencies.
Small example: Under the front page photo in Tuesday (23 Aug) TT: [quote]More than 1,700 Thai workers set fire to a management shack, burnt cars and hurled rocks at police…[/quote]
But in the actual article alongside:
Hmmm. Looks like a real effort was made to get the story right. 
As an aside, if this is the treatment workers are receiving from the (presumably) government-run Kaohsiung Mass Transit Bureau, what’s happening to them in the private sector?
While I don’t agree with the emotional response, most of the grievances seem justified. The one about overtime blows the mind, doesn’t it.
Here’s the best part:
[quote]He [the CLA’s vice-chairman] said the council will also punish the employer, the Kaohsiung Mass Transit Bureau by slashing by 800 the number of foreign workers the company is entitled to import to help it construct the transit system.[/quote] 
:loco: :fume:
How exactly is THIS going to:
a) help the Thai workers’ conditions?
b) ensure that the MRT is finished on time?
Sighhhh. I guess if there was logic involved, I’d be having a coronary.
[quote=“Chewycorns”]This morning’s Taipei Times:
TSU (the smart greens ) and KMT lawmakers attacked the CLA for its apathy with regard to foreign laborers, saying its budget might be suspended if it didn’t act.[/quote] When did the mafia get in keeping quaterly reports and financial sheets?
[quote]
TSU Legislator Lai Shin-yuan said that Thai workers are living in conditions worse than jails. Lai said that such maltreatment is just the [color=darkred]ti pof[/color] the iceberg.[/quote]Is that a mistake I see, Chewy?!:lol:
[quote]
From the Taiwan News:
As to the International Labor Organization’s suggestion to allowing foreign workers to organize unions, the council said it had amended the Labor Union Law and lifted the restriction on foreigners to be elected as union officials. (I wonder if this applies to teachers)
The amendment has yet to be approved by the Legislature, however.[/quote]I nominate Chewy, since his speeling and grammer is better than mine!:taz: And he can use flashcards when they don’t get it. hehehehe
[quote]
The riots not only left behind NT$10 million in damage but also caused further delays to a project that has been repeatedly set back by construction mishaps. Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) asked the KRTC to review its foreign labor quota and hire local workers to make up for the insufficient manpower. [color=darkred]He said the city government is focused on meeting the project’s schedule and its overall operation,[/color] rather than whether the work is done by local or foreign workers.[/quote] Suprise suprise there :s. Seeing how, IMO, that producing results is more improtant than quality here in Taiwan.
[quote]
In Bangkok, Thailand said yesterday it would delay sending more laborers to Taiwan while it reviews the contracts of all its overseas workers following Sunday’s riots in Kangshan.
[/quote] Nice. I hope this is the start of seeing a message sent to anyone that the Thai are to be respected.
[quote]
Thai Labor Minister Somsak Thepsutin said the violence was an isolated incident and would not affect the country’s reputation.[/quote] Nope, the political parties do that enough.
[quote=“Chewycorns”]
As to the International Labor Organization’s suggestion to allowing foreign workers to organize unions, the council said it had amended the Labor Union Law and lifted the restriction on foreigners to be elected as union officials. (I wonder if this applies to teachers)
The amendment has yet to be approved by the Legislature, however.[/quote]
While the pan-blues are in control of the LY, this will never happen. KMT has suppressed (often by violence) trade union activity for it’s entire history. Not a chance they are going to change their spots now, and certainly not for imported south-east Asian labor.
[quote=“hsiadogah”][quote=“Chewycorns”]
As to the International Labor Organization’s suggestion to allowing foreign workers to organize unions, the council said it had amended the Labor Union Law and lifted the restriction on foreigners to be elected as union officials. (I wonder if this applies to teachers)
The amendment has yet to be approved by the Legislature, however.[/quote]
While the pan-blues are in control of the LY, this will never happen. KMT has suppressed (often by violence) trade union activity for it’s entire history. Not a chance they are going to change their spots now, and certainly not for imported south-east Asian labor.[/quote]
I think you are talking out of your ass on this one. I’m sypathetic first to the TSU – then to the DPP. However, the DPP, in many regards, is a xenophobic party towards foreigners or outsiders (meaning non-Hoklo)
Has the plight of foreigners improved in the past five years? Improvements in foreigners’ working situations (ARC with full working rights for spouses etc) were passed through bi-partisan support in the KMT-dominated legislature. In the old pension schemes, weren’t foreigners also included? Have naturalization procedures for ROC/Taiwan citizenship been tightened or eased in the past few years?
In my experience in government, the KMT-supporting managers, on one side, and the pro-LTH managers, on the other, were very careful to include me (the token foreigner) in every meeting. I was included in every aspect of the decision-making process at the departmental level. I received excellent reviews, letters of recommendation from the top brass, and praise from most people with a specialized background and expertise in my chosen field. Then, after the 2004 election the ministry chooses real DPP people instead of relying on the LTH technocrats – completely shut out of the process and told to adopt “Asian values.” The political appointees, while well intentioned, are clueless in many instances.
^^^ I didn’t say that KMT was xenophobic, I said they were anti union. They are not going to vote in favor of a government proposal for more union rights for any reason. The fact that the beneficiaries would be lowly manual laborers from SE Asia is going to make it less likely to happen. They’re in opposition, and that’s what they do, oppose. It’s quite irrelevant how nicely they treated you while in office.
And the DPP is a friend of the working class? Come on 
! Neither party represents manual workers – Taiwanese or otherwise. The simple fact is this – a strong trade union movement has never materialized in Taiwan for a number of reasons – not all can be blamed on the KMT. This “scapegoating” can get tiresome at times. BTW, in my opinion, the topics of xenophobia and allowing foreigners to form unions and have other significant rights are duly linked.
In today’s TT, KMT and TSU legislators commented on the matter. I am especally interested in the bolded comments below. Perhaps more DPP politicians are “slave-trading” than their KMT counterparts.
[i]Another TSU legislator, David Huang (黃適卓), called on the government to improve the living and working conditions of foreign laborers and re-examine its foreign worker policy.
Saying that it is an “open secret” that some lawmakers collude with broker companies to bring in foreign laborers and share benefits, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Hsu Chong-hsiung (徐中雄) yesterday called on prosecutors to take the initiative to conduct an investigation into the matter.[/i]
taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/ … 2003268934
Will you quit putting words in my mouth? 
Don’t let any wringing of hands by opportunist pan-blue legislators fool you into thinking they are somehow concerned about these Thais, because they are not. It’s a just another chance to oppose. No one is going to get any more labor rights out of this. No one.
You might ask your KMT buddies if Neil Magill was on their list of favored pet foreign advisors.
They should contract with the snakeheads to bring in Mescans.
From my experience KMT usually have a broader view “Chinese” and the various ethnic groups the make up the “Chinese” class.
The DDP with their “grass-root” views are the ones usually trying to make everything Hoklo centric, basically trying to elevate Hoklo-ness above all else on Taiwan.
Just given the fact this occured in Southern Taiwan, it would not surprise me if this was just another example of institutionalized Hoklo bullying of foriegn workers.
There would have been no reaction to this 10 years ago. There has been a reaction this time, mostly sympathetic to the Thais. That at least is some progress.
While the abuse of foreign workers here is deplorable, as you can imagine, it is not unique to Taiwan. Several U.S. agricultural businesses have been penalized for exploiting and abusing foreign workers.
A couple of examples:
www.cahr.fsu.edu/N - Chapter 7.pdf
[quote]DeCoster Egg Farms has paid a $3.2 million settlement benefiting migrant workers who sued the Maine operation in 1998, charging racial discrimination in housing and working conditions, the Mexican Foreign Relations Department reported Sunday.
[/quote]
[quote]The lawsuit alleged that several Mexican families were crowded into substandard single-family dwellings in the farm’s trailer park, while white families each got their own, better-equipped dwellings.
The plaintiffs also said that Mexicans were physically barred from contacting people off the farm grounds and were not paid wages they were promised as an inducement to accept jobs.[/quote]
www.boston.com/news/local/maine/article … rs?mode=PF
I also recall a story on 60 Minutes (a US news program) several years ago that examined the working conditions of foreign workers in the orange fields of Florida. The workers were paid partly in coupons that could only be used to purchase items in the “company store” at outrageous prices.
The biggest difference between what goes on in Taiwan and the U.S., IMO, is that law enforcement and the media in the latter country will investigate and try to remedy the problem. The workers won’t simply be portrayed as lazy miscreants taking advantage of their saintly employer.
I worked in a law firm in Taiwan and was shocked when a local attorney colleague of mine once said that there was no abuse of foreign workers in Taiwan because there are laws in Taiwan protecting them. Based on that reasoning, I guess there is no murder in Taiwan either. In any event, with attitudes like that, it
The article below (I have quoted part of it) was published in The Nation (a Thai newspaper) three months ago. The riot on Sunday was only a symptom of a larger problem, not a mere isolated incident. I think it is fair to say many of the Thai, and other foreign workers, in Taiwan face similarly appalling work conditions.
[quote]WORKING IN TAIWAN: As many as 5,000 Thais face abuse
Published on May 20, 2005/The Nation