Taipei, July 2 (CNA) Groups spearheading lawsuits against Radio Corporation of America (RCA) and successive parent companies of RCA Taiwan for the pollution they caused in Taiwan from 1970-1992 urged more RCA workers on Monday to join the campaign.
Liu Ho-yun (劉荷雲), head of the RCA Self-Help Association, said at a press conference that all former RCA members are welcome to apply to join the association starting July 7.
"The number of ex-RCA workers in the two lawsuits accounts for only a small fraction of its employees," Liu said.
In the first lawsuit against RCA in the United States brought by 529 former RCA workers in 2004, the plaintiffs scored a landmark victory in the Taiwan High Court in October 2017 when the court ordered RCA and its successors to pay NT$718.4 million (US$23.7 million) in compensation for the workers' exposure to toxic chemicals.
The case is now pending in the Supreme Court, which is set to deliver its judgment on August 16.
Meanwhile, another file was started at Taipei District Court in 2016 for another group of about 1,100 former RCA workers. They initially requested that the ruling in the first case by the district court apply to them as well, but that request was rejected.
This second case is still being deliberated at the lower court level, and Liu hopes ex-workers who sign up in the future can be part of that case. But if that is not possible, a third lawsuit will be filed, Liu said.
According to Steve Chou (周漢威) of the Legal Aid Foundation, which has formed a pro-bono legal team to help former RCA workers, RCA operated four plants in Taiwan -- two main facilities in then Taoyuan County and Hsinchu County, one in Yilan County and one in then Taipei County -- that employed about 80,000 workers.
There could be more victims who have developed cancer or suffered from health risks caused by exposure to toxic chemicals than is currently known, Chou said.
"We hope that former RCA workers whose health was affected or family members of deceased RCA workers stand up for their rights," he said.
In 1986, RCA Taiwan was taken over by General Electric, an American multinational conglomerate. Two years later, it was sold to Thomson Consumer Electronics, the U.S. subsidiary of France-based Thomson Multimedia, which is now called Technicolor SA.
Thomson shut down the RCA plants in Taiwan in 1992, and RCA Taiwan now exists essentially in name only, still involved only in cleanup work at the old Taoyuan factory site.
The Taipei District Court determined in 2015 that the pollution caused by RCA, including exposing workers to 31 toxic chemicals and dumping toxic waste in areas surrounding the Taoyuan factory, led to cancers and other illnesses among former workers and local residents.
According to the 2015 ruling, more than 1,300 ex-RCA workers have been diagnosed with various types of cancer, with more than 200 dying as a result.
The plaintiffs were not satisfied, however, with the lower court's ruling of NT$500 million in compensation, and appealed the decision, resulting in the Taiwan High Court increasing the compensation amount by more than 40 percent.
Since the RCA workers began the lengthy legal battle with the help of the Legal Aid Foundation and labor groups, the Ministry of Labor has had a task force under the Department of Employment Relations assist the workers, Chin Shih-ping (金士平), in charge of the case, said at the press conference.
The ministry has located about 40,000 former RCA workers and sent a letter to each of them in 2015 to inform them of another lawsuit being planned, which was then filed in 2016 involving about 1,100 former RCA workers, Chin said.
Only about 2 percent of ex-RCA workers have joined the litigation, and "we hope that the remaining workers come forward to defend their rights," Chin said.
The multinational corporations liable for the pollution should shoulder their social responsibility by responding to the victims' demands so that they can build a positive reputation and earn the respect of Taiwan and the international community, he said.
(By Shih Hsiu-chuan)
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