Kuai Kuai union questions management; alleges pressure on migrants

Taipei, Oct. 5 (CNA) The union representing workers at snack maker Kuai Kuai Co.'s only factory in Taiwan has challenged the company's relocation assurances and accused a labor broker of pressuring migrant workers to cross a picket line during an ongoing strike.

The Kuai Kuai union, whose members work at the company's Zhongli factory, voiced their concerns during a protest outside the Ministry of Labor (MOL) in Taipei on Monday, three days after workers began a strike that was later extended indefinitely.

The dispute arose after Kuai Kuai workers learned in July through the news that Kuai Kuai, which has been owned by the San-Ti Group since 2019, sold the Zhongli site to Advanced Semiconductor Engineering, Inc. for NT$5.67 billion (US$178.64 million).

As part of the deal, Kuai Kuai will lease back parts of the site for up to two years while preparing to relocate.

The deal sparked concern among workers that the company would eventually abandon them and force them into resigning by relocating without paying them severance and other layoff benefits.

In response to the strike on Friday, Kuai Kuai pledged it would not lay off workers for the two years it remains at the Zhongli site, and would provide statutory severance plus two months' wages for ensuing layoffs.

Peng Kuei-mei (彭桂梅), a union board member, said the no-layoff pledge "provides employees with no protection at all," arguing that the company could still meet that pledge if workers left on their own, in which case they would not receive severance.

Employees who left after the relocation because the new factory was too far away or had unsuitable working conditions could also be denied severance because they were not formally laid off, Peng said.

To deal with the issue, the union is seeking compensation for any relocation, which could impose a heavier burden on the factory's many middle-aged and older workers, who could struggle to find new jobs or adapt to a new work location, it said.

Peng also questioned the company's shifting relocation plans, with Pingtung County and then Hsinchu and Taoyuan being considered but no site being secured.

"How can employees be expected to keep working for two years and believe they will still have jobs afterward?" Peng said.

Migrant workers pressured

The union also alleged that a broker twice brought migrant workers to the picket line on Friday and asked them whether they wanted to enter the factory to work, in what the union said was an attempt to get them to cross the picket line.

The union questioned whether an employer or broker should be allowed to require migrant workers to make such declarations.

In response to the protest, Chin Shih-ping (金士平), a section chief at the MOL's Department of Employment Relations, reiterated that companies must not subject workers participating in union activities or strikes to "adverse treatment."

Asked specifically about the broker's actions, Chin described the circumstances as "complicated" and would require further review before the ministry could take a position.

According to the union, the plant currently has around 160 Taiwanese employees, including 155 union members, and about 60 migrant workers, mainly from Vietnam and Indonesia, none of whom are union members.

Around 130 union members joined a one-day strike on Friday before members voted later that day to continue it indefinitely.

Chu Chia-yun (曲佳雲), deputy chair of the Taoyuan Confederation of Trade Unions, criticized the government for remaining silent on the dispute, pointing to what she described as the San-Ti Group's close ties to the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and "substantial political donations."

"I hope the MOL will not become what people call a Ministry of Employers," Chu said. "I hope the ministry will speak out and support Taiwanese workers in seeking pay raises."

Separate strike in Yunlin

Separately, more than 500 members of the AGC Display Glass Taiwan Inc. union began a strike at its Douliu plant in Yunlin County on Monday, demanding annual across-the-board increases in pay comparable to the 5-6 percent raises employees at its Japanese parent company received.

The union said 89 percent of its nearly 1,000 members voted, with 96 percent backing the strike. The action, described by the union as Yunlin County's first-ever strike, is expected to last two and a half days.