Kuai Kuai workers end 5-day strike with relocation compensation deal

Taipei, Oct. 6 (CNA) The union representing workers at snack maker Kuai Kuai Co.'s only factory in Taiwan ended a five-day strike on Tuesday after reaching a deal with management on compensation for the company's planned relocation.

The deal was signed Tuesday afternoon after two days of talks, with the company agreeing to provide more compensation than it had initially offered, according to a joint statement from the Taoyuan Confederation of Trade Unions and the Kuai Kuai union.

● Kuai Kuai union questions management, alleges pressure on migrants

What the deal says

Under the agreement reached Tuesday, union members who resign within the next two years after being reassigned within the Zhongli factory in Taoyuan will receive statutory severance pay plus compensation equal to four months' full wages, according to the statement.

Union members who resign by Sept. 30, 2028, because the company's relocation requires them to leave the Zhongli factory will receive statutory severance plus eight months' full wages.

In addition, workers with at least 12 years of seniority under Taiwan's new labor pension system will receive an additional NT$100,000 (US$3,148), the statement said.

The agreement also contains a "no-free-rider clause," meaning the negotiated benefits will apply only to union members.

"The results achieved by the Kuai Kuai union in this strike should be credited to all its members, who stood united behind the union and held the picket line," the Taoyuan Confederation of Trade Unions said.

It said their support enabled union representatives to "not easily compromise or back down" during negotiations on Monday and Tuesday.

Why workers walked out

The strike began last Friday amid a dispute over how workers would be treated in the planned relocation of Kuai Kuai's Zhongli factory.

Around 130 of the union's 155 members began what was initially planned as a one-day strike. They voted later that day to extend the action indefinitely.

Workers learned from news reports in July that Kuai Kuai, which the San-Ti Group has controlled since 2019, had sold the Zhongli site to Advanced Semiconductor Engineering, Inc. for NT$5.67 billion. The company is leasing back parts of the property for up to two years as it prepares to relocate.

The union had raised concerns that employees could be forced out if they were unable to follow the factory to a new site that could be far from Zhongli. The company has yet to secure a site for the new factory, and workers who resigned could be left without severance or other compensation.

To address the issue, the union sought relocation compensation. It argued that moving the factory could be harder on its many middle-aged and older workers, who could struggle to find new jobs or adapt to a new work location.

Kuai Kuai said last Friday that it would not lay off workers for two years and that workers laid off after that period would receive statutory severance plus two months' wages.

Migrant workers

The Kuai Kuai union also thanked the factory's migrant workers. It said that despite pressure from their labor broker, they did not cross the picket line after communicating with the union during the strike on Friday.

The union had alleged that a broker twice brought migrant workers to the picket line and asked them whether they wanted to enter the factory to work.

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 the migrant workers are union members.

The union said Tuesday that it would continue to watch over migrant workers' rights at Kuai Kuai.

CNA contacted Kuai Kuai for comment, but had not received a response as of press time.