AGC Display Glass workers to end 4-day strike after wage deal

Taipei, Oct. 8 (CNA) Workers at AGC Display Glass Taiwan Inc. in Yunlin County will end their four-day strike Thursday evening after reaching an agreement with management on wage increases for 2027 and 2028, the company's union said.

Under the agreement, all employees at the company's Douliu plant will receive an across-the-board monthly base salary increase of NT$1,200 (US$37.58) in each of the two years, while management has agreed to negotiate further raises for 2029 and 2030, the union said in a statement.

The agreement was reached late Wednesday following seven hours of negotiations and was ratified at a meeting of union representatives on Thursday morning.

The union said the strike, which began at 8 a.m. Monday, would end at 5:30 p.m. Thursday.

Union chairman Shen Chuan-cheng (沈全成) said the agreement also included provisions to retain existing cost-of-living allowances and adjust salary caps.

The company also agreed not to take punitive action against employees who participated in the strike, according to Chang Shih-chung (張世忠), head of the Yunlin County Government's Labor Affairs Department, who helped mediate the dispute.

AGC Deputy General Manager Cheng Wen-yuan (鄭文遠) told CNA that the two sides had originally planned to negotiate wage increases for four years, but agreed to hold further talks at the end of 2028 because future inflation and minimum wage adjustments remained uncertain.

More than 500 union members began the strike at the company's Douliu plant on Monday, demanding annual across-the-board pay increases of 5-6 percent, comparable to the annual raises the union said employees at its Japanese parent company, AGC Inc., had received.

The NT$1,200 increase in 2027 represents a raise of around 4 percent for most workers, whose monthly base salaries are approximately NT$30,000, according to union secretary-general Wu Chia-hung (吳嘉浤).

Wu told CNA that the Douliu plant employs approximately 1,400 workers, all Taiwanese nationals, of whom about 950 are union members.

The union said the Taiwanese subsidiary had not established a regular across-the-board wage adjustment mechanism for 25 years, despite repeated requests and negotiations.

Initially planned to last two and a half days, the strike was extended Wednesday afternoon after more than 350 union members signed a petition calling for the action to continue.

Describing the settlement as "an important achievement," the union urged management to place greater emphasis on workers' rights and share company profits with rank-and-file employees.

The Ministry of Labor said Thursday afternoon that it welcomed the agreement, praising the union for returning to the negotiating table in good faith and management for responding constructively to reach "a compromise balancing business operations and workers' rights."

The strike, which the union described as the first in Yunlin County's history, was also the second labor strike in Taiwan to end this week, following a five-day strike by workers at snack maker Kuai Kuai Co. in Taoyuan.