The Eve of May Day: Taiwanese Touch Panel Screen Workers Still Fight for Their Basic Rights

In the Eve of May Day this year, Young Fast Optoelectronics(YFO) workers still struggle for their very basic rights. According to LabourStart, "YFO is one of the major manufacturers for touch panel screens in the world; its buyers include: Samsung, LG, HTC and Google." Despite "posting a record-high profit last year(almost NTD$3000,000,000)" the working condition is worse than ever: the average monthly working hours are about 270 to 300 hrs. The labors, including the so-called "interns"(who in fact are child workers who is under the age of 16), female workers and 200 immigrant workers, endured 12-hour standing in front of control panel, overtime work without payment, exposure to toxic and bust on union workers. The average salary of a YFO worker is NTD.2,2000, shockingly low when the extremely poor working condition is considered.

Now the Young Fast Optoelectronics Trade Union (YFOTU) is demanding:

1. Reinstatement of the illegally-dismissed union officers and members;
2. Resolution to the labour dispute through dialogue with YFOTU and NAFITU; and
3. The government forms a joint-committee from different ministries and take thorough investigation about the working conditions and labour rights abuses, and prevent repetition of labour rights abuse in YFO.

They also urge an action of sending letter to President of ROC, the company contracting with YOF, such as GOOGLE, HTC and Vodafone.

Please Send Your Message at LabourStart(here)

Also Factsheet of YFO(here)