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12 August, 2005ICEM News release No. 33/2002
American union rights and the environment took centre stage at a shareholder assembly in Taiwan yesterday. There were brief scuffles inside the meeting when security guards tried to stop protesters from criticising the labour and environmental practices of the Continental Carbon Company.
Continental Carbon is a subsidiary of Taiwan-headquartered multinational the China Synthetic Rubber Company (CSRC). Lobbying CSRC's shareholders and board members at its annual general meeting in Taipei yesterday were Taiwanese, American and international trade union representatives, together with environmental campaigners.
Continental Carbon is majority-owned by CSRC and the Taiwan Cement Company, both of which are controlled by Taiwan's powerful family-run Koo Group. Three Continental Carbon plants in the US are currently the subject of environmental agency enforcement actions and/or pollution lawsuits. And at Continental Carbon's Ponca City plant in Oklahoma, union members have been locked out of their jobs since May 2001.
The Ponca City workers are members of the American union PACE, which is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). PACE is leading a global campaign to end the lock-outs, with strong support from the ICEM, the ICEM-affiliated Taiwan Petroleum Workers' Union (TPWU) and the Taiwan Confederation of Trade Unions.
"My intentions today are to make the stockholders aware that the CSRC board of directors has more interest in continuing this assault against union workers than providing maximum financial returns for its shareholders," said locked-out PACE member Todd Carlson. He displayed thousands of petition signatures from Ponca citizens asking the Koo family to use its influence to end the labour dispute and address the company's environmental problems.
Leslie Koo, chairman of China Synthetic Rubber, refused to allow Carlson and members of the Taiwan Confederation of Trade Unions to voice their concerns to stockholders. Union and environmental representatives were forcibly removed from the meeting by CSRC guards when they displayed a large banner in support of the locked-out workers and Taiwanese environmentalists.
"CSRC actions against workers and the environment are bad for all Taiwanese," Huang Ching-hsien told a large group of demonstrators gathered outside the shareholders' meeting. Huang, who is President of both the TPWU and the Taiwan Confederation of Trade Unions, added that that CSRC was "undermining the relationship between citizens of the US and Taiwan."
Phee Jungsun, the ICEM's Asia-Pacific Regional Secretary, told the demonstrators that the international will expand the global campaign against China Synthetic Rubber Company because of its anti-labour and environmental practices.
Press packets were distributed, including letters to Taiwan's President Chen Shui-bian from ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs and John Sweeney, President of the American national labour federation AFL-CIO. Also handed out was a community report written by the mayor of Ponca City, a local state senator and a clergyman who blamed Continental Carbon for the lock-out of local citizens and for damaging the environment.
Continental Carbon is a subsidiary of Taiwan-headquartered multinational the China Synthetic Rubber Company (CSRC). Lobbying CSRC's shareholders and board members at its annual general meeting in Taipei yesterday were Taiwanese, American and international trade union representatives, together with environmental campaigners.
Continental Carbon is majority-owned by CSRC and the Taiwan Cement Company, both of which are controlled by Taiwan's powerful family-run Koo Group. Three Continental Carbon plants in the US are currently the subject of environmental agency enforcement actions and/or pollution lawsuits. And at Continental Carbon's Ponca City plant in Oklahoma, union members have been locked out of their jobs since May 2001.
The Ponca City workers are members of the American union PACE, which is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). PACE is leading a global campaign to end the lock-outs, with strong support from the ICEM, the ICEM-affiliated Taiwan Petroleum Workers' Union (TPWU) and the Taiwan Confederation of Trade Unions.
"My intentions today are to make the stockholders aware that the CSRC board of directors has more interest in continuing this assault against union workers than providing maximum financial returns for its shareholders," said locked-out PACE member Todd Carlson. He displayed thousands of petition signatures from Ponca citizens asking the Koo family to use its influence to end the labour dispute and address the company's environmental problems.
Leslie Koo, chairman of China Synthetic Rubber, refused to allow Carlson and members of the Taiwan Confederation of Trade Unions to voice their concerns to stockholders. Union and environmental representatives were forcibly removed from the meeting by CSRC guards when they displayed a large banner in support of the locked-out workers and Taiwanese environmentalists.
"CSRC actions against workers and the environment are bad for all Taiwanese," Huang Ching-hsien told a large group of demonstrators gathered outside the shareholders' meeting. Huang, who is President of both the TPWU and the Taiwan Confederation of Trade Unions, added that that CSRC was "undermining the relationship between citizens of the US and Taiwan."
Phee Jungsun, the ICEM's Asia-Pacific Regional Secretary, told the demonstrators that the international will expand the global campaign against China Synthetic Rubber Company because of its anti-labour and environmental practices.
Press packets were distributed, including letters to Taiwan's President Chen Shui-bian from ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs and John Sweeney, President of the American national labour federation AFL-CIO. Also handed out was a community report written by the mayor of Ponca City, a local state senator and a clergyman who blamed Continental Carbon for the lock-out of local citizens and for damaging the environment.