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Taiwan Labor Forum to Support LA CDN Workers

Edited: Ching-Jen Labor Health & Safety Service Center, Taiwan, July 2003

Chinese Daily News is the largest Chinese newspaper corporation in the US. And its mother company, United Daily News, is a Taiwan based newspaper bloc. When, in September of 2000, CDN workers in Los Angeles were notified that their wages may be frozen, workers began an organizing drive with Communications Workers of America.

The CDN hired a union-busting consultant, directly attacking the union organizers, and employees were questioned about their loyalty to the company. CDN workers, despite undergoing 5 months of anti-union campaigning, voted 78 - 63 in favor of representation by the TNG-CWA on March 19 and 20, 2001. In an attempt to demoralize the workers, the company announced shortly after the election that it was willing to spend $1 million to keep the employees from forming a union. The company further said it would use the legal process and would not bargain with the union for years, if at all.

CWA together with the AFL-CIO sent a delegation to Taipei last July, holding a press conference to tell Taiwan people about CDN dispute. The delegation also spoke with the UDN management. After that, however, the CDN management has continued to use unfair labor practices to oppress workers in LA.

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That brings us to July. CWA planned to have a rally in front of the CDN office in LA on July 9. CDN workers requested Taiwanese labor organizations to have a coordinated action to support the rally in LA. Focus on Globalization, together with Ching-Jen Labor Center and Coollouder Web, launched a labor forum on July 9 in Taipei. We invited union leaders and labor activists to join together, discussing the situation of media workers. Pro. Chen Hsin-Hsing of Shin-Hsin University also made a report about the recent union-busting strategy used by the
management in the US. After the forum, all the participants signed a solidarity statement in support of CDN workers in LA.

Solidarity Statement: Support the Los Angeles CDN Workers; Defend Workers’ Right to Organize!

Dear brothers and sisters at Los Angeles China Daily News,

Warmest greetings from Taiwan! We salute you for your perseverance in the two-year struggle in defense of your right to organize. You have shown the world the most admirable courage and decency of the working class. We share your belief that freedom of association is an unalienable basic right of workers in a civilized society. We also believe that, with the power of solidarity, workers’ insistence on dignity shall prevail.

Brothers and sisters, we understand the agony you are experiencing under the unfair treatment. Since the time of the martial law, workers in various industries in Taiwan have also sacrificed in pursuit of the right to organize and other legally ascribed labor rights. The union-busting practices still exist today, and the struggle resisting such practice has never ceased. In the mass-media industry, we have witnessed one after another struggles, starting with the fight for independent unions back in the 1980s, and onto many struggles in defense of workers’ dignity and the right to a decent job. We proudly see this recent experience of the struggle for workers freedom of association as an inseparable part of Taiwanese people’s struggle for freedom and democracy. What we did not expect is that you, on the far side of the ocean, would be forced to experience the same thing as Taiwanese workers have been.

The United Daily News Corporation, the parent company of your employer the Chinese Daily News, has played an important role in the Taiwanese society. It’s the first newspaper corporation where the employees have their own union. The respect for labor rights is a good paradigm among Taiwan mass-media industry. The UDN management should have learned from the process of the transformation of our society how workers value greatly their freedom of association. We call on the CDN management to desist from repressing the CDN workers’ organizing drive, and immediately start good faith negotiation with the workers in order to seek a mutually satisfactory resolution.

Once again, we would like to give you, sisters and brothers at the Los Angeles CDN who have fought so hard to defend workers’ freedom of association, our warmest solidarity and best wishes. May your cause prevail soon!