TAIWAN
Workers mobilize to sue RCA for poisoning water
By Deirdre
Griswold
A new organization is struggling in Taiwan to win
compensation for former workers of the RCA Co. who suffer from
cancer and other chemical pollution-linked illnesses.
According to Hsin-Hsing Chen, a professor there who
originally became active in social causes while attending
college in the U.S., the workers have formed the Association
for the Care of Former RCA Workers and affiliated with the
Association of Occupational Hazard Victims, one of the most
vocal labor advocacy groups in Taiwan.
After many years of operation, the RCA Co. closed its plant
in Taoyuan, Taiwan, in 1992. Afterward, workers came forward
and disclosed that for 30 years the company had been dumping
toxic solvents on the factory grounds and even pumped toxic
wastewater into the underground aquifers. Workers and residents
in the neighborhood drank the underground water all these
years, while the U.S. managers drank only bottled water.
Now, among some 20,000 former RCA workers, there have
already been 216 cancer deaths, more than 1,000 have been
diagnosed with cancer, and several hundred more have developed
mysterious illnesses.
After several failed attempts to negotiate with the company
and the Taiwan government, the former RCA workers finally
organized into an association and began waging a campaign for
just compensation and an admission by the company of its
guilt.
The RCA campaign has attracted attention from many sectors
of Taiwanese society, especially the labor movement. Workers
are now trying to fight the company using all possible means,
including international lawsuits.
The company has recently indicated that it will pull out all
its investment and assets in Taiwan, but the Council for Labor
Affairs, Taiwan's labor ministry, said it would try to block
this move for fear that the workers will not get their fair
share even if they win the legal battle.
The former RCA workers pledge to donate half of what they
eventually get from RCA to establish a fund supporting victims
of industrial hazards.
The legal struggle is very difficult. If the case is tried
in Taiwan, the court fee is frighteningly high. Usually
plaintiffs suing for monetary compensation are required to
deposit one third of the targeted amount as collateral with the
court. If the workers file their suits in the United States,
says an attorney for the group, the U.S. court will have to
judge according to Taiwan law. But few lawyers have experience
in this procedure.
RCA's facility in Taiwan has played an instrumental role in
the development of Taiwan's semi-conductor industry. Its
behavior, says Hsin-Hsing Chen, is alarming to all Taiwanese
workers and residents who are concerned about the
social-environmental consequences of Taiwan's famed computer
industry.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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