Fwd: [PEN-L:12629] Linksys: Made in a Taiwan Labor Camp

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Mon Jun 4 11:19:21 PDT 2001


[this is coming to you through a Linksys ethernet workgroup hub...]

http://192.192.148.27/news/2001/05/30/letter.htm

Linksys Hubs Hubbubs A latest model Made in a Taiwan Labor Camp called Runtop

Hi there! You guys surfing on the net are definitely no strangers to the Linksys Group, isnt it? One thing about the Linksys, however, I bet you don!|t quite have a clue yet. Ready? There is a big labor camp called Runtop tightly linked with the Linksys on the island that we call Taiwan! And believe it or not, those poor Filipino female migrant workers just keep producing the hubs in that labor camp, so that you guys can sit in your cozy room right now, with your air-con already on maybe, surfing all over the world.

So, what kind of hubs are you using now? Dual-speed Hubs? Auto-sensing hubs? Or Workgroup hubs? Anyway, whatever excellent Linksys hubs you choose, I hate to say that, very likely it is produced by a big bunch of poor Filipina migrant workers that are slaved by the Taiwanese Runtop company on a daily basis. And some even for years.

End of the year 1999 about 72 female Filipino workers, most of them collage graduates, were proud to be deployed by a well renowned electronics company in Taiwan. After arriving in Taiwan the workers were informed about some rules, which show that this company has a very particular understanding of human rights. For the first 6 months they were prohibited to leave the factory compound. They were not allowed to have a cellular phone. Incoming phone calls were not referred to the workers. They could not receive visitors, and if a friend wanted to bring a parcel the guard would call the dormitory coordinator and the parcel had to be opened first in the presence of the coordinator.

In March 2000 the workers filed a complaint to the local Labor Bureau. After the government's intervention the workers were allowed to go out, but only on Sundays until 6 pm. Monday through Saturday they were still not allowed to step out from the company compound at all, and neither are they allowed having any visitors from outside of the company. The new comers of Runtop still faced the woeful situation of being completely forbidden from stepping out of the company compound for at least the first 2 months. What is almost as outragous, the Runtop personnel frequently feels free in opening up the personal letters, plowing through the personal lockers of the Filipino female workers without any approval. The Runtop personnel also frequently gives NAGO orders: Not-Allowed-to-Go-Out to the workers on Sundays. Such orders are without any legal basis.

The 72 - now 91 - workers live in extremely cramped conditions. They share one single room without air conditioning on the 7th floor under the rooftop of the factory building. Four exhaust fans were instalated only last month of April 2001. The room has only one door which has to be unlocked with a swipe card. There are no fire escapes. In case of a fire all the foreign workers would be trapped in their dorm.

On May 16, 2001, 17 Filipino female migrant workers of Runtop were repatriated by force because of an impending labor dispute scheduled on May 18. Each worker was fobbed off by a so-called "fire drill" directed by the company, and then each was escorted by one security guard, who is well equipped with handcuffs and electric clubs, to be repatriated in the Airport. Quite a royal Taiwanese treatment indeed. All the workers were then rescued by Hope Workers Center in the Airport. Presently they are under the protection of the shelter set up by the Center.

On April 8 Sunday, 2001, 60 Runtop female workers came to Hope Workers' Center looking for help and signing up an labor dispute application form for the violations mentioned above. Four issues were involved in this labor dispute, namely, wrong overtime pay, failure to implement the new law of working hours, deprivation of the liberty of movement, and neglection of privacy. Up until now Runtop not only denies all these charges against it, but also refuses to accept the workers to come back to work. On the other hand, Runtop also threatened to repatriate more workers in the near future. The Taiwanese Council of Labor Affairs C.L.A. did try to negotiate between the workers and employer, only that to no avail, for the Runtop employer is unwilling to admit any violation. There is no Labor Court in Taiwan that could force the company to accept the workers back to work or to pay them a compensation.

After Runtop received the letter form the Labor Bureau for the labor dispute the company introduces a new rule for the cantine. The Filipina migrant workers were forbidden from passing a certain line and from getting their food with the local workers. They are given a lunch boxes with low quality food only. The Linksys has long been enjoying good fame in advocating a world of wireless and promoting the networking freedom. We also would like to see that the Linksys will be brave enough to dis-link itself with the world of prejudices, and promoting the freedom of working for the victimized female workers.

These migrant workers just want to go back to work and that their human rights are respected. At the bottom of the Linksys homepage, if one pays a bit attention to it, it reads: Copyright 2001 Linksys Group Inc. All rights reserved, All rights reserved? Yah, why not? Except human rights maybe...

What can you do for these workers? Forward this email to all of your friends. Then send an email to mailroom at linksys.com urging the company to interfere with Runtop and to grant the human and labor rights of their workers. Runtop is not the first Taiwanese subsidiary of Linksys where we found serious abuses of migrant workers.

This letter is sent out by Hope Workers' Center 3F, No, 65, Chang Chiang Rd. Chungli City, Taoyuan Taiwan 320 R.O.C.

If you have questions please email to hopemw at ms16.hinet.net.

The address of Runtop company: 1, Lane 21, Shin Hua Rd., Kueishan Ind. District, Taoyuan City, Taiwan

******************************************* Asia Pacific Mission for Migrant Filipinos (APMMF) Address: No.4 Jordan Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR Tel. no.: (852) 2723-7536 Fax no.: (852) 2735-4559 E-mail: apmmf at hknet.com **********************************************



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