Disturbances at Taiwanese-owned footwear factory in Vietnam
HANOI -
Disturbances broke out outside a Taiwanese-owned footwear factory in Ho Chi Minh City after a dozen sacked employees
went on hunger strike, the official trade union daily Lao Dong reported Thursday.
Police were forced to intervene when passers-by joined the protests outside the Hue Phong plant Wednesday after seven of
the hunger strikers collapsed, the paper said.
District officials stepped in to organize transport to take the stricken strikers to hospital after plant managers refused. Doctors
ordered all seven kept in hospital overnight, it said.
The workers, eight of them women, launched their hunger strike on Monday night after they were summarily dismissed by plant
deputy director Nguyen Kim Quoc.
Managers evicted them from company lodgings without giving them time to collect their belongings or arrange alternative
accommodation, the paper charged.
A management spokesman insisted the hunger strikers' state of health had nothing to do with the company.
"These workers have been sacked and so they are no longer company staff," said personnel manager Nguyen Van Tien.
The Hue Phong plant has been the scene of repeated disputes in recent months amid accusations in the official press of poor
working conditions and abuse of child labour.
A strike by thousands of workers earlier this year prompted an investigation by Go Vap district officials, Ho Chi Minh City
trade union official Mai Duc Chinh told AFP Monday.
"More than 3,000 workers work regularly in the plant but the company has signed only seasonal contracts to avoid paying
social insurance," he charged, adding that conditions in the company dormitories were extremely cramped.
Chinh said the authorities were still investigating the child labour accusations but added that Vietnamese law permitted
15-year-olds to do suitable work under parental supervision.
Taiwanese- and South Korean-owned footwear and garment factories in both Ho Chi Minh City and neighbouring provinces
have been the scene of frequent industrial disputes in recent years.
Dozens of Asian sub-contracting firms have set up shop there to take advantage of Vietnam's huge reservoir of cheap labour.
Many more are expected to follow suit as the US market is opened up to Vietnamese-made goods following the signing of a
landmark trade agreement between Hanoi and Washington in July.
Agence France Presse - October 19, 2000.
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