Chinese Newspaper Seeks to be First to Unionize
L.A. Chinese Daily News, Posted: Apr 15, 2002
On March 19, 2001, the majority of 150 employees of the L.A. Chinese Daily News voted in favor of union representation by the Newspaper Guild-Communications Workers of America. Most employees are Taiwanese immigrants and others are from mainland China. This election made the Chinese Daily News the only unionized Chinese-Language media company in the United States. Despite the majority's wishes, the company refuses to recognize the employees' union and refuses to negotiate a fair and just contract.
The employees believe in the promises of the law---to form and organize a union. "We believe deeply in our right to have a voice in our workplace and to bargain a contract that provides fair treatment and workplace justice . . . we want to be a positive example in the community." Chinese Daily News Workers
Since this government supervised democratic vote, the Company has taken and continues to take aggressive actions to punish their employees. Union supporters have seen their jobs eliminated, suffered harassment by supervisors, are subject to ongoing open threats of termination, their stories on labor issues quashed in detriment to the Chinese community, work loads unreasonably increased and their earning reduced, all intended to discourage employees from engaging in legal protected activities. Workers are seeing firings, elimination of pay, work reassignments and other illegal discriminating acts towards employees who are publicly providing information to the U.S. government. Because of these and other threats, the U.S. National Labor Relations Board has issued complaints against the Chinese Daily News and continues to investigate their Unfair Labor Practices.
This ongoing unwillingness by the Chinese Daily News to respect the legal rights of their workers in our Chinese Communities seriously undermines the good will generated by Taiwan's progress towards respect for human rights and the U.S. rules of law. The mother company of the Chinese Daily News is the United Daily News based in Taipei, Taiwan. The owners, the Wang family, are considered to be very influential in the decisions made at each of the branch publications, including here in Los Angeles. The United Daily News publishes all over the world and is Taiwan's top media company, and the U.S. publications are considered to be among its most profitable holdings.
The Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, AFL-CIO in Los Angeles is seeking for public support to end the unlawful practices of the Chinese Daily News.
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