The China Post
Date: October 16, 2016
By: The China Post news staff
TAIPEI, Taiwan — About 5,000 protesters from the Formosa Plastics Group rallied outside the
Protesters march toward Changhua County Hall, Saturday, Oct. 15. About 5,000 people took to the streets to demand that the county renew a permit for three boilers at a Formosa Chemicals plant. The county had rejected the application on environmental concerns, forcing the plant to stop production. (CNA)
headquarters of Changhua County Government on Saturday, demanding it renew a license for a plant suspended over pollution concerns.
The demonstrators, rallying in support of the suspended Formosa Chemicals and Fibre Corporation (FCFC) plant in the central county, displayed placards reading, “Renew the license immediately” and “Resume work immediately.”
They said they wanted a “win-win” solution protecting both the environment and their labor rights.
The protesters claimed that the county government sided with environmentalists and blamed Changhua’s air pollution problems all on the FCFC plant.
They demanded that the county’s magistrate, Wei Ming-ku, talk to them face-to-face.
However, Wei was attending other activities elsewhere, according to reports.
The magistrate, in an article published previously, called on the FCFC to seize the present opportunity to turn itself into a “green energy center” in the area.
It was the third protest that FCFC employees and their families have staged since the Changhua government rejected the plant’s application to renew a license for its coal-fired boilers in late September. The plant has now stopped production without the license. [FULL STORY]
