Painted & Naked Young Students Protest HTC phone Killing People
High-tech Cold Blood Youngs Press Release of May 1 Labour Day Demonstration Date: 2010, May 1. at Freedom Square, C.K.S. Memorial Hall.
Press Contact: HsiaoKe 0989526332 ZhiHwa 0910507902 YuSuKe 0912564129
Your high-class cell phone, my low salary. Young students' solidarity to the sweatshop victims!
We come up with a nude protest to show our anger and tell you: HTC phones come from sweatshop Young Fast Optoelectronic Company. Please, please stop HTC from making bloody mobile phones!
(A) Young people love to use beautiful and smart phones, but these fancy products turn out to be sweatshop products. We are a group of youth who love high-tech 3C products, and at the same time care about Taiwan industries.
We saw the news and found out in Guanyin township at Taoyuan county, Young Fast Optoeletronics Co., Ltd. is famous for its products, touching panels for the so-called "smart phones." (President Ma gave the HTC smart phones as gifts to other country) The Yong Fast company makes a lot of money by receiving orders from HTC and many other international companies. However, it is revealed that the labors in Young Fast work overtime without paid. Additionally, the company abuse child labor and expel union cadres. Though the Taoyuan county government fined Young Fast, the company still turns a deaf ear to all these protests and objections. What’s more, Young Fast spend huge amount of money to buy advertising on newspapers, saying that these are all just the discredit from the government. Today, Young Fast hasn’t yet make any restatement of the union cadres, neither has the company improve its working conditions. Just as Apple Daily says, “this is the Sweatshop in Taiwan.”
(B) Negative news about HTC mobile phone panel frequently pops up which hurts the image of HTC. We notice that the customer of this sweatshop, Taiwan local brand HTC, pays no attention to the negative news and does nothing toward this notorious company. Today, HTC still maintains the cooperation relationship with Young Fast and makes huge amount of orders to the company. The indifferent attitude of HTC indirectly encourages Young Fast to continue the exploitation. Thus labor rights organizations constantly go to HTC headquarters to protest. This makes HTC smart phone, the originally “Proud of Taiwan,” become the “HTC Bloody mobile phone.” And the consumers who buy HTC products become the accomplice of exploit labors.
(C) HTC mobile phones are stained with workers’ blood. Consumers refuse to buy the products because they afraid of becoming one of the accomplices of killing workers.HTC does not care the workers’ bad working environment and their cheap salaries. By the time we young people buy a beautiful HTC mobile phone, we are buying the blood and tears of the workers in Young Fast. Each pieces of touching panel are stained with bloody finger prints. We are using a cell phone that is made of workers’ blood and tears! This something that is very sad and bothering for us consumer. We are caught in the dilemma that we want to support local brands in Taiwan through buying their products, but HTC is notorious for its cooperation with sweatshops. No matter how passionate and willing we are to support Taiwan local brands, we dare not purchase HTC products. Those who already bought had either gave it away or swore that they will never buy HTC products again. This is because we don’t want to be responsible for crime of labor exploitation and supporting sweatshops. We don’t want our HTC cell phone is a bloody phone!
※ So we decided to come out and protest. We show our anger through our body, and the painting on us! Our demands are as follows:
First, we young students protest against the HTC mobile phone panel maker Young Fast company, who provide bad working environment, exploit labor and child labor, suppress workers union, and laid off union cadres
Second, we demand HTC immediately end the cooperation relationship with Young Fast company, and fix the "Supplier Code of Conduct" to maintain the brand image. HTC should regulate that the company should examine on a regular basis about the working conditions of the cooperated factory. HTC should stop the cooperation relationship with those companies who violate regulations, such as Young Fast. We should help HTC get rid of the title of “Bloody cell phone” and “murderer cell phone,” and get onto the world stage with the positive image of taking good care of workers.
Third, we support those who have and had sacrificed for Taiwan's economic miracle: the workers, fishermen, farmers being deprived of their land and numerous disadvantaged families! We hope the Government besides taking care of the development of high technology, can also take care of the vulnerables’ right to live and right to work.
※ 【HTC murderer mobile phones, supplied by Young Fast - Nude painting action】: May 1 at 13:00, the young boys and girls will come out and bare their bodies, painted with【sweatshop Young Fast, HTC murderer phone】to declare our demands and protest toward Young Fast, and our propaganda to HTC!
※ 【sweatshop production line – Collective Cosplay Action】: Students who will be dressed as mobile phones, victims of working injury, farmers, fishermen. And they will be chained together with HTC, in order to let the public know that behind the high-tech production chain, we sacrifice the disadvantaged, our human rights and our land.
※ initiated groups: high-tech cold-blooded youth, Special agent of combating 3C sweatshop union, Seed community from National Chengchi University, Black Ditch Club from Fu Jen Catholic University.
