On April 30th, Taichung City Government held the “Award Ceremony for Distinguished and Role Model Laborers” to celebrate the Laborer’s Day (May 1st) Jason Hu, mayor, awarded 51 role model laborers (including Tesng Yin-che) and 39 distinguished laborers (including Chang Ai-chu). Jason Hu said Taichung City would be upgraded to a direct-controlled municipality. Therefore, the laborer welfare should be upgraded too. Hu asked Lai Sue-hui, the director of the Department of Labor Affairs, to meet the Department of Labor Affairs of Taichung County and make a plan to build up a direct-controlled municipality level recreation and service center for the laborers.

Hu said that laborers were the most important. This rule is worldwide universal. Without laborers, there would be nothing. All the blooming industries in Taichung were all created and established by laborers, so without laborers there would be nothing in Taichung.

In order to enhance laborers’ welfare, Hu said that Taichung needed a laborers’ recreation and service center of a direct-controlled municipality level to serve the 3 million laborers in the Taichung region. The existing labor service center did not fit the demands. Therefore, the government should plan in advance. He asked Lai Sue-hui, the director of the Department of Labor Affairs, to contact the Department of Labor Affairs of Taichung County soon and make a plan to build a direct-controlled municipality level recreation and service center for laborers.

The laborers have created many economic miracles for Taiwan. 30 of the 59 honored role model laborers were from industrial domains. The longest seniority among the role model laborers was 32 years and 27 years for the distinguished laborers. All of the members of the award commission agreed to honor them.

For example, Lin Chun-hung, who suffered from sports injuries and learned osteopathic therapies well, has contributed in a volunteer clinic over the past 15 years for Liu-kuei Children’s Home. His good will benefit people in Taiwan and overseas who suffer from sports injuries.

The other role model labor, Hu Guang-shiang, has been a professional taxi driver for 32 years. Rain or shine, he was always responsible and drove safe over the past 32 years. He was highly self-disciplined and put safety as his highest priority. Also, he was always kind to passengers, so he had word-of-mouth reputation among his clients.