TV 공장에서 일했던 대만 근로자 암 발병으로 공장을 상대로 소송제기

(Taiwanese employees of a now-closed RCA TV factory sue over cancer cases)

대만인 Weng Shih Pei-yun는 1970년대 TV 조립공장에서 5년간 일했다.

이제 58세가 된 그녀는 암 때문에 대만교외에 있는 그녀의 집에서 생활하고 있다. 암으로 인해 계속된 두통, 코피, 어지러움을 겪고 있으며, 그녀는 미국인 소유의 공장에서 일한 것 때문에 암이 발병되었다고 한다.

Weng은 RCA(Radio Corporation of America)를 피고로 하여 7200만달러의 손해배상 소송을 제기한 예전 공장 근로자 또는 이들 가족 349명 중의 한명이다.  이들은 TV조립공장에서 오염된 물과 유해화학물질에의 과도한 노출 때문에 암이 발병한 것이라고 주장한다.

32년간 공장이 가동되면서 8만명 이상의 근로자가 고용되었다.  비록 얼마나 많은 사람들이 병에 걸렸는지는 불분명하지만, 원고들중의 32명은 2000년 이후로 암으로 사망하였고, 211명은 암에 걸려있는 상태라고 한다.

이 TV 조립공장은 1992년에 폐업하였다. 공장대지에 대한 환경개선작업(cleanup)이 진행되었지만, 대만 환경청은 공장 대지의 지하수가 유독물질과 발암물질로 인하여 오염되어 있다고 공포하였다.

이 공장에 대한 법적 분쟁은 RCA의 자산동결을 구하는 소송이 2002년에 제기되면서 시작되었다.

손해배상에 대한 여러번의 요구에 대하여 피고인 RCA가 응답하지 않자, 일련의 전 고용자들은 미국으로 건너가 환경보호단체나 노동단체에게 그들의 고통을 알렸다.

현재의 소송은 2004년도 대만 지방법원에서 기각되었고, 고등법원에서도 지방법원의 판결이 지지되었다. 그러나, 2005년 12월 대만 대법원은 절차적 위반을 이유로 이 사건을 지방법원으로 이송명령을 하였다. 피고의 대변인은 이 사건에 대하여 논평을 하기를 거부하였다.

Taiwanese employees of a now-closed RCA TV factory sue over cancer cases

(AP) - TAIPEI, Taiwan-Weng Shih Pei-yun spent five years working at a television assembly factory in northern Taiwan in the 1970s, part of a legion of laborers who helped transform this island from agricultural backwater to industrial powerhouse.

Now the 58-year-old cancer victim says she is confined to her home in a Taipei suburb, suffering from constant headaches, daily nose bleeds and fainting spells that she blames on her time at the American-owned plant.

Weng is one of 349 people - former factory workers or their families - suing Radio Corporation of America and its one-time parent, General Electric Co., for New Taiwanese dollars 2.4 billion (US$72 million; a?￢54 million) in cancer-related damages, allegedly resulting from contaminated water and excessive exposure to toxic chemicals at the Taiwanese facility.

In 32 years of operation, the plant employed more than 80,000 workers. While it is unclear how many of them became ill, 32 of the lawsuit's plaintiffs have died of cancer since 2000, and 211 have developed cancerous tumors, including in the brain, lung, kidney and breast, according to lawyer Kent Liu of the Legal Aid Foundation in Taipei.

The factory closed in 1992, after switching hands twice - Fairfield, Conn.-based GE bought RCA in 1986 and sold the name to Thomson SA of France a few years later.

Some cleanup of the land was carried out by the companies in the mid-1990s, though as recently as 2004, Taiwan's Environmental Protection Agency declared it contaminated, because its groundwater was polluted by toxic and carcinogenic chemicals, including vinyl chloride.

Legal proceedings in the factory case began in 2002, when volunteer lawyers filed a suit asking a district court to freeze RCA's local assets, Liu said.

He alleged that the company's bank holdings disappeared before litigation began.

After numerous out-of-court requests for compensation went unanswered by RCA and GE, Liu said, a group of former employees traveled to the United States, publicizing their grievances during meetings with environment and labor rights groups in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington and New York.

The current suit was initially thrown out by Taipei District Court in 2004, and that judgment was upheld on appeal.

In December 2005, however, Taiwan's Supreme Court ordered it back to the district level for a new hearing, citing procedural errors.

Spokespeople from both GE and Thomson declined to comment on the case because it is still being litigated.

Liu says he cares deeply for victims like Weng, who because of the cancer - in her inner ear and nose - is unable to work.

Weng herself points out that she has no history of cancer in her family and never smoked cigarettes.

"It's been difficult," she says of her nine-year battle with recurring bouts of the disease. "Very difficult. I wish I hadn't worked there."