On September 5th, the Taikoo Beverage Hong Kong Employees Union staged a strike outside the soda factory in Sha Tin, protesting the company’s dismissal of a union director with over a hundred employees participating.
According to reports from various media outlets including Oriental Daily News and am730, around 150 employees gathered outside the Taikoo Soda Factory at 17 Yuen Shun Circuit in Sha Tin, holding up signs with messages like “Drivers for Taikoo Cola must take care of traffic accidents on their own” to demand the company revoke the dismissal decision.
Vice President of the Taikoo Beverage (Hong Kong) Employees Union, Mr. Chen Qinglong, explained that in early August, a driver with 18 years of service at the company was involved in a traffic accident while on duty, causing injury to a pedestrian. In the past, when colleagues were involved in traffic accidents, the company would only instruct the involved party to not drive anymore or assign them to other tasks. However, this time, the company directly terminated the driver in question citing a violation of internal safety guidelines for not wearing a seatbelt while reversing.
Mr. Chen stated that although employees receive safety training upon joining, they were never informed of or shown these specific “safety guidelines”, suspecting that the dismissal decision was related to the driver’s role as a union director. As a result, they initiated the strike action to demand the company rescind the dismissal decision.
The dismissed driver, Mr. Wong, also criticized the unfair and heartless actions of the management for terminating his contract without prior warning, especially when the incident was still under investigation and no charges were filed by the authorities.
That morning, the union held a special general meeting where a resolution was passed demanding the company commit to not holding the striking employees accountable.
Later that evening, the Hong Kong Taikoo Coca-Cola and the Taikoo Beverage Hong Kong Employees Union issued a joint statement announcing that they had reached a consensus. The union further declared an end to the strike action, with employees expected to resume work the following day.
The company acknowledged that the safety terms were not sufficiently clear and pledged to conduct a transparent review in the future, as well as establish a “legal advisor” for employee consultation. As a result, the company revoked the dismissal decision and opted for a suspension pending judgment, during which the employee in question would receive their base salary. The company also promised not to take disciplinary measures against the striking employees, with only unpaid absences being noted.
Since the 2019 “anti-extradition law amendment bill” protests and the enforcement of the 2020 “National Security Law for Hong Kong”, the majority of pro-democracy groups and unions in Hong Kong have disbanded, and large-scale union strikes have largely disappeared. This recent strike by the Taikoo Beverage Hong Kong Employees Union marks one of the first instances of significant union action post the anti-extradition law protests in Hong Kong.