Fishy Food Poisoning @ Formosa Plastics

The Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants (APMM) is charging that something is fishy about a recent rash of food poisoning cases that affected 31 workers at the Formosa Plastics Yunlin campus on April 13. The press statement seemed to imply that some of the poisoned workers were worker leaders - workers at this plant have held strikes three times since last July for various reasons - but wasn't completely clear on this point. After the first strike last July, several of the strike leaders were forcibly deported, and at least one, Gil Lebria, was beaten severely to scare the group into signing waivers that terminated their employment contracts with Formosa - this according to Lebria's story as reported in POTS. This case is still pending in Taiwanese courts. A local legal assocation is doing pro bono work for Lebria, whom I believe is now back in the Philippines.