The labour union of Formosa Chemicals and Fibre Corp.’s (FCFC) Changhua plant is planning to mobilize 5,000 people for a third protest against Changhua County Government for its refusal to renew the factory’s three power generators.

The demonstration is slated for October 15, local media reported, which was to be the plant’s final day of operation. Key members of the labor union reportedly held a closed-door meeting to plan the third protest, as two protests staged over the past week by the plant’s 1,000 employees had failed to achieve results, the Chinese-language United Daily News reported.

The Changhua County Government continued to deny a request to renew the plant’s three power generators.

In addition, the Cabinet-level Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) turned down an appeal filed by FCFC against the decision of the county authorities.

The labor union said it would seek to unite employees of the FCFC’s plants in other counties, the Six Naphtha Refinery of Formosa Plastics Group as well as their contractors to stage a protest at a much larger scale than before, in a bid to protect their right to work.

Lin De-yu, director of the county government’s Department of Information, called on the FCFC labor union to handle the issue peacefully and rationally.