Cavite electronics workers bring protest to factory premises and export zone

Press Release

May 13, 2010

The laid off workers of Dyna Image Corp. Phils., an electronics factory at the Cavite Economic Zone (CEZ) in Rosario, Cavite, picketed the company premises and the export zone this morning. The picket today is an escalation of the series of protests conducted by the Dyna Image workers.

Some 60 women members of the Samahan ng Manggagawa sa Dyna Image Corp. Phils. held a picket protest as early as 6:00 a.m. at the company gates inside the export zone compound. Not long after, a representative of the administration of CEZ asked the workers to a dialogue. Around 10:00 a.m. the dialogue at the CEZ administration office started with 10 Dyna Image union officers and a mediator from the National Conciliation and Mediation Board (NCMB) but no representative from management came.

“We are more than willing to sit down with management in order to negotiate our demand that we return to work. The meetings at the NCMB have remained inconclusive since management refuses to consider workers demands for layoffs as a last option. Today’s picket is only the start of bigger protests to come,” declared Virgielita Morite, president of the Dyna Image union.

At 9:00 a.m. the Dyna Image workers marched from the factory to the main gate of the CEZ where they met some 200 members of the Partido ng Manggagawa (PM). The PM members, together with other Dyna Image workers who were blocked at the main gate, were holding a solidarity program since 7:00 a.m.

The workers bore placards that said “Manggagawa ng Dyna Image, Ibalik sa trabaho,” “Last not first option ang tanggalan,” “Noynoy: Simulan ang pagbabago, Tigilan ang tanggalan,” and “Ang laban sa tanggalan ay laban na tapat. Ang laban sa tanggalan ay laban ng lahat.”

Dennis Sequena, a leader of PM in Cavite, explained that “We call on reelected Mayor Nonong Ricafrente to mediate and appeal to management to accept the Dyna Image workers back to work. The workers demand is reasonable; it is management that is being hardheaded.”

The workers are demanding that management implement a last in, first out policy as regards the retrenchment. They also propose that working hours be reduced from the present 12-hour shift so that the 127 laid off workers can share the workload with the 450 workers inside the factory. “The fact that workers are on overtime and production is in full blast belies management’s arguments that it is losing and so must dismiss workers,” Morite insisted.

Last May 7, 109 members of the Dyna Image union unanimously voted for strike. Before that, on April 27 the Dyna Image workers practically took over the NCMB extension office in Imus in protest at their dismissal. The Dyna Image workers walked out of their factory on April 26 when they were forced to receive separation pay from the company. Dyna Image is a Taiwanese-owned factory that produces parts for cellhone cameras.