Press Release
April 14, 2019
Partido Manggagawa
Contact Dennis Sequena @ 09480194340
Riders from factories all around Cavite trooped to the giant ecozone at
the town of Rosario this afternoon to protest union busting at two Korean-owned
garments companies. Some 100 workers in a
motorcade of 50 motorcycles held a mass action at the main gate of the Cavite
Economiz Zone to slam the management of Jisoo Garments Manufacturing Corp. and Daegyoung
Apparel Inc. Workers from the two garments factories are complaining of union
busting by their management.
The workers are alleging that management is maneuvering to bust the
union in the companies. Jisoo separated almost all of its regular work force
last March ahead of a possible certification elections this month. While in
Daegyoung, workers are being called by management to meetings and asked to sign
statements that they will not join a union.
Last May 2018, the Department of Labor and Employment convened a
dialogue between labor groups and the Philippine Economic Zone Authority to
address complaints of violations of the right to unionize and labor standards
in the major ecozones like in Cavite and Mactan Cebu. A technical working group
was formed to resolve the allegations of union busting and other workplace grievances.
A union busting complaint filed by the Jisso labor union is presently
pending. A preventive mediation petition is due to be filed by the Daegyoung
workers.
Dennis Sequena, Partido Manggagawa coordinator in Cavite, explained
that “To pre-empt the certification election and bust the union, last month
Jisoo management offered to separate its regular work force. The separation
package was supposed to be voluntary but instead workers were called for one-on-one
meetings in management offices and cajoled into accepting the offer. Almost all
of the 350 regular workers were terminated and only a handful of union officers
remained who resisted the offer. Recently, the union president was denied
overtime as a way to harass the remaining holdouts.”
He added that “In Daegyoung, workers recently formed a union to address
issues of low wages, lack of benefits and excessive production quota. In one
incident, he union president confronted one of the supervisors for asking
workers to sign the anti-union pledge. As a result he has been slapped with a
case for insubordination and is due to be suspended. These blatant management
interference in the right of workers in Jisoo at Daegyoung to unionize are a gross
violation of the Labor Code and the International Labor Organization’s
Convention 87 and 98 on freedom of association and collective bargaining.”
Both Jisoo and Daegyoung supply to well-known and global garments
brands. Jisoo manufactures clothes for Marubeni of Japan, Cross Plus of Japan,
Vuarnet of France, Michael Bastian of the US, 8Seconds of Korea and Tomato.
Daegyoung produces garments for Kohl’s of US, Vera Wang of US, Jennifer Lopez
of US and UBase International of Korea. ###
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