Sein Together union officers reinstated after month-long fight

The union president and seven other union officers of the Korean-owned garments factory Sein Together Philippines were finally allowed to return to work starting November 2. They, together with around 500 workers, were laid off when the factory temporarily shutdown in late August. All the workers were forced or cajoled into resigning and accepting separation pay, except for 20 union officers and members who fought the shutdown as a union busting scheme by the company.

When the factory reopened in late October, the 20 were not allowed to return to work even as some 200 of the retrenched workers, all non-union, were rehired by Sein Together. In a hearing at the labor court in the last week of October, the company stood pat on its refusal to reinstate the union officers. Twelve of the 20 union officers finally accepted the separation offer, believing that that company will never allow them back to work. The labor court hearing was a result of the illegal shutdown complaint filed by the union.

The reinstatement of the remaining eight union officers was the outcome of a series of protests by the union and their suporters, and actions by brands, specifically Disney, on the alleged freedom of association violations at Sein Together. The union expresses its gratitude to their allies in the workers movement, to the International Labor Rights Forum and Disney.

In a mediation meeting facilitated by the Labor Department on November 3, the company formally declared that the eight union officers are reinstated to their former positions. The union asked that all retrenched workers, whether union or non-union members, be rehired. The company refused on the grounds that they have sole discretion to hire workers.

The union’s complaint at the labor court for illegal shutdown remains pending and the workers are demanding backwages for the one-month period of the temporary closure of the factory from late August to late October. The company averred that the closure was due to lack of orders but the union asserts the shutdown was merely a ruse to force workers to resign and bust the union. The shutdown was the culmination of a series of moves by the company to subvert freedom of association since the workers started organizing a union.

The union reports that Disney-branded products are not being manufactured at Sein Together at the present time.

19 November 2017

PALEA testifies at Washington DC on labor rights in the Philippines

Gerry Rivera meets with US flights attendants union at Washington DC

Press Release

January 25, 2012

PALEA

The Philippine Airlines Employees Association (PALEA) president Gerry Rivera testified at Washington DC at dawn today (noon January 24 EST) on the suppression of labor rights by the Philippine government. Rivera faced-off with government officials led by Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz at the hearing held by the US Trade Representative (USTR).

“PALEA presents a significant case in reviewing whether or not the Philippines have taken or taking steps to afford workers their internationally recognized rights. We submit that Philippine government has abused its power to assume jurisdiction (AJ) of strikes thereby curtailing workers’ rights to freely organize and bargain collectively. PALEA was not allowed to strike on two crucial occasions to protest the mass termination of some 2,600 workers and yet Philippine Airlines (PAL) was permitted to proceed with the layoff despite a pending case at the Court of Appeals,” Rivera argued before the USTR subcommittee on the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP).

This is not the first time that the government, specifically Sec. Baldoz, had to face inquiries abroad on the handling of the PAL-PALEA labor row on outsourcing and contractualization. Last December 7, Baldoz was questioned by a delegate to the International Labor Organization regional meeting in Kyoto, Japan on PALEA’s protest.

Aside from Rivera, Josua Mata of the Alliance of Progressive Labor and Brian Campbell of the International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF) also spoke before the hearing to corroborate PALEA’s testimony and paint the “big picture” on the state of labor rights. On the government side, Justice Undersecretary Francisco Baraan III, Labor Undersecretary Rebecca Chato, Ambassador Jose Cuisia, Jr. and other Philippine embassy officials accompanied Baldoz.

At stake at the hearing are trade benefits accorded by the United States government to countries which it deems respects core labor rights and standards. The GSP subcommittee which held the hearing for the “review of country practices” includes representatives of the USTR, Department of Agriculture, Department of Commerce, Department of Labor, Department of State and Department of Treasury. The Philippines was put under scrutiny based on the petition filed by the ILRF, a DC-based advocacy organization.

Rivera also met with the top union officials of the AFL-CIO and its constituent organizations to solicit support for its fight against contractualization and boycott campaign. Among those which expressed concern and solidarity was the Association of Flight Attendants which will include PALEA’s plight in its upcoming “Occufly” protest in California on February. US-based unions and Fil-Am groups are spearheading boycott campaigns in the West Coast cities of San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Vancouver where PAL has its most profitable flights.

Rivera’s testimony came on the heels of renewed protests by PALEA yesterday. Members of PALEA together with Partido ng Manggagawa held a motorcade from the protest camp to PAL’s offices at the airport, PNB Building in

Macapagal Ave.

and Allied Bank Building in Ayala.

PAL is a Scrooge—international labor rights group

Press Release

December 21, 2011

A Washington DC-based international labor rights watchdog has included Philippine Airlines (PAL) in its list of worst companies for the year. PAL joins giant companies Dole, Wal-Mart and Hershey in the “Scrooge list” of the International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF) for the “use of intimidation and sometimes violence, in the U.S. and abroad, to violate workers’ internationally recognized right to organize.”

The Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) welcomed PAL’s description as a Scrooge “since Lucio Tan stole Christmas from some 2,400 employees and their families.” Renato Magtubo, PM chair, said that “PAL has been naughty not nice to its workers so Santa did not grant its wish of a profitable year.” PAL has announced that it will end the year with losses to due its failed outsourcing plan and high fuel prices.

In its report, ILRF explained that “Some of this year’s Scrooges, such as Dole and Wal-Mart, are repeat offenders—giant corporations that refuse to uphold their responsibility to their direct employees and to workers in their supply chains. Hershey receives Scrooge status for the first time—an accolade long overdue—as the chapter exposes an ongoing pattern of the company’s neglect of workers’ rights and refusal to be more accountable to workers in its supply chain. The case of Philippine Airlines illustrates an increasingly common trend among corporations, the flexibilization of work, and how when workers protest against outsourcing, they are locked-out and fired.”

“This holiday season corporate greed at PAL is shining through,” the ILRF report asserted. The group is supporting PALEA by calling on the public to boycott PAL and its sister low-cost carrier Air Philippines until the workers are reinstated to their regular jobs.

“The right to freedom of association is typically violated through the use of bullying tactics and the spread of anti-union propaganda but this year’s Scrooges have taken violating workers’ rights to new lows. As we celebrate the holiday season, consumers and labor advocates can support workers by telling these Scrooge companies that they need to respect workers rights,” said Judy Gearhart, ILRF Executive Director.

Magtubo declared that “The Philippines is not on the right track but off course as far as labor rights is concerned.” The ILRF Scrooge list follows on the heels of a critical report issued last month by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) regarding the observance of core labor standards in the Philippines which also mentions the case of the Philippine Airlines Employees Association (PALEA) as substantiation. The global union body said that “In view of restrictions on the trade union rights of workers, discrimination, child labour, and forced labour, determined measures are needed to comply with the commitments” of the Philippines to international treaties.

The ILRF report Working for Scrooge is can be viewed online at http://www.laborrights.org/scrooges2011. The ITUC report is posted at is posted at http://www.ituc-csi.org/IMG/pdf/wto_review.pdf.

Labor rights group lead global boycott of PAL

Press Release

November 25, 2011

PALEA

The Washington DC-based group International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF) yesterday led the global call for a boycott of Lucio Tan-owned Philippine Airlines (PAL) and Air Philippines (AirPhil) in support of the embattled Philippine Airlines Employees Association. ILRF is an advocacy organization dedicated to achieving just and humane treatment for workers worldwide.

ILRF is calling on its network of labor groups, civil society organizations and the general public to boycott PAL and AirPhil until the locked-out PALEA members are reinstated to their regular jobs. “We welcome the boycott call as a form of solidarity for PALEA. It will put pressure on PAL and the government which both remain deaf to the demands and plight of PAL employees. The unity of the 99% both here and abroad will be the key to winning the fight against the outsourcing scheme of Lucio Tan who represents the 1%,” declared Gerry Rivera, PALEA president and vice chair of Partido ng Manggagawa.

The launch of the global call was timed for the start of the peak season for airline travel and PAL’s announced return to normal operations yesterday. PALEA however disputes PAL’s claims and cited recent several hours and days of delays in international flights as indicators. Rivera also asked the media investigate the results of the recently concluded US Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) audit of PAL. “The results of the audit will serve to validate PALEA’s assertions that the outsourcing scheme is a failure, and that safety and service has been compromised by the untrained and overworked scabs that are now operating the flights,” he added.

ILRF is running on its website an online petition for the boycott of PAL and AirPhil (http://action.laborrights.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=3183). Once the petition is signed, messages of concern about PALEA will be sent to President Benigno Aquino III, Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz, Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez, Jr. and PAL CEO Jaime Bautista. ILRF has also sent by email notices about the boycott campaign to thousands in its mailing list.

In its mass mailing, ILRF argues that “We know that the airlines cannot withstand a boycott. PAL and AirPhil rely on end-of-year holidays travel for their profit line. If a large enough group of us join the boycott publicly, we will have an impact.”

In response to the ILRF boycott appeal, the global union International Transport Workers Federation has forwarded a similar call with a link to the ILRF petition so recipients can sign up. The largest trade union portal in the world, Labourstart (http://labourstart.org/), has also posted an article on its site with a link to the boycott petition.

International labor advocates slam sweatshop labor in the Philippines

Press Release
November 18, 2009

Two international labor rights groups slammed the exploitation of sweatshop labor around the world including the Philippines. The International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF) released a report yesterday that listed two big American companies in its “Sweatshop Hall of Shame 2010” for using subcontractors based in the Mactan Economic Zone (MEZ) in Lapu-Lapu City that violate fundamental labor rights and standards. Meanwhile the Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC) celebrated its 20th anniversary by launching a book that chronicles the rise of the anti-sweatshop movement. The CCC has recently worked with the Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) in defending workers in several factories in the MEZ that produce for famous companies like Adidas and Abercrombie and Fitch.

Renato Magtubo, PM chairperson, said “We welcome the critical report of the ILRF and the excellent work of the CCC in support of the struggle of workers in the Philippines and around the world. If only our own Department of Labor and Employment was as vigilant as the ILRF and CCC then there would be less workers suffering from poverty wages and dire working conditions.”

The ILRF is a Washington DC-based advocacy organization dedicated to achieving just and humane treatment for workers worldwide. The ILRF’s Hall of Shame inductees are companies that “are responsible for evading fair labor standards and often are slow to respond or provide no response at all to any attempts by the ILRF and workers to improve working conditions.”

ILRF called on American shoppers to “take the time to ask about labor standards at the factories that produce Abercrombie and Fitch and Hollister clothing.” The demand stemmed from the labor dispute at Alta Mode Inc., an Abercrombie and Fitch contractor, where the union is accusing management of unfair labor practice and interference in the right to organize. The ILRF report states that “Workers have struggled for a union as an antidote to a production quota set beyond human capacity.”

Meanwhile the CCC has national campaigns in 12 European countries with a network of 250 organisations worldwide. The CCC inspired book titled "Clean Clothes" by Dutch writer and photographer Liesbeth Sluiter recounts that “all along the garment industry’s supply chains, workers, including children, are exploited through poverty wages, unpaid overtime and harsh anti-union measures.”

According to the ILRF report, at the Paul Yu factory, a supplier of the US home furnishings retailer Pier 1 Imports, employees were unjustly suspended for forming a workers association and protesting against rampant contractualization. ILRF revealed that it communicated with Pier 1 Imports but the company refused to take any meaningful action. The report relates that “The workers of Paul Yu are a testament to how companies like Pier 1 Imports continuously fail to meet their own corporate social responsibility commitment.”

The copy of the ILRF report can be accessed at http://www.laborrights.org/sites/default/files/publications-and-resources/sweatshop_hall_shame_2010.pdf. Details of the CCC anniversary commemoration and book launching can be confirmed via wyger@cleanclothes.org. Below is a copy of the CCC press release.

Anti-sweatshop 'Clean Clothes Campaign' Marks 20 Years
New Book Charts Growth of Global Movement

Nov. 16, 2009 - The worldwide anti-sweatshop Clean Clothes Campaign marks 20 years this month, and coinciding with the anniversary a new book on the movement will be launched on November 18. "Clean Clothes" by Dutch writer and photographer Liesbeth Sluiter takes an independent look at how the campaign has grown from an ad-hoc feminist coalition in Holland to an international labour-rights activist network that put corporate accountability on the fashion industry's agenda.

The campaign, one of the most prominent anti-sweatshop organizations today, aims to improve the wages and conditions of workers in the global garment industry. Large retailers such as Tesco, Walmart and Carrefour lure shoppers in with prices that seem too good to be true. This book shows that they’re too good to be fair.

All along the industry’s supply chains, workers, including children, are exploited through poverty wages, unpaid overtime and harsh anti-union measures. The campaign urges those in charge of the garment industry’s supply lines to protect their workers and treat them fairly.

This dynamic account of direct engagement by concerned consumers is a must read for those that see globalisation differently and want their shopping choices to support the most vulnerable people involved in the clothing industry.

Liesbeth Sluiter is a Dutch freelance photographer and journalist, who has worked for over 25 years with a passionate focus on environment, gender and global development issues. She is the author of The Mekong Currency (1993), published in the UK, the Netherlands, and Japan, and has written numerous articles on development and environmental issues.

The CCC has national campaigns in 12 European countries with a network of 250 organisations worldwide, including development organisations, trade unions, women's organisations, human-rights defenders. In the Philippines the Partido ng Manggagawa works together with the CCC to defend labor rights and welfare in the export zones.

Export zone workers bring their fight to cyberspace

Press Release
June 23, 2009

Workers of Paul Yu, a Taiwanese-owned factory in the Mactan Export Processing Zone in Lapu-Lapu City producing lamp shades for the global and local market, have brought their fight to cyberspace even as they continue their protests on the ground. The Paul Yu workers association has started an online campaign to garner support for their fight against management which has suspended not just seven leaders but more than 300 workers who have participated in protests.

“We were inspired by protesters against con-ass who use cyberspace and blogs. But in our case, an online campaign also broadcasts our appeal to labor and advocacy groups abroad. The main customers of Paul Yu are in the US and Europe where there is heightened consumer and corporate consciousness in patronizing products which have been made in factories which respect codes of conduct, labor standards and workers rights,” explained Willy Dondoyano, president of the Paul Yu workers association.

The Paul Yu workers struggle continues to gain solidarity from abroad with a letter of concern signed by the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) sent today to the management with copies furnished to the Labor Department and the Philippine Export Zone Authority.

The UE letter states that “We will be watching this situation closely, and urge you to take immediate steps to ensure that the labor protections and associational rights of your employees under both domestic and international law are respected. It is our hope that you will reverse the suspensions and engage in a serous and meaningful dialog with the workers association in order to regularize employment and create a work environment beneficial to both your employees and the company.” The letter was signed by top three national officers of the union which represent 35,000 workers in the US.

“We appeal to our fellow Filipinos and workers to sign up for the online campaign as an innovative form to complement our grassroots protest,” said Dennis Derige, spokesperson for Partido ng Manggagawa-Cebu. The online campaign can be accessed at http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=543. The background information for the campaign can be seen at http://partidongmanggagawa2001.blogspot.com/2009/06/appeal-for-solidarity-for-paul-yu.html.

Since the online campaign started late last night, over a 14-hour period some 10 unionists from the US, Canada, Germany, Australia, India and Malaysia have already signed up. Over the weekend the US-based advocacy group International Labor Rights Forum also sent a letter to Paul Yu management expressing concern about labor rights violations at the factory.