Labor group slams criminalization of unionists

The labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) today condemned the criminalization of unionists in Cebu, Valenzuela and Cavite. In Cebu, a “wanted list” of unionists were posted at the gate of the Mactan Economic Zone and its security office last Wednesday. In Valenzuela, in the middle of negotiations for a collective bargaining agreement (CBA), a union president and vice president were arrested due to a criminal complaint also last Wednesday. Finally in Cavite, criminal complaints were also filed against union officers.

“We are alarmed at this disturbing pattern of unionists being treated as criminals. Unionism is not a crime. But with the prevailing culture of impunity, employers are emboldened to criminalize unionists and treat them as terrorists,” declared Rene Magtubo, national of PM.

Names and pictures of Myra Opada, Luzelie Gesta and Aurelia Parangan were on the “wanted list” in the Mactan ecozone. Opada is union president at Philippine Light Leather Corp. (PLLC), Gesta is secretary of the union and Parangan is an active member. All three have been terminated by PLLC management but the workers have filed cases of union busting, unfair labor practice and illegal dismissal.

Meanwhile, the president and vice president of the labor union at the Nation Paper Products and Printing Corp. (NAPPCO) were arrested and detained at a Valenzuela police station for two days already. The union is trying to raise the P36,000 total bail for the two. The CBA negotiations were cancelled as a result of the arrest and detention.

Cases for falsification of public documents by were filed against union officers at Jisoo Garments Manufacturing Corp. and Dong Seung Inc. in the Cavite ecozone more than a month ago. The criminal complaints followed other instances of harassment by management of active unionists in the two Korean-owned garments factories.

“While police are arresting tambays for crimes that have not been committed, employers are similarly engaged in criminalizing unionists for exercising their rights as workers. Police should instead arrest employers who are illegally employing endo workers, under paying workers for wages and benefits and not remitting deduction for SSS, Pag-ibig and Philhealth,” argued Magtubo.

The group is studying the possibility of a congressional investigation of the spate of incidents of union repression in the country. A global union body had listed the Philippines as among the worst countries for workers in its 2018 Global Rights Index. 

June 29, 2018

SLEX workers protest mass termination

Scores of toll employees of SLEX together and their supporters are holding a protest this afternoon in Laguna. The National Mediation and Conciliation Board regional office in Laguna is convening a hearing today due to workers of complaint of illegal dismissal.

Some 90 employees of the San Miguel Corp.-owned Manila Toll Expressway System, Inc. (MATES) are to be terminated en masse this month but are to be transferred to an outsourcing agency called PITC. Workers are alleging that the the scheme is a union busting and job contractualization manuever.

Randy Tuason, a leader of the MATES workers, declared that "We are demanding that workers be absorbed as regular employees in PITC and that the union also be recognized. It is utterly unfair to be demoted as probationary employees in an agency when we have worked as toll employees for years already."

The affected employees work the tolls from Alabang to Calamba, Laguna and onto Sto. Tomas, Batangas. A union was formed and certified as a bargaining agent just a few months ago.

In the first mediation hearing last week, no agreement was reached. MATES-SLEX said that they will consider the demand of the workers for absorption as regular employees. Workers also picketed the mediation hearing.

Rene Magtubo, chair of the militant group Partido Manggagawa, which is assisting the MATES workers, said that “Ending endo was supposed to be a policy shift of this administration. President Duterte kept repeating in dialogues with labor leaders that he wants to stop the prevalent practice of workers being transferred to agencies instead being hired as regular workers in principal companies. So why is this being allowed at SLEX?”

“If this is allowed at MATES-SLEX then it will be followed in other toll roads. Instead of toll payment interconnection as announced a few days ago, we will have rampant contractualization in the expressways. We call on the DOLE to intervene in this issue,” he added.

Photos of SLEX workers picket last week can be accessed here: https://www.facebook.com/partidomanggagawa/posts/10155612446129323

September 20, 2017

Iloilo truck drivers on strike

Iloilo City – After failing to settle through mediation the dispute between the Iloilo ARR Enterprises Labor Organization (IARRELO) and the management of ARR Trucking, the former decided to hold a union strike lamenting union busting and unfair labor practice.  This after what started to be a peaceful labor union formation by drivers of ARR Enterprises and their subsequent submission of a proposal for Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) to the ARR management was met with harsh consequences.

            While the CBA negotiations were proceeding, ARR management dismissed the Union President, Mr. Elmer Blancaflor and the Union Secretary,Mr. Wilson Amatac, on a flimsy claim of redundancy by transferring their respective truck units to another province of operation of ARR.

            This prompted the filing of an Illegal Dismissal case, Unfair Labor Practice and Union busting against ARR management with the NLRC and a Notice of Strike at the NCMB.

            “Indi nagid ni ya ensakto ang ubra ka management. Nagpungko pa kami para maistoryahan ang amon CBA, tapos gulpi lang wala na kami ya unit kag hambalon nga redundant na kami sang akon Sekretaryo”, lamented Elmer Blancaflor, IARRELO President.

            Blancaflor was optimistic that their proposed CBA will be granted by the management since every negotiation between them and the ARR management, the atmosphere is cordial and all are amenable to the suggestion of each other.

            “Nakibot lang kami nga pitik sintas, wad-an kami ya ubra.  Nga kabalu gid sila nga union officers kami kag gapungko pa sa negotiating panel sang Unyon sa CBA negotiation,” said Union Secretary Wilson Amatac.

            With the seven (7) days cooling off period expiring without a clear settlement after NCMB personnel mediated between the parties, IARRELO is now set to put up the strike.

            “Ang katapusan namon nga alatrasan, strike na gid lang. Indi man tani namon ini luyag himuon apang kun amo ini ang pamaagi nga mapalab-ot namon sa mga natungdan ang amon problema, pasensya sa maapektuhan. Indi kami magpasugot, bilang mamumugon, nga basta lang lapakon ang amon kinamatarung kag pagkatawo”, declared Blancaflor.

           The Partido Manggagawa (PM), which has been assisting IARRELO, declared its full support to the decision of the Union to stage a strike.

            “Kun kinahanglan sang mamumugon nga manindugan kag maghulag para pamatukan ang mga kalakaran sa sulod sang ulubrahan nga nagapakanubo sang ila pagkatawo kag nagalapas sang ila kinamatarung bilang mamumugon, ang PM handa, sa ano man nga pamaagi, para suportahan ini”, concluded Mario Andon of Partido Manggagawa (PM).  

August 16, 2017

Tension at Cavite ecozone picketline

There was an hours-long standoff inside the Cavite economic zone in the town of Rosario yesterday as protesting workers stopped a container truck loaded with machines from leaving a dispute-bound factory. The tense situation ended only when the truck left early last night without its container load.

Workers of the garments factory Faremo International Inc. slammed its Korean owners for attempting to spirit away computerized sewing machines. They also condemned the industrial relations (IR) head of the Philippine Economic Zone Authority for conniving with management.

“We caught Faremo violating an agreement that it will not take out machines from the factory. Runaway shop is an unfair labor practice and illegal. Faremo closed down its organized factory to bust the union and is relocating to an unorganized plant whether in the Philippines or abroad,” averred Jessel Autida, president of the Faremo workers union.

Faremo is the biggest garments factory at the Cavite ecozone that shutdown last October 27 allegedly due to lack of orders, a claim that has been debunked by the admission of one of its clients that purchases have in fact been increased. Autida clarified that Faremo workers are not on strike and want to work but have been locked out. He explained that they are maintaining a 24/7 picket at the factory to guard against machines being taken out of Faremo.

Faremo is owned by the Korean multinational Hansoll and supplies to global garments brands Gap, JC Penney and Kohl’s. Faremo workers have been on the picketline for more than a month now. According to Autida, the union at Faremo was formed last year in a bid by workers to improve pay, benefits and working conditions and stop mistreatment like verbal abuse.

Autida also denounced PEZA IR official Allan Datahan and the PEZA police for threatening the protesting workers with criminal charges and dispersal using a firetruck for preventing the shipment of machines out of the factory.

He explained that “We are not scared with Datahan’s threats and we stood our ground for we are on the side of reason and law. It is Datahan and his PEZA police minions that are in breach of the DOLE-PNP-PEZA guidelines of 2011 that ban police, security guards and military from intervening in labor disputes.”

Meanwhile the militant Partido Manggagawa (PM) for the suspension of Datahan for his role in the tense standoff at the Faremo factory. “Once more Datahan, who is a public official, has been caught conniving with foreign investors who are trying to transgress our labor laws,” insisted Dennis Sequena, PM-Cavite coordinator.

December 16, 2016

Group slams PNoy for prioritizing Korean investments over workers’ concerns

Picketline at Tae Sung factory in February 2015

The labor party-list group Partido Manggagawa (PM) denounced President Benigno Aquino III for neglecting to raise urgent concerns of Filipino workers of Korean-owned companies in the country to South Korean President Park Geun-Hye at the just concluded Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. Media had reported that Aquino vowed to protect some one million Koreans residing in the Philippines as requested by Park.

Rene Magtubo, PM national chair, stated that “As we expected, when President Aquino met President Park, they talked about promoting trade and investments. Aquino spoke not a word about protecting union rights and decent pay for workers despite many ongoing labor rows involve Korean-owned factories in the Philippines.”

“On the specific case of Korea’s state-owned KEPCO coal plant in Cebu, the Office of the President had intervened to impose an assumption of jurisdiction (AJ) on the planned strike against illegal dismissals and union busting. These circumstances merit it being discussed between the two presidents if only to resolve the long-running dispute,” Magtubo added.

Workers from two Korean-owned companies now embroiled in labor disputes had challenged APEC on the issue of labor rights. Employees of power company KEPCO-Cebu and metal factory Tae Sung in Cavite have charged their managements with union busting and have pending labor disputes.

Lowell Sanchez, president of the KEPCO Cebu Supervisors Association (KCSA-WSN-Sentro), challenged the government to resolve the labor dispute. The KEPCO union filed a notice of strike last June for the unfair dismissal of Sanchez. The planned strike of the KEPCO workers was stopped by an AJ order so that it will not affect the APEC ministers meeting in Cebu last August. KEPCO operates coal plants in Cebu and Batangas.

Meanwhile, according to Charlie Piamonte, union president of Tae Sung Employees Association (TEA), they filed a notice of strike last November 12 for union busting. He explained that Tae Sung illegally fired union officer Joven Niviar, among other incidents of harassment of union members. The union is planning to conduct a strike vote within the next few days. Under the law, a union may launch a strike seven days after a majority of union members authorize it through a vote. Tae Sung is based in the Cavite Economic Zone in Rosario, Cavite and produces metal parts for the supply chain of multinational companies like American Power Conversion-Schneider Electric, Honda, Mitsubishi, Caterpillar and Siemens.

“KEPCO and Tae Sung are crystal clear examples of how APEC has facilitated growth and profit for multinational corporations that operates across borders. And they also fully illustrate how workers have born the sacrifices for the phenomenal economic benefits that corporations have reaped due to APEC. Workers across APEC countries contend with low pay, contractual work and union suppression even as their labor created the doubling of real GDP within APEC between 1989 and 2013,” Magtubo ended.

November 20, 2015

PALEA to demand reinstatement of dismissed workers in conciliation today

Press Release

October 15, 2015

PALEA

The union Philippine Airlines Employees’ Association (PALEA) will demand the recall of the recent mass layoff at Philippine Airlines (PAL) and the reinstatement of the 117 dismissed workers in the conciliation meeting scheduled today. To highlight the demand, PALEA members will hold a picket simultaneous with the mediation talks at the National Conciliation and Mediation Board office at the DOLE Building in Intramuros, Manila.

Today’s mediation is the second after PALEA filed a notice of strike last October 8. PAL announced the separation of 117 employees all working at domestic airports around the country last September 2.

“As we ask for the understanding of the riding public for a strike that may fall on the undas holiday, we also appeal for their solidarity in PALEA’s fight against retrenchment and contractualization. Ang laban ng PALEA ay laban ng lahat,” stated Gerry Rivera, PALEA president and Partido Manggagawa (PM) vice chair.

In threatening to strike, PALEA is alleging unfair labor practice by PAL due to the recent retrenchment and management interference in the right to unionize. The law gives PALEA 15 days after filing before it can actually hold a strike.

Rivera averred that “To avert a strike, we call on PAL to set aside their flimsy excuses for not responding to our demands. Such it seems is squid tactics to hide its inability to justify the illegal termination of 117 employees.”

“The mass layoff is not only illegal but immoral. PAL is firing workers though it is wallowing in profits. PAL’s parent company, PAL Holdings, reported a net income of P5.8 billion ($126.20 million) for the first half of 2015, soaring nearly ten-fold from P560 million ($12.18 million) during the same period last year,” Rivera added.

PALEA is hoping that PAL President Jaime Bautista will attend the mediation meeting today to facilitate resolution of the dispute. As part of its weekly protests, PALEA members picketed PAL offices yesterday around the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

Aside from opposing the latest retrenchment, PALEA is also calling for the opening of collective bargaining negotiation and the full implementation of a settlement agreement that ended the dispute over the last mass retrenchment in 2011.

No collective bargaining negotiation between PAL and PALEA has happened since 1998 when a 10-year CBA suspension was imposed. After a two-year fight, PALEA and PAL forged a deal to settle the labor dispute of 2011 yet some 600 retrenched members have not been re-employed as provided for in the agreement.

Group condemns killing of labor leader in Negros

Press Release

December 3, 2014

A week to go before the observance of international human rights day, the Partido Manggagawa (PM) condemned the assassination of a labor leader and organizer in Negros Occidental last November 29.

“The culture of impunity thrives in our country and the extra-judicial killings of labor activists continue unabated. We ask the state—the provincial government of Negros Occidental and the national agencies Department of Justice and the Commission on Human Rights—to act with dispatch on the case and make a thorough investigation,” asserted Wilson Fortaleza, PM spokesperson.

Rolando Pango, a farm worker leader in his hometown of Binalbagan and an organizer in the neighboring town of Isabela, was shot dead in the head by two men late in the evening of November 29. Pango on his way home after meeting farm workers who were to attend the Bonifacio Day rally when the motorcycle he was riding was blocked by a black sedan and another motorcycle in the crossing of Hacienda Garrason in Binalbagan.

“For the commemoration of human rights day, we want action not words, reform not speeches from the Aquino administration. The mastermind and perpetrators of the murder of Pango and other labor activists must be brought to justice,” insisted Renato Magtubo, PM chair and a Negrense from Bacolod. A 300-strong workers assembly in Bacolod resolved a day after Pango’s death to seek justice and campaign for a resolution to the killing.

PM believes that Pango’s killing arose from a labor and agrarian dispute that he was engaged in. Pango had received a death threat from an ex-NPA rebel with an alias “Mike” who now serves an armed bodyguard of Manuel “Manolet” Lamata, a landlord who had leased and manages Hacienda Salud, a 135-hectare sugar plantation in Barangay Rumirang, Isabela.

Magtubo called on the Department of Labor and Employment and the National Tripartite Industrial Peace Council to table the case of Pango.

Pango was assisting farm workers in seeking coverage of Hacienda Salud under land reform and also in illegal dismissal cases against Lamata. Since last year, the farm workers had endured successive violent harassment and bribery attempts at the hands of Lamata, who heads the powerful Negros sugar planters group, as the agrarian and labor disputes festered.

Pango’s murder follows the assassination of another farm worker leader in Isabela in December 2012. Victoriano Embang, head of the sugar workers association of Hacienda Maria Cecilia, was ambushed by two men riding in tandem in a motorcycle. Embang’s workers association was also embroiled in agrarian and labor disputes with their capitalist landlord, the Montillanos.

PALEA: SC final decision on FASAP case bolsters petition vs. outsourcing

Press Release

September 20, 2011

PALEA

The Philippine Airlines Employees’ Association (PALEA) asserted today that the Supreme Court’s (SC) final decision in favor of the Flight Attendants and Stewards Association’s (FASAP) on the illegal retrenchment case bolsters its position against the outsourcing plan of Philippine Airlines (PAL). “After 13 long years, the SC ruled with finality that PAL is guilty of illegal dismissing 1,400 flight crew at the height of the flag carrier’s financial troubles. Today with PAL awash in PhP 5 billion in income, the courts will clearly decide against the legality of terminating 2,600 ground crew if the judicial process is given due course,” declared Gerry Rivera, PALEA president and vice chair of Partido ng Manggagawa (PM).

PALEA congratulated FASAP in its hard won victory. “We salute our brothers and sisters in FASAP for the justice they have achieved after a protracted legal battle. This is the reason we argue that the ruling of the Office of the President on the outsourcing plan is not yet final and executory pending final judicial resolution of the case,” Rivera clarified.

PALEA members continued its protests against the layoff and contractualization by participating in the joint labor rally this afternoon at Mendiola. The groups Church-Labor Conference, Koalisyon Kontra Kontraktwalisasyon and PM held the rally on eve of the anniversary of martial law to denounce government policies that suppress labor rights.

“It is as if martial law has not been lifted for the labor movement. The workers of PAL, Hanjin shipyard and Dusit Hotel are living examples of martial law in the labor front,” Renato Magtubo, PM chairperson, argued. Tomorrow PALEA is celebrating its 65^th anniversary with a vow to “defeat PAL’s union busting scheme masquerading as an outsourcing plan.”

The SC second division in a ruling dated September 7, 2011 dismissed PAL’s second motion for reconsideration and ordered PAL to reinstate 1,400 flight attendants with full backwages. PALEA noted that among the issues resolved by the SC was that retrenchment is valid only if alleged business losses are substantial, serious and actual, which PAL failed to prove for the case of the flight crew.

PALEA has a pending petition at the Court of Appeals (CA) against the OP decision on the outsourcing plan. “The flight attendants were dismissed in 1998 at a time when PAL was obviously facing loss losses but the courts nonetheless saw that the financial difficulties were not serious enough to merit mass layoff. Thus we believe that both the CA and SC will both rule against PAL’s outsourcing plan. Like the FASAP case, PAL argued for the outsourcing plan on supposed losses which has been disproved by the company’s own financial statements proving the flag carrier is highly profitable,” Rivera said.

Workers hold pre-SONA protest vs. PEZA

Press Release

July 22, 2011

Some 200 members of the Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) held a pre-SONA protest at the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) today as the labor group slammed the suppression of the right to unionize in the ecozones even under the present administration. Some of the protesters, many of whom are workers in Cavite factories, had their hands and mouths bound to symbolize the suppression of the freedom to organize in the ecozones.

“After one year of PNoy, there is no new program to generate jobs, no new guideline to increase workers wages and no change in the no-union policy in the ecozones. PNoy has given the go signal for contractualization at Philippine Airlines. He has praised Hanjin’s investments but has been silent on the deaths and injuries of workers at the shipyard-cum-graveyard. PNoy has continued with sacrificing labor rights at the ecozones to attract foreign capital,” declared Judy Ann Miranda, PM secretary general.

To highlight its case, PM pointed out to PEZA’s collusion in stifling workers efforts to unionize at the Mactan Economic Zone (MEZ) in Lapu-Lapu City. A Japanese-owned company in MEZ, Blaze Manufacuring Corp., shutdown its operations on the day that a certification election was held. The union won the elections for the first time in the history of that ecozone.

Miranda insisted that “We demand that the PEZA national office revokes the letter of authority it granted to reopen recently.” PM is slamming Blaze for union busting and PEZA for its collusion. The PM chapter in Cebu had already picketed the PEZA office in Lapu-Lapu City last Monday.

“Ipinapaabot ng mga manggagawa kay PNoy, ang gusto ng kanyang mga boss ay bagong landas di lang tuwid na daan. In his SONA, PNoy will highlight his administration’s accomplishments in stamping corruption but poverty will not be solved by good governance alone. Poverty can only be eradicated by reforms in the economic and social arena that attacks the iniquitous distribution of wealth in the country,” Miranda explained.

PM is participating in protests before and during the SONA to underscore its critique of the Aquino administrations programs. On Monday, PM will join other labor groups in a Mendiola rally to criticize the administration’s anti-labor policies including its tolerance of contractual employment. In the afternoon, PM will participate in a broad mobilization of militant organizations at the Batasan to challenge President Aquino on the pro-globalization framework of the Philippine Development Plan and the public-private partnership.