After more than three months, the labor
dispute surrounding the closure of the biggest garments factory at the Cavite
economic zone was finally settled. As the massive fire at the factory of the
House Technology Industries burned last week, the management and union of
Faremo International Inc. signed an agreement at the Cavite ecozone administration
office to end the labor row.
“The deal provides for the rehiring of
the workers if the factory reopens, a substantial financial assistance on top
of the separation pay and the grant of several sewing machines for a livelihood
project of the displaced employees. It was a resounding win for the workers,”
declared Rene Magtubo, chairperson of Partido Manggagawa (PM).
PM assisted the Faremo workers in their
months-long picketline inside the Cavite ecozone. Last October 26, some 1,000
workers of Faremo, majority of them women, were laid off when the factory
closed down allegedly due to lack of orders. However, one of its customers, a
major global garments brand, admitted that orders were increased not cancelled.
This disclosure emboldened the resistance of the workers and bolstered the accusation
of the union that the closure was illegal and meant to bust the union and break
the collective bargaining agreement.
“Illegal closure is a weapon of last
resort by employers in their union busting bag of tricks. Faremo is not the first
and probably not the last. Last May, the Cavite ecozone electronics firm Seung
Yeun Technology Industries Corp. filed for shutdown when its workers unionized
but is still operating under a new name. The same modus operandi was done by
the Mactan ecozone factory Blaze Manufacturing Corp. in 2011 to bust the two unions
of its regular and contractual workers. We have reported these violations to
the International Labor Organization Direct Contact Mission (DCM) that is in
the Philippines at the moment,” Magtubo clarified.
The ILO DCM is a follow up to the High
Level Mission conducted in 2009 to investigate the Philippine government’s
violations of Conventions 87 and 98 on freedom of association and the right to
collective bargaining. The ILO DCM is holding a briefing this afternoon in
Manila.
Jessel Autida, president of the Faremo
labor union, said that “We owe this victory to the determination to fight of
our members, and the solidarity of fellow trade unions and international labor
rights advocates. We also thank our management for granting the demands of the
union and even Labor Undersecretary Joel Maglungsod whose office patiently mediated
the dispute until it was resolved.”
Autida revealed that the union will
continue to exist as an organization for mutual aid and protection and to
manage the garments production that they will undertake as a livelihood
project. “We are asking the Department of Labor and Employment to help us in our
garments making project. This is one way to sustain the livelihood of former
Faremo employees and other displaced garments workers in the Cavite ecozone,”
he explained.
The union has dismantled its picketline
outside the Faremo factory and also withdrawn its pending cases at the National
Conciliation and Mediation Board and the National Labor Relations Commission as
part of the settlement agreement.
February 10. 2017
