The labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) asked
the global union body, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), to
investigate recent cases of violent dispersals of strikes and harassment of
striking workers. The ITUC had listed the Philippines as among the worst
countries for workers in its 2018 Global Rights Index.
“If the ITUC report had noted very
recent developments like the violent dispersal of the strike at NutriAsia and the
harassment of picketlines at Lakepower Converter and Dong Seung in the Cavite
export processing zone, the Philippines might even rise from being number 8 to
number 1 in the list of worst countries,” stated Rene Magtubo, PM national chair.
Magtubo was referring to the police
dispersal last week of the picketline at the condiments giant NutriAsia that
led to the arrest of a dozen workers and the wounding of several more. While in
the strike at the electronics factory Lakepower Converter, two women workers
were hurt when company and ecozone security guards repeatedly attacked the
picketline in the dead of the night last December 2017. In the strike at the
garments factory Dong Seung last month, ecozone guards tore down placards in
the picketline and prevented striking workers from entering the Cavite export
processing zone.
“All these incidents of impunity against
labor rights at NutriAsia, Lakepower and Dong Seung are in blatant violation of
the DOLE-PEZA-PNP Guidelines in the Conduct of Security Personnel During Labor
Disputes. The guidelines was a reform enacted in response to findings by the
International Labor Organization High Level Mission in 2009. Unfortunately the
guidelines remain a piece of paper,” insisted Gerry Rivera, head of the newly
established Kapatiran ng mga Unyon at Samahang Manggagawa.
Last Monday, some 200 members of PM and
Kapatiran marched to the NutriAsia factory in solidarity with the striking workers.
The groups are calling for a boycott of NutriAsia products such as Datu Puti,
Silver Swan, UFC and Mang Tomas.
Tomorrow mediations meetings are to be
held to resolve the pending disputes at Dong Seung and Lakepower. The DOLE
National Office is calling the company and union of Lakepower to a meeting due
to the termination of all seven union officers this month despite an agreement
forged last April to reinstate all striking workers. Also the National Conciliation
and Mediation Board in Cavite is meeting the management and union of Dong Seung
because of the dismissal of 16 union officers.
“The mass termination of union officers
at Lakepower and Dong Seung are black-and-white examples of union busting by
companies. Workers in NutriAsia, Dong Seung, Lakepower and others are
organizing in order to improve wages and working conditions but the response of
employers is to suppress freedom of association,” concluded Rivera.
June 20, 2018
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