With less than three weeks to go until Labor Day, workers at two
Korean-owned garments factories located at the Cavite Economic Zone are
complaining of union busting by their management. These complaints once more
put respect for freedom of association at the top of workers’ demands.
Workers at the Jisoo Garments Manufacturing Corp. and Daegyoung Apparel
Inc. are both 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, supervisors
are asking workers to sign statements that they will not join a union.
Last year, 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 “Meanwhile in Daegyoung, workers recently formed a union
to address issues of low wages. The other day, the 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.
April 12, 2019
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