A picketline of economic zone workers in
Dasmarinas, Cavite was dispersed last night using the lockdown as an alibi. From
8:00 to 9:00 pm last night, two Dasmarinas police backed up with scores of tanods
of Barangay Langkaan 1 and 2 and security guards threatened two workers in the
picketline, Jackie Elorde and Amer Taluba, with arrest if they will not leave
the picketline. Workers of Korean-owned Sejung Apparel Inc. in the First Cavite
Industrial Estate (FCIE) have been on picket-protest since December for
non-payment of 13th month pay and other violations.
“We condemn the forcible dispersal of
the picketline of Sejung workers in the dead of Black Friday night by modern
Roman centurions—police, barangay tanods and security guards—in blatant
violation of the law,” asserted Jopay Odchimar, president of the labor union of
Sejung workers.
She asserted that the DOLE-PNP-PEZA
Guidelines of 2011 and the expanded version of 2012 which specifically includes
barangay tanods prohibit interference by any security personnel in labor
disputes. “The guidelines and labor rights are not revoked or suspended just
because a quarantine is in effect,” Odchimar insisted.
She added that “The dispersal is the
culmination of a three-week long attempt by FCIE to harass and starve Jackie
and Amer into submission. Since March 27, all attempts to bring food and water
to Jackie and Amer were stopped by security guards allegedly upon orders of
FCIE estate manager Raffy Malanyaon. Guards maintained a 24/7 cordon sanitaire
around the picketline in violation of the guidelines which mandate that police,
military and guards should be 50 meters away and not interfere in peaceful
picketing.”
“For more than four months, the
Department of Labor and Employment provincial and regional offices did not act
on a clear case of labor standards violation despite undertaking an inspection.
The case has dragged on for so long that the covid pandemic and the resulting
quarantine further aggravated the sufferings of workers,” Odchimar explained.
The labor dispute is due to non-payment
of 13th month pay, last salary and union busting. Sejung declared
temporary shutdowns several times. The first shutdown in October last year
occurred just one week after the union submitted a collective bargaining
proposal and just three weeks after the union won a certification election. The
company reopened but once more closed in December and has remained shutdown
since then.
April 11, 2020
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