Workers of a glass factory in
Laguna are spending their holidays on the picketlines as their labor dispute
continues unresolved. Some 200 employees, about a dozen of whom are women, were
terminated as Arcya Glass Corporation in Calamba, Laguna filed for permanent
closure in November 16. However, the Arcya Glass Employees Union is accusing
the company of union busting as the factory continues to operate with a reduced
workforce.
“We believe that Arcya Glass
is feigning closure as a way to bust the union and replace regular workers with
contractual employees who will work for less wages and benefits. Despite the alleged
closure, a skeletal force is working and trucks from Pedraja Trucking are
ferrying bottles from the factory for delivery to Arcya’s customers,” stated
Joseph Legada, president of the Arcya Glass Employees Union.
“The mass layoffs in Laguna
and elsewhere are symptomatic of the pandemic of job loss that is happening
without effective intervention by the government. This ties in with news
reports that 4.5 million are unemployed this year and 2.2 million are also out
of work but are not officially jobless only because they stopped looking for
work. The restricted definition of unemployment limits it only to the jobless
who are actively looking for work in the last six months,” asserted Rene Magtubo,
PM national chair.
He added that “Moreover, we
are seeing that capitalists are exploiting the covid-19 crisis to bust unions
and shift to contract work. This is shown by the experience of the Arcya Glass
Employees Union and the First Glory labor union in the Mactan ecozone.”
Last November 27 the garment
firm First Glory Apparel in the Mactan ecozone fired 300 workers, including all
the union officers. The union has a pending petition for certification
election. A rally of terminated First Glory workers last November 30 was broken
up by police and led to the arrest of five union officers and labor organizers.
The so-called MEPZ 5 were later released as their cases for “disobedience to
person in authority” were dismissed.
Arcya Glass put workers on
one-month forced leave in March 15 as the covid lockdown started. The company
then filed for temporary closure until October 15. Finally the company declared
permanent closure on November 16. The Arcya Glass Employees Union has a pending
case for unpaid benefits at the National Conciliation and Mediation Board and a
complaint for illegal closure and union busting at the National Labor Relations
Commission.
Magtubo insisted that “We
demand that Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello convene a dialogue with labor
groups on the continued hemorrhage of jobs inside and outside of the ecozones.
We also ask Secretary Bello to remind police that existing DOLE-PEZA-PNP rules
on labor disputes prohibit security personnel from harassing workers’ concerted
actions.”
Photos of the Arcya workers
protest can be accessed at
https://www.facebook.com/partidomanggagawa/posts/10158723479239323
https://www.facebook.com/partidomanggagawa/posts/10158678405269323.
December 24, 2020
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