The labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) slammed the retrenchment of some 4,100 workers at Mactan Apparel Inc. and its satellite companies. “These are factory closures, not just mass layoffs. Even though the economy is growing, workers are suffering. More than 4,000 breadwinners have lost their jobs and their families will now have to deal with all the difficulties of joblessness,” declared Dennis Derige, spokesperson of the Cebu chapter of PM.
He
added that “With President Bong Bong Marcos Jr. due to give his State of the
Nation Address (SONA) on Monday, we demand of him: Trabaho at bigas sa Bagong
Pilipinas! Kung walang trabahong regular and walang murang bigas, bigo ang
Pilipinas sa iyong pamumuno.”
PM
stated that the call for job security, wage hike and cheap prices are among
their calls for the counter-SONA protest on Monday. A petition for a P100
minimum wage hike has been filed in Cebu and Bohol. The wage boards have set
hearings on the P100 petition on July 26 in Metro Cebu and August 10 in Bohol.
Different
labor groups are mobilizing hundreds of workers, students and urban poor for
the counter-SONA. PM, along with groups SENTRO and Akbayan, will assemble in
Plaza Independencia at 8:00 am on July 24. Then they will march onto the Cebu
City Freedom Park and finally merge with other organizations for the main
program in Metro Colon.
Mactan
Apparel Inc. and its sister companies, MAI Printing and FIT printing are
closing down. The three factories make sportswear exclusively for the global
brand Adidas and is part of the Sports City conglomerate, which is the biggest
employer in the Mactan Export Processing Zone. The retrenchment at Mactan
Apparel is the third wave of mass layoffs at Sports City. Some 4,000 workers
were laid off across the different Sports City garment factories in September
2022 and another 4,000 in September 2020 at the height of the pandemic.
“We
call on global brand Adidas to explain why their supplier factories are closing
down. Adidas should step up, be transparent and clarify to workers who made
their sportswear why they are losing their jobs. Do not make the usual alibi
for not doing anything that your supplier is complying with the minimum
standards set by law. If Adidas is indeed a good corporate citizen, then it
must exercise responsibility for the loss of livelihood of 4,000 workers,”
insisted Derige.
PM also argued that the series of mass layoffs and factory closures at MEPZ exposed the vulnerability of a development model founded on foreign investment and export production. “We need a paradigm shift away from export orientation. Economic and social development should be founded on a planned industrial policy that prioritizes domestic production even as it takes advantage of export markets,” Derige explained.
Press Release
July 20, 2023
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