Months-long Cavite EPZA labor dispute settled

After more than three months, the labor dispute surrounding the closure of the biggest garments factory at the Cavite economic zone was finally settled. As the massive fire at the factory of the House Technology Industries burned last week, the management and union of Faremo International Inc. signed an agreement at the Cavite ecozone administration office to end the labor row.

“The deal provides for the rehiring of the workers if the factory reopens, a substantial financial assistance on top of the separation pay and the grant of several sewing machines for a livelihood project of the displaced employees. It was a resounding win for the workers,” declared Rene Magtubo, chairperson of Partido Manggagawa (PM).

PM assisted the Faremo workers in their months-long picketline inside the Cavite ecozone. Last October 26, some 1,000 workers of Faremo, majority of them women, were laid off when the factory closed down allegedly due to lack of orders. However, one of its customers, a major global garments brand, admitted that orders were increased not cancelled. This disclosure emboldened the resistance of the workers and bolstered the accusation of the union that the closure was illegal and meant to bust the union and break the collective bargaining agreement.

“Illegal closure is a weapon of last resort by employers in their union busting bag of tricks. Faremo is not the first and probably not the last. Last May, the Cavite ecozone electronics firm Seung Yeun Technology Industries Corp. filed for shutdown when its workers unionized but is still operating under a new name. The same modus operandi was done by the Mactan ecozone factory Blaze Manufacturing Corp. in 2011 to bust the two unions of its regular and contractual workers. We have reported these violations to the International Labor Organization Direct Contact Mission (DCM) that is in the Philippines at the moment,” Magtubo clarified.

The ILO DCM is a follow up to the High Level Mission conducted in 2009 to investigate the Philippine government’s violations of Conventions 87 and 98 on freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining. The ILO DCM is holding a briefing this afternoon in Manila.

Jessel Autida, president of the Faremo labor union, said that “We owe this victory to the determination to fight of our members, and the solidarity of fellow trade unions and international labor rights advocates. We also thank our management for granting the demands of the union and even Labor Undersecretary Joel Maglungsod whose office patiently mediated the dispute until it was resolved.”

Autida revealed that the union will continue to exist as an organization for mutual aid and protection and to manage the garments production that they will undertake as a livelihood project. “We are asking the Department of Labor and Employment to help us in our garments making project. This is one way to sustain the livelihood of former Faremo employees and other displaced garments workers in the Cavite ecozone,” he explained.

The union has dismantled its picketline outside the Faremo factory and also withdrawn its pending cases at the National Conciliation and Mediation Board and the National Labor Relations Commission as part of the settlement agreement.

February 10. 2017

Blaze Manufacturing as Case Study of Suppression of Unionism at Mactan Ecozone

Picket at PEZA with protesters mouths taped and hands bound to symbolize suppression of union rights at export zones of Cavite and Cebu

The intransigence of the management of Blaze Manufacturing Corp., a locator in the Mactan Economic Zone in Metro Cebu, to workers efforts to unionize and the indifference if not collusion of government agencies is symptomatic of the wholesale resistance to exercise of the freedom of association in that ecozone. After more than three decades in existence, no single union with a collective bargaining agreement presently exists in the Mactan ecozone which is the second biggest in the country.

Despite the pronouncements of employers and government, including the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA), that fact alone exposes the systematic violation of ILO Conventions 87 and 98 in the Mactan ecozone. The case of the rank-and-file and agency workers of Blaze Manufacturing, a Japanese-owned company producing hi-blocks for export, reveals this pattern of the suppression of the right to organize.

Two weeks after a certificate of registration for the Blaze Manufacturing Corp. Employees Union (BMCEU) was issued by the DOLE last March 15, 11 workers were terminated by management. Over the next few weeks, management tried to convince workers to withdraw from the union while offering to promote others. None of these anti-union maneuvers were successful and by June 3 a certification election was finally conducted.

BMCEU handily won the certification elections, arguably the first time that a union won in the Mactan ecozone since all previous attempts were defeated by the various management union avoidance tactics. Unfortunately the victory was pyrrhic as the company declared closure on the eve of the historic certification elections.

In fact the workers had to vote in the regional office of the DOLE as they were prevented from entering the Mactan ecozone due to the factory closure. Management used the alibi of Blaze being sold to a new Japanese owner for the impromptu shutdown which was in violation of the 30-day notice rule for any permanent or temporary closure.

Meanwhile the workers of the agency supplying workforce to Blaze also organized themselves into a union. Again in arguably the first time in the Philippines, workers of the A. Bones Manpower and Recruitment Agency successfully formed the Agency Workers Union of Blaze (AWUB) and won the certification elections in polls conducted last July 5. The certification elections were likewise held at the DOLE regional office as the workers were out of work since Blaze was the only principal to which the agency places it employees.

By the time the agency workers had won the certification elections, many Blaze workers, out of economic difficulties, finally accepted management’s offer of a separation package. Still a significant number pushed through with cases of illegal dismissal and union busting against Blaze.

And yet despite the pendency of the labor dispute, PEZA issued on July 8 a letter of authority allowing Blaze to operate. Thus on July 10, Blaze reopened and rehired all of the terminated non-union members while it is contracting a new manpower agency for the additional workforce.

Last July 18 workers wrote PEZA questioning the basis of the authority for Blaze to reopen despite the pendency of the labor dispute. The reopening of Blaze exposes the real agenda of the factory’s closure as blatant union busting tactic.

Both BMCEU and AWUB had launched protest actions at the PEZA offices in Cebu to call for the cancellation of the letter of authority and a hearing on the workers demands regarding the labor dispute with Blaze. A solidarity action by ecozone workers from Calabarzon last July 22 was held in support of the Blaze rank-and-file and agency workers.

Workers hold pre-SONA protest vs. PEZA

Press Release

July 22, 2011

Some 200 members of the Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) held a pre-SONA protest at the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) today as the labor group slammed the suppression of the right to unionize in the ecozones even under the present administration. Some of the protesters, many of whom are workers in Cavite factories, had their hands and mouths bound to symbolize the suppression of the freedom to organize in the ecozones.

“After one year of PNoy, there is no new program to generate jobs, no new guideline to increase workers wages and no change in the no-union policy in the ecozones. PNoy has given the go signal for contractualization at Philippine Airlines. He has praised Hanjin’s investments but has been silent on the deaths and injuries of workers at the shipyard-cum-graveyard. PNoy has continued with sacrificing labor rights at the ecozones to attract foreign capital,” declared Judy Ann Miranda, PM secretary general.

To highlight its case, PM pointed out to PEZA’s collusion in stifling workers efforts to unionize at the Mactan Economic Zone (MEZ) in Lapu-Lapu City. A Japanese-owned company in MEZ, Blaze Manufacuring Corp., shutdown its operations on the day that a certification election was held. The union won the elections for the first time in the history of that ecozone.

Miranda insisted that “We demand that the PEZA national office revokes the letter of authority it granted to reopen recently.” PM is slamming Blaze for union busting and PEZA for its collusion. The PM chapter in Cebu had already picketed the PEZA office in Lapu-Lapu City last Monday.

“Ipinapaabot ng mga manggagawa kay PNoy, ang gusto ng kanyang mga boss ay bagong landas di lang tuwid na daan. In his SONA, PNoy will highlight his administration’s accomplishments in stamping corruption but poverty will not be solved by good governance alone. Poverty can only be eradicated by reforms in the economic and social arena that attacks the iniquitous distribution of wealth in the country,” Miranda explained.

PM is participating in protests before and during the SONA to underscore its critique of the Aquino administrations programs. On Monday, PM will join other labor groups in a Mendiola rally to criticize the administration’s anti-labor policies including its tolerance of contractual employment. In the afternoon, PM will participate in a broad mobilization of militant organizations at the Batasan to challenge President Aquino on the pro-globalization framework of the Philippine Development Plan and the public-private partnership.

Agency workers in Cebu ecozone form union

Press Release

July 7, 2011

In arguably the first time in the country, workers of a manpower agency deploying labor force in the Mactan Economic Zone (MEZ) in Metro Cebu successfully formed a union and won the certification elections (CE) in polls conducted last Tuesday at the Region VII office of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE). “We now have a voice in our workplace and a union to protect our rights and welfare as workers both in the agency and the principal company,” declared Eddie Booc, president of the Agency Workers Union of Blaze.

Dennis Derige, spokesperson of Partido ng Manggagawa-Cebu, stated that “The no-union policy in the MEZ has been finally broken. The militancy of the Cebu workers has surmounted resistance of the capitalist, specially the locators association MEPZ-CEM, and the collusion of the government agencies specifically the Philippine Export Zone Authority and the DOLE. The victory of the union in the CE at the agency comes on the heels of the earlier union win in another union election at principal employer Blaze Manufacturing Corporation.”

In a close battle, some 19 voted yes and 18 voted no in the CE among workers of the A. Bones Manpower and Recruitment Agency. The agency places workers at the Blaze which was recently sold to a new owner. The Japanese-owned company produces construction materials for export to Japan.

Booc added that “The unionization of agency workers is another stage in the struggle against contractualization. We consider our fight as a continuation of the fight for regular and decent jobs such as the battle of the Philippine Airline Employees’ Union.”

The labor dispute at Blaze remains unresolved as some workers refused to accept the company’s offer of a separation package. The company closed its operations and separated its workers on the day a historic election was held that ended in a landslide victory for the union. PM-Cebu has accused Blaze of union busting.

Derige argued that the Blaze regular and agency workers are blazing a trail for the right to organize in the export zones. “PNoy declared in his speech at the UNI APRO meeting last Tuesday that labor laws must be reformed so that workers rights and welfare are protected.  We challenge PNoy to go beyond words and support the ecozones workers fighting for the right to unionize,”  he said.