Senate asked to heed workers’ cry and pass Security of Tenure bill

With tens of thousands of workers from different labor groups marching across the country on Labor Day to call for regular jobs and an end to endo, the partylist group Partido Manggagawa (PM) called on the Senate to pass the Security of Tenure bill. The bill has languished in the Senate even as the House of Representatives had already passed its version last year. The proposed bill would make regular employment the norm and contractual jobs as the exception in well defined cases.

“The senators should heed the demand of Filipino workers whose cry rang loud and clear on Labor Day. Even President Duterte called them out that Congress should pass laws that guarantee security of tenure and the right to self-organization. With nine more session days of Congress left, we vow to fight endo till the endgame,” argued Rene Magtubo, chair of PM and spokesperson of the Nagkaisa labor coalition.

Yesterday in Manila, some 10,000 workers rallied under the Nagkaisa banner with the demand to pass the Security of Tenure bill as the main slogan. Similar mobilizations were held by Nagkaisa and its affiliated organizations in Bataan ecozone, Cebu, Iloilo, Bacolod, Iligan and General Santos City.

Magtubo however averred that “The President should do more than just read a speech about workers’ rights. He should issue instructions to his allies in the Senate, such as Senator Cynthia Villar, to pass the Security of Tenure bill which has stalled over the objections of key senators. Actions should match words. Promises must be fulfilled.”

Meanwhile the demand for wage and voice that were among the highlights of the Labor Day marches yesterday are reflected in the grievances of an alliance of workers in three Mitsubishi car dealerships. The alliance of labor unions is holding simultaneous lunch break protests tomorrow to flex it muscles.

The main picket is at that Otis, Paco, Manila office of Union Motors where a company board meeting is happening tomorrow. Some 50 workers are expected to participate in the Paco protest.

The Peak Motors workers union is on the verge of a strike over a deadlock in CBA negotiations for a wage hike. Meanwhile the Union Motors labor union is preparing to file a refusal to bargain complaint. Finally three officers of the DCT union are facing termination.

The alliance of the three unions are complaining that the separate issues are a concerted attack by the three car dealers which have interlocking directorates and owners. The alliance is alleging that the deadlock over wages and harassment of union officers are part of a design to weaken or bust the unions.

The alliance is called United Unions of Union Motors, Peak Motors and DCT Motors. It is made up of the Union Motors Corp. & Sales Employees Association, Peak Motors Phils. Employees Association and DCT Workers Union.

May 2, 2019

Stop union busting at an electronics parts supplier to Apple and car companies

Labor rights are under threat at an electronics parts supplier to Apple and car companies Delphi, Mitsubishi, Hyundai and Lamborghini, among other big companies. The bosses at NT Philippines Inc., a Japanese-owned company in the biggest export zone in the Philippines, are trying to bust the newly formed union.

The union president has been removed from the factory and assigned to a sister company located miles away. Other union officers have been transferred to another plant of the factory in a bid to isolate them from fellow workers. Workers are being harassed and intimidated, and told that the company will close once its customers know of the unionization.

The labor union at NT Phils. calls for solidarity from its brothers and sisters in the international workers movement. Likewise it calls upon Apple, Delphi and other electronics and automobile manufacturers that source parts from NT Phils. to uphold their supply chain code of conduct and commitment to freedom of association.

In response to union busting, the union has initiated a complaint at the Labor Department and is demanding the return of the union president and other officers to their former assignments, a stop to the campaign of harassment and intimidation, and other forms of management interference, and a public declaration of NT Phils. to respect freedom of association.

Workers formed a union in order to better their working conditions and have a voice in the workplace. But they now face a concerted effort by the bosses to derail unionization to keep wages cheap, jobs insecure and workers docile.

This is the first serious test of freedom of association under the new administration of President Rodrigo Duterte. The Philippines has recently come under scrutiny by the International Labor Organization for violation of Conventions 87 and 98 on the right to organize and bargain collectively.

NT Phils. Inc. has some 900 regular workers but including contract employees, has a total workforce of more than 1,000. It is located at the Cavite Economic Zone, the largest state-administered export zone in the Philippines.

The factory produces flexible printed circuits for use in cellphones, spark plugs and other car parts. The mother company is Nampow Trading Company of Osaka, Japan. NT Phils. exports to China, US, Japan and Korea.

Among the direct customers are:

Flextronics of Singapore, US-owned, one of largest electronics contract manufacturers, supplies to Apple;

Jabil Circuit of US, a global electronics manufacturer and service provider; supplies to Apple

Delphi of UK, one of the world’s largest automotive parts manufacturer;

Valeo of France, a multinational automotive supplier, among them Mitsubishi;

Yura of Korea, an automotive electronics parts supplier, among them Hyundai;

NGK of Japan, the world biggest supplier of spark plugs;

Visteon of US, a spinoff of the Ford Motor Company;

TRW Automotive of US, a parts supplier now owned by ZF Friedrichshafen AG of Germany;

Midtronics of US, a battery management company;

Zollner Elektronik AG of Germany, a top electronics contract manufacturer;

Hella of Germany, an electronics and lighting company;

Temic of Germany, an automotive electronics manufacturer;

Integrated Micro-Electronics Inc., part of the Ayala Group of Companies in the Philippines.

August 3, 2016