Piteous wages

His pay slip for April 10, 2006 showed a take-home pay of P7,558.06 ($153.10) after the usual deductions or an estimated total income of P37,790.30 ($765.528) from February to October granting all factors were constant. Thus a worker of his status earns P3,150 ($63.81) per month or a piteous P105 ($2.127) daily.

“A pair of low quality cold weather gloves is sold by the company at about P500 ($10.128), thus, management can pay the equivalent of my two production quotas – 60 pairs – on the sale of a pair of gloves alone,” Arcega said.

“During the lean season of 2001 the company was unable to pay us for months. We had to rely on cash advances to buy our families a kilo or two of rice, a few dried fish and noodles. We ended up more indebted than usual both to the company and the stores where we get our food,” the two recounted.

No union

Jobseekers check out the lists of openings at the Subic Bay Free Port Economic Zone. (Photo File By Bulatlat / bulatlat.com)

The workers believe that only through a union can they hope to fight for better wages and working conditions. But when they first attempted to form a union in 2004 management moved swiftly to preempt them.

Batislaong, who volunteered to do the initial organizing work, was pinned down as the leader and was immediately summoned and reprimanded.

He was not allowed to work for sometime and is still being closely monitored and harassed to this day.

The exploitation and repression of workers at the CSEZ reflects the conditions elsewhere in the enclave and at the Subic Bay economic zone in Olongapo City.

Legenda workers

Greg Fundacion, 45, is one of the officers of the Kilusang Manggagawa sa Legenda (KML or Workers’ Movement in Legenda) the union of workers of the Legenda Hotel/Casino in Subic owned by the Chan family, Malaysians of Chinese descent.

KLM has about 800 active members in more than eight departments in the casino – administrative, finance, human resources, food and beverage, house keeping and laundry, transportation, internal security, engineering, motor pool, and croupiers.

Two hundred of their members are contractuals particularly those in food and beverage, house keeping and security departments although many have worked for the company for more than 13 years. The country’s labor laws provide that contruactual workers are to

Every worker has to inch through six steps of job items from Level 1 to 6 with rates per day ranging from P224.50 ($4.54) to P300.00 ($6.07).

In December 26, 2003 the KML gathered the signature of 1,500 employees for a certification election as the initial step in the formation of their union.

They engaged management in collective bargaining agreement (CBA) negotiations in April 2004 to demand an economic package that includeD: union leave with pay, 15 days sick leave and 15 days vacation leave per year, 45 days maternity leave for regular pregnancy and 75 days leave for caesarian section, seven days leave for paternity, five days emergency leave and four days bereavement leave.

They also pushed for security of tenure and union security.

Unimplemented CBA

Management refused to recognize the union and implement the CBA.

In August 2004, the workers filed a notice of strike but the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) issued an assumption of jurisdiction order on the dispute. The company later brought the labor dispute to the courts.

To this day, the company stubbornly maintains its position of not recognizing the union even with the CBA concluded, Fundacion said.

For the past two and a half years, the workers experienced” systematic” repression, Fundacion said. He said union leaders are being investigated by the police and military intelligence operatives.

The workers were subjected to surveillance, persuaded and even threatened to refrain from union activities. A high-ranking union leader was demoted and is continuously being harassed.

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