Bu-lat-lat (boo-lat-lat) verb: to search, probe, investigate, inquire; to unearth facts

Issue No. 28                        August 26-September 1,  2001                    Quezon City, Philippines

Strike Hits Maker of Oshkosh, Hilfiger

For middle- and upper-class Filipino shoppers, Oshkosh, Tommy Hilfiger and other world-renowned brand names are difficult to resist. Many of them are unaware however that these popular sport and streetwear may carry American names but are actually manufactured in one of Metro Manila’s industrial districts – Taguig, a town some 15 kilometers south of Manila. The manufacturer, Mode International, is one of the country’s leading exporters with millions of dollars in earnings. Those earnings came from production lines run by some 1,000 low-paid workers; nine out 10 of them are women. Last week, the workers struck; at least four of them are now in jail. Once more, Taguig, scene of industrial strikes a few years ago, is in the limelight.

BY BULATLAT.COM  

Employees at Mode International, Inc. leading exporter of Oshkosh, Tommy Hilfiger, Jag and other exportable brand names and children’s wear, are called stockholders. Out of the 1,000 “stockholders,” 90 percent are women.

On Aug. 20, the Mode stockholders went on strike at their main factory at First Avenue, Bagumbayan, Taguig, a town located a few kilometers from Manila. This made the real stockholders of the company, Basilio Tan and his vice president for operations, Anthony Sy, angry.

Close to a hundred men including 30 company security guards, scabs, policemen from the Southern Police District and members of a Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team arrived to disperse the workers’ picket in front of the company factory at 5 a.m.

Protesting workers said that five hours later, Sy ordered the company guards, “Pagbabarilin nyo ‘yan! (Shoot all of them).” A hail of gunfire from the armed guards burst out. Luckily, the workers said, no one was hurt.

Arrested and detained by Taguig police in the assault were workers Marlyn Motin and Salvador Baranda, Jr. They, instead of the guards and police, were charged with “physical injuries and malicious mischief.”

The following day, two other protesters, Noel Espiritu and another, known only as “Johnny,” were picked up by unidentified policemen without arrest warrants. They too were booked at the Taguig municipal jail.

All four workers are now detained at the Rizal provincial jail.

Reacting to the violent dispersal of their peaceful picket, Janet Vinco, secretary general of the Samahan ng Malayang Manggagawa sa Mode International (SMMMI), said “Tama na ang garapal na pambubusabos at pagmamalupit ng mga pasistang patakaran ng Mode International. Ituloy natin ang laban! (Enough of the fascist Mode International’s exploitation and oppression. Go on with our struggle!).”

History of exploitation

Vinco revealed that Mode International, whose products are known worldwide, has a history of labor exploitation.

The company was established in 1987 and was then known as Lakeview. Workers were unionized under ANGLO, an affiliate of Kilusang Mayo Uno (May 1^st Movement).

The company stopped its operations on the same year but reopened as Mode International.

In 1993, Vinco said, workers were made to join cooperatives where they would be classified as “stockholders.” Four cooperatives were formed based on line work (sewing, finishing, finishing/packing and quality inspection).

The so-called cooperatives could only work for Mode and their managers and chairmen were voted in a predetermined election.

The cooperative-stockholders system proved to be the company’s way of getting so much from the workers and giving them crumbs in return. They were paid P0.10-P0.20 ($0.002-$0.0040) for every piece of work. As “stockholders,” they enjoyed no benefits and were deprived of their right to express any grievance.

Every worker, pregnant women included, were also forced to do overtime lasting up to three days, Vinco said. Women who asked to be exempted from the forced overtime rule due to dysmenorrhea were searched physically for proof.

Weekly deductions

Every week, P250 (US$4.90) was deducted from workers’ pay. At yearend, cooperative managers would usually claim “losses” and that all cooperatives still owed company management sizeable sums of money.

“It is inhuman,” Vinco said, “that Mode Interational owner Basilio Tan earns millions of dollars for exporting branded garments while his workers receive a measly pay.”

Three years ago, the restive workers organized themselves into what they would call later SMMMI and decided to affiliate with the National Federation of Workers Unions (NFWU)-KMU. They formed a negotiating panel for a collective bargaining agreement (CBA).

Last June, the union members demanded a pay increase and that they be regularized after waiting for several years. They also demanded union recognition.

Immediately, the company management issued a memorandum order dismissing all 11 members of the union’s negotiating panel. The dismissed workers led a protest action but were harassed by company guards, Vinco said. Tear gas was used to disperse the protesters.

In the aftermath, three more workers who supported the protest action were dismissed while 17 others were suspended.

Mode International, according to its vice president, Lope Inguito, is No. 184 among the Philippines’ biggest exporters. It produces infant wear, women’s and men’s wear and apparel.

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