LABOR WATCH
Workers Slam Aboitiz Firm
BY TYRONE VELEZ
Bulatlat
DAVAO CITY - Workers
from a manufacturing firm owned by the Aboitiz Group of Companies have
decried the company for its alleged underhanded move to get rid of its
workers.
The workers of A-1
Concrete Poles, located at the industrial zone of Davao City in Bunawan
District, recently lost their jobs after the company declared that it had
been sold. The company, which had 146 employees, provides electrical posts
to the city.
The workers’ union
recently joined a march-rally commemorating the birth of Andres Bonifacio
to air their demand for reinstatement. Their case exemplified the state
of workers in Southern Mindanao
where capitalists stifle labor rights through contractualization, “labor
flexilibization” and union busting.
None of the workers
thought the company would close down on Oct. 30, not after concluding
their Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) negotiation with the
management three months earlier last July, said Jonar Lantaca, vice
president of the Namaa-A-1, or Nagkahiusang Mamumuo sa A-1 (United Workers
of A-1 Concrete Poles).
“The management just
declared that they sold the company but we were not given the notice of
closure, as mandated by law," Lantaca said.
Labor rules stipulate
that companies must present a notice of closure to the union 30 days prior
to such action. This is in order to make the workers prepare for their
termination and to accept their separation pay.
The management of A-1
claimed the company was sold to their competitor, Teshin Company, which is
owned by a group of Taiwanese.
However, the union
believed this was not a case of closure. “In their termination report to
the Department of Labor and Employment, the company stipulated that what
happened to the company was a ‘change management/merger’. There was no
statement or a deed of sale of the company. Further, we found out that in
a merger, the rank-and-file workers are not supposed to be affected,”
Lantaca said.
The 106-strong union
has now filed three cases before DOLE against the management of A-1. The
cases are illegal lockout, union busting, and illegal dismissal. Named as
respondents are A-1’s chief operating officer Cesar Mosar and chief
executive officer Jaime Jose Aboitiz.
Lantaca said this
move by management was an assault to their right to union. "Their move is
meant to dismantle the union. They have seen that our union had demanded
rightfully for our benefits in the past five years," he said.
The Kilusang Mayo Uno
(May First Movement) in Southern Mindanao, one of the support groups of
Nama-A-1, deplored the move against the workers. “The truth is, the
Aboitiz Group of Companies is trying to pave the way for
contractualization,” said Omar Bantayan, KMU-Southern Mindanao secretary
general.
Aside from filing
their case to DOLE, the workers have staged a picket near the company to
demand for their reinstatement and recognition of the union. Of the 146
workers, 126 have refused to receive their separation pay. Around 86
workers have been joining the picket.
Lantaca deplored the
fact that even the DOLE is taking part in the scheme against them by
dangling payments for the workers. "DOLE brazenly offered payment to the
workers when in fact they have knowledge that a case had already been
filed against the management of the company," Lantaca said.
He said some of the
workers agreed to work again in the company as casuals, without the job
security and benefits they used to have as regular workers.
"This is a bitter
truth for us to swallow," Lantaca lamented. "Most of us have worked here
since the company started 10 years ago. And to think we receive about
7,000 pesos a month. And you look at our plight! Some of us don’t even
have homes!” he said.
The plight of A-1
workers indicates the threat to job security that workers are faced with
in this region.
Bantayan of KMU noted
that other unions have experienced the same fate. One of the worst
happened in Cosmos Bottling in Bago Aplaya last September, where Bantayan
said the workers were literally "driven like cattles" at gun point out of
the factory. The workers were informed there and then that the company had
shut down.
Romualdo Basilio, KMU-Southern
Mindanao chairman, said the struggle of workers is now made more difficult
by companies who resort to “legal” tactics to dismantle unions, such as
declaring bankruptcy, changing management and the like.
He cited the case of
workers in Lichang Company, a veneering firm in Montevista, Compostela
Valley province, where workers went through so much struggle to receive
their rightful pay.
After the workers won
their case and awarded P6 million in back wages, the company retrenched
the workers and declared a change into a cooperative venture. The workers
have yet to receive the amount due them. They have also filed another case
against the owners of Lichang that is still being litigated.
Another method is the
establishment of union-management, or unions created by management, as a
means to discourage the initiatives of workers to form their own union. A
case in point is Stanfilco, a banana plantation company in Compostela
Valley. The management organized four of the five unions in the company.
But these union-managements disintegrated when Stanfilco changed its
management. At present, only one union remains, the one organized by the
plantation workers themselves.
Bantayan said an
average of 200 workers lose their jobs nationwide everyday, bringing the
unemployment figures to five million. With a report from Cheryll Fiel/
Bulatlat
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