LABOR WATCH
3-Day Strike at Tommy
Hilfiger Shirt Factory Ends
Workers of a clothing
factory chose to fight for their benefits and went on strike, a decidedly
unfashionable course of action these days. They won – in just three days.
by Dennis Espada
Bulatlat
CABUYAO, Laguna – Workers of a clothing
factory producing Tommy Hilfiger shirts decided to engage in what is today
an unfashionable course of action – to go on strike. Unlike in other
strikes, the workers of Maxglory Apparel Inc. got their demands in just
three days.
Last Dec. 3, the 37 regular employees of
Maxglory Apparel Inc. that went on strike ended their protest after a
dialogue with the management. The latter agreed to grant the workers their
separation pay which is equivalent to 150% of their 45-day salary
multiplied by the number of years of service. The benefit package includes
payments for the three-month strike duration and vacation and sick leaves.
According to Tom Dimailig of the Cabuyao
Worker’s Alliance (CAWAL), the worker’s union won their battle because of
the massive support of the community and other local unions.
“Maayos naman ang negosasyon sa may-ari ng
kumpanya na nagpunta mismo sa piketlayn at humarap sa mga manggagawa
(The negotiation went well. The
company owner himself went to the picketline to face the workers),” he
said, referring to Filipino-Chinese Ulysses Young, owner of Maxglory.
The Maxglory Apparel Employees Independent
Union went to strike last Dec. 1 because of management refusal to
negotiate in the collective bargaining agreement (CBA), low wages,
union-busting and the company’s illegal closure.
Composed mostly of women, the workers
received P194.75 (US$3.61) per day which is way below the reclassified
P259 (US$4.80) wage laid down by the Regional Tripartite Wage Board-Bureau
of Labor Relations-Region IV-A (RTPWB-RIV-A).
Dimailig said that before the bilateral
settlement, there was an attempt to harass the picketline when the
management tried to dispatch at least two buses loaded with “scabs” whose
entry was thwarted by the strikers.
Located in Barangay Pulo here, Maxglory
exports shirt products to known brands such as Tommy Hilfiger, Ralph
Lauren, Quicksilver, American Eagle, Walt Disney and Paxsan.
Sweatshops
“Maxglory workers are victims of an
international scale of ‘labour flexibilization’ such as
subcontracting. Big companies such as Tommy Hilfiger take advantage of it,
thru its subcontractors like Maxglory, exploiting the cheap labor in the
Philippines,” Luz Baculo, secretary-general of the Pagkakaisa ng
Manggagawa sa Timog Katagalugan-Kilusang Mayo Uno (Unity of Workers in
Southern Tagalog-May First Movement) said in a statement.
Tommy Hilfiger is a multi-billion dollar
company known globally for men’s and ladies’ wear, jeans and fragrances.
It was named after a famous American fashion designer.
On Sept. 15, 2004, another
apparel company, Fashion House Garments Inc. in Carmona, Cavite, closed
down, resulting in the displacement of more than 1,000 contractual
workers. Aside from being denied of their overtime pay and back wages,
employees were also forced to work non-stop for 21 hours and were given
medicines to keep them awake and endure exhaustion. The Korean-owned
subcontractor manufactures branded clothes like GAP, Old Navy and Allison.
Pamantik-KMU said trade liberalization has
allowed the proliferation of sweatshops and the infringement of minimum
wage levels and other labor standards to entice foreign investments.
Bulatlat
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