Lamp shade factory workers on protest

CEBU, Philippines - Workers of a lamp shade factory inside the Mactan Export Zone went on a work stoppage early morning yesterday to raise certain grievances.

Partido ng Manggagawa-Cebu spokesman Dennis Derige said that some 200 workers “downed their tools” and trooped to the office of the management of Paul Yu, a locator in MEPZ II producing lamp shades for the export and local market, to seek a dialogue for redress of their grievances.

Derige said that in the meantime, management has agreed to talk to the workers about their grievances and that officials of the Philippine Export Zone Authority will oversee the dialogue.

Willy Dondoyano, speaking on behalf of the protesting workers, said that they will not return to work until management meets the demands of the workers.

Derige also said that after punching the time cards at 8 a.m., the Paul Yu workers assembled and went to the management office to negotiate for the company’s response to their complaints.

The main grievance of the workers is the work rotation that was implemented since December despite the fact that 40 percent of production is “outsourced to contractors outside the factory”.

The workweek of regular and agency workers at Paul Yu has been reduced by half while job contracting has not stopped.

Derige added that agency workers are also up in arms at the labor contractualization at Paul Yu and many agency employees have worked for several years, some as long as five years, yet they remain irregulars whose contracts are renewed continuously every two months.

Further, Derige said that the workers are also complaining of non-payment of holiday pay, non-remittance of SSS deductions for agency workers, non-implementation of paternity leave and non-payment of break time.

Partido ng Manggagawa also yesterday lambasted the management of Keppel Philippines for implementing a two-day workweek in order to force its workers to agree to its redundancy offer.

Derige said that in the one month since an agreement was forged last April 8 between management and the union, Keppel has consistently tried to sabotage the settlement by reportedly blackmailing the workers into submitting to the redundancy plan by shortening the workweek.

“At the height of the dispute in March, Keppel workers were working just three days in a week. Now it is just two days in a week thus workers’ take-home pay has been reduced to a third,” he said.

A labor dispute has been festering in the Keppel shipyard since March with workers alleging management is out to bust the union Nagkahiusang Mamumuo sa Baradero Keppel Shipyard-National Federation of Labor.

Derige said that Keppel’s reduction in workdays is tantamount to a violation of the April 8 agreement.

Section 3 of the agreement stipulates that neither side will engage in actions that will exacerbate the situation.

He added that Keppel is trying to starve the workers so they will agree to surrender their rights. “We warn management that their blackmail will not work. Keppel workers are not alone. The labor movement will support Keppel workers in their fight,” he said.

PM also criticized the DOLE for allegedly lying about the real status of the labor situation wherein for several weeks the DOLE has kept on repeating the marketing line that companies are rehiring and layoffs are ebbing.

The Keppel union still has a pending notice of strike that it has not withdrawn. Since a majority of the work force has voted for the strike, the union can go on strike at any moment, Derige added. – Mitchelle L. Palaubsanon/MEEV (THE FREEMAN)