Group slams factory closure

CEBU, Philippines —  Labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) yesterday denounced the retrenchment of over 4,000 workers at Mactan Apparel Inc. and its satellite companies, asking multinational company Adidas to explain why its supplier factories are closing down.

“These are factory closures, not just mass layoffs. Even though the economy is growing, workers are suffering. More than 4,000 breadwinners have lost their jobs and their families will now have to deal with all the difficulties of joblessness,” said Dennis Derige, spokesperson of PM's Cebu chapter, in a statement.

He said the series of mass layoffs and factory closures at the Mactan Export Processing Zone (MEPZ) in Lapulapu City, Cebu expose the "vulnerability of a development model founded on foreign investment and export production."

“We need a paradigm shift away from export orientation. Economic and social development should be founded on a planned industrial policy that prioritizes domestic production even as it takes advantage of export markets,” Derige said.

He said Mactan Apparel Inc. and its sister companies, MAI Printing and FIT printing, are closing down, affecting 4,100 workers.

Derige said the three factories make sportswear exclusively for the global brand Adidas and is part of the Sports City conglomerate, the biggest MEPZ employer and supplies global garment brands.

This latest retrenchment, he said, is the third wave of mass layoffs at Sports City. Some 4,000 workers were laid off across the different Sports City garment factories in September 2020, at the height of the pandemic, and another 4,000 in September 2022.

 “We call on global brand Adidas to explain why their supplier factories are closing down. Adidas should step up, be transparent and clarify to workers who made their sportswear why they are losing their jobs. Do not make the usual alibi for not doing anything that your supplier is complying with the minimum standards set by law," Derige said.

"If Adidas is indeed a good corporate citizen, then it must exercise responsibility for the loss of livelihood of 4,000 workers,” he added.

Meanwhile, Derige said they will launch a protest action on Monday as President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. gives his State of the Nation Address (SONA) to call for job security, wage hike, and cheap prices

A petition for a P100 minimum wage hike has been filed in Cebu and Bohol. The wage boards have set hearings on the petition on July 26 in Metro Cebu and on ugust 10 in Bohol.

Cause-oriented groups like Akbayan; Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino-Cebu, a labor affiliate of Sanlakas Cebu; Kilusang Mayo Uno; and PM-Sentro ng mga Nagkakaisa at Progresibong Manggagawa will join in the protest march, which would start at 8 a.m. at Plaza Independencia and would end by Gaisano Metro on Colon Street.

BMP-Cebu Chairperson Teody Navea also said they will present in a press conference today a unity statement on major issues like wage, regular jobs, high prices, privatization, dirty energy, and housing.  RHM (FREEMAN)