Coca-Cola Cebu is set to retrench the workers following the termination of their contract with manpower agency Exeltech Manpower and Services Incorporated. However, the Center for Trade Union and Human Rights noted that the retrenchment actually comes following an order from the Department of Labor and Employment to regularize the workers, calling the move a “naked display of corporate greed."
The union has described the lay-offs as a “gross violation” of their Collective Bargaining Agreement, and “a clear-cut case of union busting.”
“The nature of work of delivery riders is unquestionably necessary and desirable to the business and trade of the companies to whom they render their services. Without them, companies engaged in the delivery business have actually no business to speak of. Thus, delivery riders are deemed regular employees by operation of law, regardless of the existence of any work contracts they signed."
Despite the setbacks, however, workers in the Southern Tagalog region have continued to assert their rights and fight back. For Mario Fernandez and his fellow unionists in TEPWU, it meant meeting state forces head on. This meant actively challenging attempts to tag them as “communist sympathizers.”
“There is nothing in the subservience of the Philippine government between rival countries US and China that will serve the interest of poor Filipinos.”
Workers from different parts of the country joined protest actions on Labor Day. In Manila, these workers asserted that a substantial wage hike is necessary.
“When I became a regular worker, I joined the union immediately. The union serves as our voice.”
Jeepney drivers held a transport strike today as the Philippine government continues its plan to phase out not only a cultural icon in the country but the most common and affordable means of transportation for ordinary folk.
Among the cases the workers brought to the attention of the labor department is the harassment against Jaime Paglinawan, and several other workers rights advocates, whose photos appeared in a Facebook post, with a note that read, “they are the root cause of violence in our society.”
The country’s sugar workers called on Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to reopen the Central Azucarera de Don Pedro, Inc. (CADPI) in Nasugbu, Batangas, to boost the country’s sugar supply and ethanol production.
The call comes from concerns of “possible bankruptcy of 4,584 sugarcane planters [and] less work for more than 10,000 sugarcane field workers."
Women Workers United urged the ILO-HLTM delegates to defend the rights and freedoms of working women, and to hold the NTF-ELCAC and all perpetrators of violations of the right to organize and for freedom to associate accountable.
As the International Labour Organization (ILO) started its four-day High-Level Tripartite Mission (HLTM) today, January 23, labor organizations are hopeful that violations of workers’ rights would be investigated.
Progressive groups sent off labor leaders as they set to participate in the three-day dialogue with the International Labor Organization (ILO) at the Diamond Hotel, Makati.
UMA Isabela documented at least 50 cases of forced surrenders. Meanwhile, the National Federation of Sugar Workers (NFSW) said that forced surrenders reduced their membership of 12,000 sugar workers to only around 6,000.
This book will certainly arm the consciousness and inspire a new generation of labor organizers and workers of the skills and attitude to challenge the odds.
