121,000 Workers in Garments Industry Vulnerable to Layoffs

Solon wants labor execs summoned

In the wake of the massive layoffs in the country brought by the global economic meltdown, Anakpawis party-list Representative Rafael Mariano today called on Congress to immediately summon officials of the Department of Labor and Employment and its attached agencies.

Mariano, a member of the Congressional Oversight Committee on Labor and Employment (COCLE), said he will ask Senator Jinggoy Estrada, COCLE chairman, to immediately convene the oversight committee.

�We want to know the real score.� Mariano said noting that Labor Secretary Marianito Roque�s forecast of 200,000 job losses in the next six months was �only based on trending� and that �the figures could be far bigger if based on the actual notices of closures sent by employers to the DOLE.

�How many have already sent notices of closure, how many workers will be affected, and what�s the plan of the Arroyo government?� Mariano adds.

He said that �workers in the garments, electronics, and car industries are the hardest hit by the crisis.�

Citing figures from the militant labor group Kilusang Mayo Uno, Mariano said that �121,000 workers in the garments industry and 420,000 workers in the electronics industry are vulnerable to lose their jobs in the next few days.�

Data from the Solidarity of Cavite Workers (SCW) shows numerous garments factories in the Cavite Export Processing Zone (CEPZ) that employs 80,000 workers are already experiencing slowdowns and closures.

The Ultimate Dream Fashion already closed shop last year and the workers were not paid wages and their 13th month pay. Woo Su, a Korean-owned company, was shutdown last October because there were no orders coming in. Phils Star, also a Korean-owned company making socks was also shutdown this month. Other companies are practicing compressed workweek and precarious work arrangements to maximize their profits at the expense of workers. The Cavite Apparel is employing two weeks interval rotation for its workers since March last year.

In DO apparel, only two out of six assembly lines are running and work is only for 3 days a week. Jeshuran and Faremo 1, also a Korean-owned company, has a five-day workweek and 12 hours in a day’s work.

Aside from compressed workweek, other companies are not paying the mandated minimum wage of P298 such as the Golden Will Fashions in the First Cavite Industrial Estate. In Faremo II, workers are not receiving their wages because their checks are post-dated on January 2009.

�It seems that the Arroyo government is very passive, in fact helpless, in the present wave of mass lay-offs and factory closures. In the first place, it is Ms Arroyo�s adherence to neoliberal globalization that brought the Filipino working class in this dire situation,� says Mariano.

He said that �it is highly condemnable that labor officials can�t do anything but yield to capitalists� arbitrary decisions to close shop, runaway with gigantic profits they squeezed from Filipino workers and leave workers and their families with nothing.�

�Capitalists are now moving to preserve their capital and profits at the expense of the workers,� the Anakpawis lawmaker said.

Mariano called on workers to defend their rights and welfare, launch protest actions directed at the Arroyo regime and demand immediate and concrete steps to address the global economic crisis. �Instead of photo ops and sound bites, Ms Arroyo must provide concrete solutions to the massive lay-offs, joblessness, and looming famine.� #

IMPORTANT NOTICE: INBOX is an archive of press releases, statements, announcements, letters to the editors, and manifestos sent to PinoyPress for publication. Please email your materials to pinoypress @ gmail.com. PinoyPress is not responsible for the content of these materials. The opinion expessed in these items does not reflect those of PinoyPress and its staff. Please refer to our terms of use/disclaimer.