Government Not Serious in Addressing the Problem of Mass Layoffs

The 2,000 factory workers in Intel Philippines about to lose their jobs this year topped the headlines today. The alarming rate of displaced workers, not only in Intel, can never be concealed to the public anymore.

Hardest hit are mostly non-unionised workers in the electronics and car manufacturing in export processing zones in CALABARZON.

Amkor Technology Incorporated wiped out all its 3,000 contractual women workers in September 2008 and another 2,000 regulars, aside from the managers and supervisors, will be laid off by February this year.

Integrated Microelectronics Incorporated (IMI) which previously employed 17,000 workers, 90% of which are women, also wiped out its 3,000 contractual workers in December 2008. IMI also implemented forced leaves leading to retrenchment to more than 1,000 regular workers since December 2008 till May 2009, and threatens retrenchment to a few more thousands within and after that period. To make things worse, starting today, the company prioritizes its subcontracting departments of Toshiba, Hitachi, and Comby to slash 400 workers daily.

Also, not less than 10,000 workers are laid off since October last year and threatened to be laid off first quarter of this year in Samsung, Yazaki, F-Tech, Fujitsu, NEC, TDK, Matsushita, and more.

Compressed work week and other schemes leading also to retrenchments are experienced by workers in the car manufacturing. Starting January, Toyota Motor Philippines implemented a Monday-no-productio n day and will “temporarily” get rid of its 500 contractuals and on-the-job trainees (OJT) by March. Nissan retrenched 40 regulars in December 2008 and 70 more this coming February. Keihin Philippines plans to implement a 4-day work month starting February. Ford now maintains only 18 employees out of the previously 400 workforce. Isuzu will soon follow the steps of its mother company which displaced 30,000 Japanese employees.

These are only some of the few reported cases. A conservative estimate of 40,000 workers are expected to lose their jobs by the first half of this year in the two industries alone in CALABARZON.

Employers blame the global financial crisis for mass layoffs.

PAMANTIK-KMU believes that programs for national industrialization will truly serve the interests of the Filipino working class and will eventually foster a sustainable economy.

However, for an anti-worker and anti-people government which embraced imperialist globalization with open arms, the US-Arroyo regime can only monitor trends through “employment odometers” as Nero fiddled while Rome burned. It does not heed its social responsibility. Through the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE), it promised to provide band-aid solutions such as livelihood programs and technical seminars to tens of thousands displaced workers.

Unionism, as one of the workers’ constitutional right and avenues to defend job security, is equated by the regime with terrorism. Due to intensifying trade union repression, DoLE feasts to have tallied fewer unions in the last years. Political persecution as in the case of labor leaders listed among the Southern Tagalog 72 slapped with concocted charges is another means to curtail the voice and legitimacy of the labor cause.

The US-Arroyo regime can never be serious in any measure to counter the mass layoffs and address the legitimate demands of workers.

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