SOLIDARITY OF CAVITE WORKERS CAUSE OF FURTHER JOB LOSS

Apparently, membership in a labor union will only cause you to lose your precious job and would also lead you to be involved in a direct assault against persons in authority and included as subject of a criminal case.

On March 17, 2009, thirty three union members of the Nagkakaisang Manggagawa sa Chong Won (NMCW) and the Kaisahan ng mga Manggagawa sa Phils. Jeon Inc. (KMPJI) to include two members of the Solidarity of Cavite Workers were listed as recipients of a warrant of arrest for direct assault and grave coercion issued by the Judge Municipal Trial Court in Rosario in the province of Cavite. The warrant stemmed from the complaints filed by the Philippine Economic Zone Authority’s (PEZA) police force and by Chong Won Fashion Inc. Production Manager Antonio Felismino on October 12, 2006 following an altercation with striking union members on September 25 and 27, 2006. Members of the striking workers also filed a similar complaint with the Rosario MTC.

This information was contained and was harshly denounced by the union members - allied with the Solidarity of Cavite Workers - in leaflet that was obstinately forced upon passersby’s hands at the very front gates of PEZA in Cavite. However, it was found out that the labor group, SCW, has exaggerated some of their claims against the PEZA administration and the subject companies to deliberately gain public support for their alleged sorry plight. The leaflet claimed that the 33 accused workers were being forced to pay the P12,000.00 bail bond each to have temporary freedom from the criminal charges filed against them which was actually a far cry from the actual P6,000.00 bail bond that was recommended by the court’s presiding Judge Rita E.Quizon after granting a motion to reduce bail bond which the accused themselves filed.

Instead of gaining the sympathy of other workers, the striking union members has only proven through their leaflets that such a situation could have been preempted if the employees of Chong Won Fashion Inc and the Philippine Jeon Garments – without outside interference from known radical labor groups such as the SCW that has a penchant for holding long drawn-out strikes and whose target companies most often end up closed – sat and negotiated for a more feasible collective bargaining agreements that would give both sides a win-win solution.

In the end, affiliation with the Solidarity of Cavite Workers has not only resulted to the loss of jobs for these union members of (NMCW) and (KMPJI) but also of having criminal charges being filed against them.