Protest Toyota

Newsletter No.1 June 17,2001

Dear Friends,

Thank you for your support for our campaign for the Philippine Toyota workers.

1. The following is the summary of the background and update information we know so far:

   In order to increase working conditions and promote workers' right, workers at Philippine Toyota formed TMPCWA (Toyota Motor Philippines Corporation Workers Association) and registered the union at the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) in September 1999. After the successful union certification election in March 2000, TMPCWA requested the company to negotiate over the collective bargain agreement (CBA). Instead of responding to the request, the company rejected to recognize the union and filed a complaint to the DOLE. Although DOLE decided that the TMPCWA was formed lawfully, the company continued to reject the negotiation. Furthermore, the company retrenched 227 workers who joined the protest action against the company and suspended another 73 workers on March 16th this year. TMPCWA began a strike on March 28th to protest this, bringing about a temporary interruption of the production.

   The management of Philippine Toyota put pressure on the Philippine Government to calm down the dispute. President Arroyo and her government heard from both the management and the union, sent the Secretary of DOLE to the workers' picket line to discuss with workers on April 7th, and ordered that the union should stop the strike and the management should reinstate the retrenched/suspended workers. Although the management accepted the reinstatement of the suspended workers and began to pay back the wages for the retrenched workers, they refused to allow the 227 retrenched workers to go back to their job (they are even refused to enter the premise of the company).

2. Solidarity action in Japan

   In Japan, trade unions and workers' groups including the Kanto Regional Council of the Japan All Shipbuilding and Engineering Union, Japan Auto-Workers'Network(JAWN), and APWSL Japan sent a letter of protest to President of Toyota Company in Japan. We also sent letters to IMF, IMF-JC,
   Toyota Union, Confederation of Japan Automobile Workers' Unions (JAW) and other
   organization to request fortheir support. At the same time we called on trade unions and workers' groups in our country as well as in other countries to send protest letters to Toyota Company.

   Mr. Ed Quberro, President of TMPCWA, arrived here on April 19th to attend a seminar on "Globalization in Auto-Industry and Workers in Asia" sponsored by APWSL Japan and JAWN as well as to join the protest action at the headquarter of Toyota Company in Tokyo. During his stay in Japan, Ed met member
   of Houses of Japan, had a press conference. On April 23, he and other people in support of the workers met the spokesperson of Toyota Company and discussed for one and a half hours in the headquarter (Kanto Regional Council of the Japan All Shipbuilding and Engineering Union arranged the meeting) while 150 workers from 25 groups held a protest rally outside the building. The attitude of the management of Toyota Company was utterly irresponsible. They said there was no department or section to handle this matter and they are not following the situation. They tried to avoid the responsibility by saying that this matter should be solved locally between management and workers in Philippines.

3. For Further Actions of Solidarity!

   The following sentence is quoted from the recent letter from TMPCWA. $B!H(BAs for our update regarding the union,on May 28 we staged a peaceful picket protest simultaneously in front of Toyota Bicutan and Sta.Rosa plant campaigning the physical return-to-work of the 227 payroll reinstated union members and to start CBA negotation.Unfortunately, both pickets were forcefully dispersed by the management through security guards and police officers. The second dispersal attact at Bicutan plant around 2:15 PM was almost bloody resulting ten union members to suffer injuries. We were beaten by Toyota security guards using hard wooden sticks similar to wooden planks and fired gun shots on the air. One member was badly beaten on his head and suffered multiple hits on his body requiring minor operation and further observation of the body from the injuries got. We were planning to file a complaint regarding this incident to International Labor Organization (ILO).

   According to the latest news, Toyota Company reported the highest profit in its history of nearly 1 trillion yen or approx. $75 billion in the fiscal year 2000 (ended on March 31st). Nissan Motor Company, headed by Carlos Chosn who came from Renault, also marked a profit of 330 billion yen after many years of losses. These huge amounts of profits were realized through ruthless "restructuring" including closure of a series of factories all over the country and reducing the number of contractors.

   We have to notice that while the world biggest MNCs is renewing the record of their profits, workers all over the world are suffering and being faced with harsh repression. We need to fight back with the spirit of international solidarity. We want you to continue your support for workers at Philippine Toyota.

In solidarity

Protest Toyota Campaign

ZEN-ZOSEN(Kanto Regional Council of the Japan All Shipbuilding and Engineering Union)
Email:protest-toyota@jca.apc.org

*ZEN-ZOSEN(Kanto Regional Council of the Japan All Shipbuilding and Engineering
Union) was formed in 1979 and has organized not only shipbuilding workers but also
different industry workers including automobile,electrical and undocumented foreign workes.

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