Home
Der virtuelle Treffpunkt der Gewerkschafts- und Betriebslinken
The virtual meeting place of the left in the unions and in the workplace
LabourNet Germany | ||||
| Home | Über uns | Suchen | Termine | |
Protest Toyota
Upon the request in January 2000 from TMPCWA (Toyota Motor Philippines Corporation Workers Association) through YCW (Young Christian Workers), the concerned labor unions and NGOs in Japan commenced an international solidarity campaign to support the union struggling against attempts of the management to nullify the formation of the union.
Although TMPCWA won its certification election and an arbitration was awarded by the GoP (Government of the Philippines) that TMPC (Toyota Motor Philippines Corporation) should start to negotiate a CBA (Collective Bargaining Agreement) with TMPCWA, the company continued to appeal against the decisions in favor of the union. It also filed a complaint against a protest of TMPCWA, which the company alleged was an illegal strike, and fired 227 employees on March 16, 2001. The Toyota management, together with other Japanese transnationals in the country, threatened the GoP (Government of Philippines) to withdraw from the country without a settlement of the labor dispute in favor of them.
On August 9, in the course of the labor dispute being more politicized, the GoP awarded an arbitration that a protesting activity by the union was illegal. Toyota Labor Management Council, which is in fact manipulated by the management, filed a criminal case against 26 workers, who were blamed for looking at them in a threatening manner and shouting invective words. These cases have driven TMPCWA to extremity.
The following sentence is quoted from the recent letter from TMPCWA. "We already filed an appeal to a higher court, Court of Appeals, challenging the NLRC decision's 'Illegal Strike'. We are still facing the criminal case, Grave Coercion, charged by the Toyota management employees. The management also continues to harass through serving of illegal suspensions to some of our union members left inside the company which hinders the promotion status of the said deserving members to a higher level of payment. We are all aware that the struggle would take time and we will be needing your continuous support in any possible way you can."
The concerned Japanese labor unions and NGOs organized Support Group of TMPCWA, and decided to do supporting activities, "Protest Toyota Campaign" including issuing its newsletter.
In this summer, a group of 13 members from different support organizations in Japan visited the Philippines to study the labor dispute and discuss expected supporting activities with the union. "Struggle of TMPCWA" is the group's study report based on interviews with TMPCWA and legal counsels and other materials.
Protest Toyota Campaign ( Support Group of TMPCWA ) Contact: c/o Union
Yokosuka,Oppama Higashi-cho 3-63-901,Yokosuka-shi,Kanagawa-ken
Tel/Fax 0468-69-1415
E-mail: protest-toyota@jca.apc.org
Protest Toyota Campaign
The Toyota Motor Philippines Corporation(President Mr. Ken Fukuda), established in 1988, is the largest automaker in the Philippines with annual exports of US$50 million by a staff of about 1,500, including about 900 rank-and-file workers. The company has two plants in the suburbs of Manila, namely the Bicutan plant and the Sta. Rosa plant which produce its brands such as Carolla and Camry. In the past, the workers tried to organize themselves twice, but only failed to do so in either case due to the company $B!G(Bs reactions to stifle up these attempts through lawsuits, intimidation and conciliation. Still, in 1997, the workers$B!G(B aspiration to improve their labor conditions made another attempt to form TMPCWA as their trade union under the leadership of Mr. ED Cubelo.
On April 15, 1998, TMPCWA registered itself at the National Capital Region office of DOLE(Department of Labor and Employment) as an independent rank-and-file workers union without any upper organization. By the end of 1998, a series of complaints filed by the company led Mr. Cubelo and the organizing group for the union to take legal advice and the assistance for organizing from YCW. On June 25, 1999, thanks to the assistance of Atty.Cesar Maravilla, the legal counsel of YCW, an arbitration was awarded by DOLE that the company should have a certification election for TMPCWA. Though TMPC appealed against the decision made by DOLE to the Court of Appeals, the union again won the case there.
It took TMPCWA as long as two years to reach to the certification election since it had to face the lawsuit filed by TMPC stubbornly refusing the union building. The Labor Code provides that the establishment of a labor union requires its registration at a local office of DOLE, and that a labor union must be separately formed for rank-and-file workers and for supervisory employees, respectively. A rank-and-file workers union must be registered before holding an CE (certification election), only the majority victory of which renders it recognized as the exclusive bargaining agent for those workers, and thus allows it to have a right to negotiate a CBA(Collective Bargaining Agreement) with the management of the company concerned.
In a labor dispute, a first instance takes the form of an arbitration to be awarded by the government, specifically a local office of DOLE or NLRC (the National Labor Relations Commission) an agency attached to DOLE, depending on the nature of the dispute. Issues like registration, CE and CBA are handled by Med-Arbiters at local offices of DOLE, while violations against the Labor Code, including illegal strikes, unfair labor practices and wages, are done by NLRC. A complaint against an arbitration awarded by the Med-Arbiters can be filed to the Bureau of Labor Relations of DOLE headquaters, while that against arbitration awarded by NLRC to the Court of Appeals, and then to the Supreme Court.
The second phase of lawsuit continuing up to the present started when the unfavorable result of the certification election held on March 8, 2000 drew another complaint from the TMPC management. The open vote election resulted in 503 votes for and 440 votes against the certification of TMPCWA, that is, the union won the election in the majority. Aside from a total of 943 votes above, however, there were 105 votes of challenged voters, who are defined as those still at issue between the union and the management over whether they are included in the list of rank-and-file workers who have rights to vote, or not.
TMPCWA compromised with the management over the open vote on condition that votes of the challenged voters would not be counted, as the union was concerned that it would take longer to settle the issue and that leveling maneuvers by the management had been intensifying. TMPCWA was confident that those votes cannot be counted from a legal point of view, with a Supreme Court decision that the challenged voters should not be included in the list of rank-and-file workers. This decision was made in February, 1997 for the case between the TMPC management and TMPCLU(Toyota Motor Philippines Corporation Labor Union), a predecessor of TMPCWA, admitting the claim of TMPC that rank-and-file workers are those with tasks categorized into label 1 through 4, and thus TMPCLU lost the case.
Nevertheless, TMPC filed a complaint to a local office of DOLE, claiming that the votes of challenged voters in the CE be counted. On May 12, 2000, based on that Supreme Court ruling, Med-Arbiter Lameyra issued an arbitration that the votes of challenged voters should not be counted, and the company should implement a CBA negotiation. Though the management appealed to the Bureau of Labor Relations of DOLE headquarters, the Undersecretary$B!G(Bs arbitration issued on October 19, 2000 also supported for the Med-Arbiter$B!G(Bs. The management further appealed against the Undersecretary$B!G(Bs arbitration to the Secretary of DOLE.
In 2001, while the tension between Toyota management and TMPCWA has got intensified, the union has heard of different disquieting developments in favor of the management, which continues to reject consultation with the union and use dirty tricks to nullify it. Among others, it was alleged that the Secretary of DOLE Patricia Tomas had accepted the management$B!G(Bs claim and would review the tasks of 105 challenged voters. There was even a rumor that the company did under-the-table agreement with the Labor Department.
To cope with these developments, TMPCWA has made greater efforts to defend itself by, for example, establishing the right to strike through strike voting. The union foresaw that the most critical event for their struggle would be the coming hearings on February 22 and 23, 2001 to be held by DOLE, where the tasks of 22 employees presenting themselves as testimonies for the management would be examined. Thus, mass mobilization by TMPCWA brought 317 members of the union to the hearings. The union submitted, in advance, a formal letter that those workers would be absent for the two days, but would work later for additional two days to compensate for their absence. The company accepted it. Indeed, 317 workers were able to return to work on February 24.
It was on March 16 when the situation took a sudden turn. The Secretary of DOLE dismissed the complaint filed by the management and announced that further complaints would not be received any more. On the same day, TMPC dismissed 227 and suspended 70, out of 317 workers who attended the hearings, claiming that they absented themselves without due notice. Immediately, TMPCWA picketed both the Bicutan plant and the Sta. Rosa plant. No improvements through the pickets, however, led the union to go on strike for repealing the dismissal on March 28. Approximately 700 workers, including about 500 members of TMPCWA, joined the strike so the plants were forced to stop production completely for two weeks. In early April, the management filed a case to NLRC, claiming that the strike was illegal.
The labor dispute of TMPC has been more politicized, as the Toyota management met with the GoP officials and threatened to withdraw from the country without an early settlement of its labor dispute.
On April 9, the NLRC issued an TRO(Temporary Restraining Order) to suspend the strike. Early in the next day, when the picket line was weakened, the management used police together with company-hired goons to get rid of the picket. On April 10, TMPC notified that it would resume production. On the same day, all mass media in the Philippines received information that 11 Japanese companies including TMPC threatened DOLE and DTI(Department of Trade and Industry) by suggesting that it would withdraw without a settlement of the labor dispute. On April 12, the Secretary of DOLE entered into conciliation by issuing its AJ(Assumption of Jurisdiction) order with an option for the management to let the dismissed workers to return back to work or not. Management rejected the return back to work but in stead issued payroll reinstatement term by April 16, when Easter would end.
On the morning of April 16, however, 227 dismissed workers were prohibited to enter the plants and were notified that the company would not reinstate them, but would pay them. TMPC announced that the strike cost the company about 120 million pesos. On the other hand, workers said that their monthly wages including benefits were 7000~8000 pesos (about 20,000 yen), but 60% of which (about 4000 pesos) was paid to the dismissed workers. The company monthly pays only one million pesos for 227 dismissed workers. The management pretended to make a compromise, but in reality bought time enough to employ about 300 substitutes and train them.
TMPC continued to pressure the GoP to settle the dispute in favor of them. It was reported in the newspapers that the top management of Toyota headquarters visited the Philippines and made senior officials of the GoP assure that such illegal strikes as to force a plant to stop its production would never take place. On August 6, the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Philippines reportedly organized a meeting between 200 representatives from Japanese multinationals and senior officials of the GoP, including Secretaries of DOLE, DTI and Department of Interior and Local Government, to request for improving investment environments such as labor issues, security and infrastructure, especially strengthening government arbitration to labor disputes.
The Japanese multinational companies worked together to pressure the GoP so successfully that it started to issue reactionary decisions which effectively revoked previous ones in favor of TMPCWA. On July 11, the TMPC secured an Injunction Order from the Court of Appeals which effectively prevented the enforcement of the final decision made by the Secretary of DOLE that certified TMPCWA as the exclusive bargaining agent. On August 9 (three days after the meeting of the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Philippines with senior officials), NLRC awarded an arbitration that a series of protests initiated by TMPCWA including those during February 22 and 23, May 23 and 28 were illegal. With these two decisions, the payroll reinstatement of 227 workers will be cut off, adding a further damage to the union. TMPCWA is filing a certiorari to the Supreme Court to block the earlier Injunction Order of the Court of Appeals. However, as it will take the union two to four years to struggle at the Supreme Court, the dismissed workers without payroll will have more difficulties in their struggle.
Up-to-dated information says that the number of workers to be terminated by TMPC has increased from 227 to 233, including 15 TMPCWA officers. The management demanded each of them to retire with an offer of retirement allowance calculated on the basis of monthly salary and years in service. In addition, 26 union members were accused as criminals of glaring in a threatening manner and shouting invective words by Toyota$B!G(Bs Labor Management Council, which is in fact manipulated by the management. Despite these difficulties, those de facto dismissed are determined not to receive the retirement allowance, and to continue their struggle against the management.
Labor unions and NGOs in Japan filed protests against both Toyota Motor Corporation Tokyo headquarter and TMPC, demanding for withdrawing the dismissal of 227. workers and starting a CBA negotiation with TMPCWA. On April 21, together with Mr. ED Cubelo, 150 workers from 25 organizations held a protest rally at Toyota headquarters in Tokyo, and had some negotiation with the company. On June 21, the labor unions and NGOs again went to Toyota Tokyo headquater to make a protest against the incident where union members were injured by guards of TMPC at the Bicutan plant on May 28. Toyota Tokyo headquarter did not sincerely respond to the protest, saying that the labor dispute should be settled between the both parties concerned in the Philippines, and the headquarters had no functions to handle it.
Who else other than the Toyota headquarters, however, could appoint one of its staff as the President of TMPC, and has pressured the GoP to settle the dispute in favor of the management by threatening to withdraw from the country? It is a common attitude of the multinational Toyota toward its workers not only in the Philippines, but also in US, Canada and Japan that the company never admits the formation of trade unions which are out of its control.
A group of 13 representatives from Japanese organizations visited the Philippines from July 30 to August 2, 2001. During their stay in the country, they joined the protest rallies of the TMPCWA members and their families at both TMPC and the Japanese embassy in Manila. TMPCWA members, most of whom are still young in their 20s, share a common idea that they want to acquire their labor rights due to their pride in works. Mr. ED Cubelo, the president of TMPCWA said that this struggle had developed from a very simple one that demanded for undoubted rights as workers, as Toyota was challenging them in collusion with the GoP, and that they wanted to make it an international issue so that they could struggle for workers as a whole. TMPCWA is preparing for filing a complaint to ILO. IMF has already started its investigation on this labor dispute. International solidarity among workers is effective in their struggles. The struggle of TMPCWA is also one of our struggles against multinational companies which in general have been getting more oppressive in course of the globalization of economy.
|
Home | LabourNet Germany: http://www.labournet.de/
Der virtuelle Treffpunkt der Gewerkschafts- und Betriebslinken The virtual meeting place of the left in the unions and in the workplace | |
| Datei: | ||
| Datum: | ||