Displaced workers revive protest action

CEBU - Workers of Mandaue City-based Giardini del Sole Inc. revived protest actions yesterday, alleging that the company employed delaying tactics in implementing an agreed work rotation scheme.

Yesterday’s renewed protest action was triggered by an incident the other day in which the workers’ representative to the joint evaluation team walked out of the meeting after management allegedly failed to recommend a single employee it is accepting for job rotation.

About a hundred workers picketed at the Giardini del Sole gates starting 8 a.m. yesterday, as the employees union formally filed a notice of strike.

Partido ng Manggagawa spokesperson Dennis Derigue said workers from nearby establishments Prince Warehouse, Cosonsa, Presidents Marine and displaced workers of Neostone also joined the picket by lunchtime. By 4pm, workers of Lami Foods also reportedly supported the protest action.

“We ask the understanding of our fellow Cebuanos for we were forced by circumstances to hold our protests during Sinulog. But workers cannot be festive when we are jobless and our families are hungry,” said Primitivo Ginoo, Jr., president of the Nagkahiusang Puwersa nga Mamumuo sa Giardini-Partido ng Manggagawa in a press statement.

Union vice president Eulito Fin Jr. said yesterday‘s protest action is just the beginning of a bigger protest, which will reportedly commence today until management delivers its part of the agreement.

The union is also asking the management to rotate work among as many employees as possible.

The bailout package for workers being pushed by the Partido ng Manggagawa includes a subsidy for displaced workers, tax refund for workers as an economic stimulus, and a reformed and expanded state employment program for the millions of unemployed Filipinos.

The country’s biggest furniture manufacturing and exporting company, Giardini del Sole greeted the new year with a temporary shutdown after it received zero orders from its international market. — Mitchelle L. Palaubsanon/JMO   (THE FREEMAN)