Strike looms at Keppel shipyard

CEBU, Philippines - A labor strike looms at the Keppel ship repair facilities in barangay Looc, Lapulapu City, as the company’s labor union is resisting an alleged attempt of management to downsize its workforce, as the company shifts from ship repair to ship building.

“Keppel is using the global crisis as an alibi to destroy the union and replace regular jobs with contractual workers,” says Roger Igot, president of the Nagkahiusang Mamumuo sa Baradero (Keppel Shipyard)-National Federation of Labor.

As an initial protest, union members stayed at the shipyard facilities for the past several days.

Igot said that last February 20, the management reportedly proposed to let its employees avail of a forced leave. The union, citing the heavy presence of contractual workers, disagreed.

Seven days later, the management reportedly offered a voluntary resignation package that the union also reportedly rejected allegedly because the offer shortchanged the workers.

The same day, during a preventive mediation hearing at the National Mediation and Conciliation Board, the workers questioned management’s move to hire contractual workers without first informing the union, as stipulated in the Collective Bargaining Agreement.

Last Monday, Igot said that the management allegedly threatened to file a redundancy case if the workers would not avail of the resignation package.

“There is no basis for redundancy since ship building will require more, not less workers compared to ship repair even if they introduce new machines since it is intrinsically labor intensive,” Igot said.

The bottom line of the issue, the union alleged, is that the company would want to squeeze more profit by cheapening labor cost.

A regular Keppel worker gets much higher wages and benefits compared to a contractual laborer who allegedly earns a wage below the minimum and without benefits.

The union argued there are reportedly no signs that Keppel is bleeding, considering that it is slated to pay profit sharing later this week. — Mitchelle L. Palaubsanon/JMO (THE FREEMAN)