Garments company workers hold picket

Some 100 workers of a garments factory that went on a temporary shutdown more than a week ago barged into the Mactan Economic Zone yesterday morning and held a picket at the gates of their company.

Renante Pelino, president of Alta Mode Workers Union, said the protesting workers of the company, which exports clothes under world-famous brands such as Abercrombie, Fitch and Hollister, discovered a truck at the factory premises filled with materials, suspecting it may be made into a runaway shop.

Pelino said the truck is from a scrap dealer and that the management may spirit out machines in the guise of scrap materials.

"We warn our employer and the dealer that they will be liable for unfair labor practice if they attempt to transfer machines for a runway shop. We will not let that truck leave with machines and materials on board," Pelino said in a press statement furnished to The FREEMAN.

Pelino said that officials of the Aboitiz Land, which leases the MEZ II compound to the Philippine Economic Zone, have met with the workers and asked them to leave, pending resolution of the labor dispute.

However, the workers vowed to keep guard at the Alta Mode factory gates, refusing to leave without an agreement being reached with the management.

AMWU is demanding that management recognize the union, honor the memorandum of agreement forged last September 8 that provides for work rotation and financial assistance to workers on forced leave.

The Alta Mode factory has been rocked by labor unrest this year with workers complaining of alleged inhuman working conditions such as excessive production quota, illegal forced leave and unfair schemes for undertime work.

Pelino said the workers organized a union but on the day of the certifications election last September 7, the management reportedly put all union members on forced leave. – Mitchelle L. Palaubsanon/LPM   (FREEMAN NEWS)