Hanjin Workers Watchdog Under Attack
Press Release – March 24, 2010 – Contact Person: Alfie Alipio (SAMAHAN President)- 0920 825 4298
Subic, Zambales- A two-week old Hanjin workers association up against Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction Corp. (HHIC-Phils.) petition to cancel its certificate of registration.
On March 6, 2010 the Samahan ng mga Manggagawa sa Hanjin Shipyard or SAMAHAN received its Certificate of Registration (R.O. 300-1002-WA-009). “We created SAMAHAN for our welfare and protection”, said Alfie Alipio, SAMAHAN’s newly elected President.
Read the backgrounder: Hanjin Shipyard: Continuing Struggle for Labor Standards (pdf)
This was after the workers union failed to secure a union registration after waiting for a year and a half. As the Department of Labor is yet to act upon the union registration of Hanjin Heavy Industries Construction Workers Union.
According to Alipio the union met repressive actions from the management such as the termination of their members and reassignment of some of their officers to Hanjin Cagayan De Oro.
SAMAHAN officers Joey Gonzales (Secretary), Eddie Tantay (Vice-President) and Gonzales Bulting (member) after being assigned to the SBMA Training Center received a memo to become trainors of workers at Cagayan De Oro and was sent there last February 25.
“At Cagayan De Oro they did not train any worker, instead they worked as common shipbuilders at the Cagayan De Oro Training Center”, Alipio quipped.
Early this morning the association received notice of the HHIC-Phils. Petition to cancel SAMAHAN’s certificate of registration. Meanwhile, the Department of Labor scheduled a March 26, conference at its Region III, Regional office to tackle this.
‘Legally we do not have the right to a Collective Bargaining Agreement but only to juridical representation of our members’, Alipio added, ‘Why is it then that Hanjin seem to overreact on this matter?’
He also added that, the cancellation of the Hanjin Workers association’s certificate of registration is clearly overkill. ‘Do not strip our civil rights to the bottom, we demand that the Department of Labor do its job and give to us what’s rightfully ours’. Alfie Alipio ended.
In this light, SAMAHAN alongside Samahan ng Nagkakaisang Mamamayan ng Subic (SNMS) an association of Subic Urban Poor and Fisherfolks, Manggagawa para sa Kalayaan ng Bayan (MAKABAYAN) and Kilusan para sa Pambansang Demokrasya (KPD) Central Luzon will hold a protest rally in front of DOLE Region III office at exactly 10:00 a.m. the same time of the conference.