UNREST AMONG DOLE PLANTATION WORKERS

HUNDREDS of pineapple and banana plantation workers have been retrenched by the new management of Dole Philippines in Polomolok, South Cotabato, according to a labor group.

The Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP) disclosed that the unrest was started by the spot termination on September 15 of 478 regular employees without just cause though they are hiring more contractual workers.

Dole was acquired by Japanese firm Itochu Corp. from Dole Food Inc. in 2013.

ALU-TUCP spokesman Alan Tanjusay said sacked employees sought their help to represent them in the government mediation and conciliation mechanism in the hope that they would be reinstated back to work.

“This is untimely and unconscionable. Management fully knows that there are no new jobs waiting for retrenched workers once they are terminated. The upstream and downstream economies of towns and cities built around plantation operations are very vulnerable to corporate attempts to bring down wages and to artificially bring down labor rights,” said Tanjusay.

Sofriano Mataro, ALU-TUCP regional vice president for Southern Mindanao Region, pointed out that the effect of the pandemic is negligible and cannot be used by Dole to justify the layoffs given the resilience of its strong export markets.

“It has deep corporate pockets and the current troubles attributable to the pandemic are a mere blip. The termination is doubly painful to severed workers to lose their livelihood as the country’s economy sinks deeper into recession caused by the pandemic lockdowns,” said Mataro.

Other disenfranchised employees have asked the help of the labor federation to convey their appeal to the top executives of Itochu to stop any further layoffs of regular workers.

Workers strongly believe Dole’s middle executives are disempowering the right of more than 6,000 regular employees to organize a union and collectively bargain for better wages and benefits by the end of the year and undermine the legal procedure by replacing them with contractual workers without the knowledge of the top management.

“While employees still have hope with top management officials, we urge the Dole top executives to respond and intervene by ordering a stop to the unlawful termination, reinstate illegally laid off employees and ensure the workers’ right to form a union and collectively bargain before the situation becomes worse,” it further said.