It was June 6, 2016 when the union, Tinig ng Mga Manggagawa sa C& F Mfg. Phils. Corp. or the Voice of the Workers in C&F Mfg. Phils. Corp., have filed for a Petition for Certification Election (PCE) to determine the representation of the workers in the collective bargaining. The union is a newly-registered union and was only issued Certificate of Registration on May 30, 2016.

It was on the very same day, June 6, 2016, when the company management informed the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE)-Cavite Provincial Office that they are subjecting to “retrenchment” some 87 regular workers of the company. More than 60 of these workers are union officers and members. On the same day, at night time, the night shift workers learned about their mass lay off through the posted “announcement” of their management in the bulletin board and the next day, June 7, 2016 the day shift workers were held at the guard house and not allowed to enter the premises of the company anymore. Workers tried to seek a dialogue with the management but to no avail.

According to this “announcement” the reasons for the mass lay off: declined orders from main customer, financial loss, production inefficiency, and increased total labor cost from 12% in 2014 to 22 % in 2016. But according to the illegally retrenched workers, none is true of these reasons. The real and sole reason is simply Union Busting!

On May 27, the company abruptly offered a Voluntary Separation Program (VSP) after the workers filed a union registration a day before at the DOLE. The workers snubbed the VSP, which led to illegal and forced retrenchment.

This company is a supplier to IT/electronics companies such as APC Schneider Electric, IBM, and EMC. Its CEO and President is Mr. John Flaherty of C& F Group. He is based at C & F Tooling Ltd., Cashla, Athenry, Co Galway, Ireland. Website: www.cftooling.ie

C & F Tooling Ltd. have companies in Ireland, Germany, Czech Republic, and the Philippines.

Surprisingly, the company is also boasting that they are using the EICC Code of Conduct in their global operation.

On June 9, 2016, the company management hired 55 agency-supplied contractual workers from Terumi, AED, and E Pipol. This is aside from the 50 agency-supplied contractual workers already working in the company and supplied by Terumi.