In a press conference held Monday, merely hours after DITFI shocked its workers with its arbitrary announcement of closure, DOLE Stanfilco immediately declared that it did not own DITFI and that it had only severed its hauling contract with the latter.
Romualdo Basilio, chair of KMU-SMR, said that "it is a classic case of labor flexibilization where capitalists wash their hands clean of their responsibilities to the workers by hiding behind the cloak of dummy companies."
But Noel Morales, president of Nagkahiusang Mamumuo sa DITFI (NAMADITFI), the union of the rank-and-file workers of DITFI, said that DOLE Stanfilco cannot deny its ownership of the hauling company.
"How can DOLE Stanfilco assert that it doesn't own DITFI when it solely calls all the shots in the company? It has direct control in the decision-making of DITFI. The management of DITFI are mere implementers of the decisions that come from DOLE Stanfilco"
Morales related that in 2002, members of the management panel during the negotiations of their Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) could not decide on the terms of the agreement unless it sought the explicit approval of DOLE Stanfilco personnel. "The talks would be stalled because [DITFI Human Resource Manager Deogracias] Mocam would call DOLE Stanfilco managers from his cellphone before he decides on anything in the CBA. In fact, one of the signatories in the CBA is a manager of DOLE Stanfilco," he said.
Basilio said that "corporate arrangements" such as this have become the trend of big transnational corporations to further its exploitation against workers. "Flexible labor not only includes making workers work under inhuman conditions in order for capitalists to cut costs. In the recent years, it has also included setting up smaller dummy companies that legally becomes the 'employers.' But essentially, if we consider production, employment decisions and other important aspects of the business, we can see that it is still the big companies like DOLE Stanfilco that call the shots."
He also challenged the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to take a stand in the labor dispute and denounce once and for all the illegality of the closure of DITFI. "They were there [Atty. Lito Jasa, Milagros Gutierrez and Quirino David], and they shared the workers' surprise when the management announced that DITFI was closing. DOLE Stanfilco and DITFI did not respect the mandate of their office or the due process of declaring closure, and it is their constitutionally-enshrined responsibility to denounce such anti-worker measures."
The management requested the presence of the personnel from DOLE for a "general assembly" and never posted legal notices beforehand of its plans of closing the company.
Basilio added that there was no reason why DOLE should not intervene and sanction DOLE Stanfilco and DITFI for what they did. "This is the perfect opportunity for DOLE to live up to their sworn duty to protect the rights of the workers."##