It was a tension-filled morning on March 5 for Mary Ann Castillo. She and her fellow union members are set to meet again with their employer’s representatives inside the Philippine Labor Department’s central office.
Months before, they filed a notice of strike to continue asserting their right to job security and livable wages. Instead of agreements and resolutions, they were met with the state’s brute force. In February, even before the strike was set into motion, the Labor Secretary issued an order assuming the jurisdiction of the labor dispute between Nexperia and the union. Through the 1989 Herrera Law Amendments, the Philippine Labor Code grants the secretary this far-reaching power.
Ann is the president of the embattled Nexperia workers union. She had been a worker and a unionist for over 30 years. She started young in Philips semiconductors, which was subsequently bought and renamed NXP, then Nexperia. Their company supplies semiconductors to automotive and consumer electronics. According to her, their plant in Cabuyao Laguna (south of Metro Manila) produces over 7 million products daily, amounting to PHP 420 million (USD 7.32 million) in income.
Read more here: https://pinaycollection.com/blogs/news/niyakap-ko-ang-welga-nexperia-union-president-shares-lessons-from-recent-stri