Subject: [cwj 147] Letter of Support from Japan All Shipbuilding and Engineering Union
From: Corporate Watch in Japanese <cwj@corpwatch.org>
Date: Wed, 04 Apr 2001 14:29:31 -0700
Seq: 147
Mr.Marchelo Malentacy Secretary IMF Mr. Kusano Tadayoshi Chairman of IMF-JC and Chairman of Federation of Auto Workers Mr. Jinno Susumu Chairman Toyota Motor Workers Union March 29,2001 Japan All Shipbuilding and Engineering Union Kanto regional Council We received an appeal from TMPCWA (Toyota Motor Philippines Workers Association) through YCW (Young Christian Workers) of Philippines. According to the appeal, - TMPCWA had the certification election for the union last March 8, 2000 with majority of the workers voted yes for the union. - In spite of the fact that the union was certified as the sole and exclusive bargaining representative by the Labor Department, the Toyota management still refuses to recognize the union and even strengthen their harassment to destroy the union up to the present time. -(The company) filed again another labor case ... just to delay the negotiation and to demoralize the union members. -(Due to these extraordinary situation at Toyota Motor Philippines), the union had no choice but to start the call for a strike. -The union have already conducted strike vote with more than majority of the members agreed and voted yes and showed readiness to go on strike. -In light of the above, the union is appealing for our support and assistance, financial, material, and moral to sustain this struggle. The 8th IMF Toyota World Council, which was held in July 1999, declared in its resolution that "We base ourselves on democracy and support the right of workers at all the operation units of Toyota Company and its suppliers in the whole world to organize strong trade unions without interference by the management or the government. We will strengthen our international solidarity so that unions can exchange their experiences and ideas with each other" The hostility shown by the employers of Toyota Motor Philippines against the union activities of TMPCWA cannot be accepted. Toyota Motor Corp. is a prestige international company and the basic policy of the company includes its willingness to "respect the national and international laws and the spirit behind these laws" and "become a respectable corporate citizen of the international society through open and fair business operation" as its first commitment. The hostility and unfair attitude by Toyota Motor Philippines aainst their employee is utterly contradict to this policy. To make matters worse, Toyota Motor Philippines abruptly dismissed 291 workers on the 16th of March and suspended ３0 workers. TMPCWA was forced to start strike actions at Bictan factory and Santa Losa factory with dismissed workers picketing in front of the gates. A hearing was taken place at the office of Department of Labor and Employment on the 20th of this month, but the company only sent their lawyer as their representative. DoLE ordered the management should attend the next hearing to be held on the 27th. It is clear that the dismissal is aimed at destroying the union. It must not be allowed. We want you to extend your support to TMPCWA and denounce the management to pursuade them to withdraw the dismissal and suspension of members of TMPCWA, immediately let them return to their place, abandon the hostile attitude against TMPCWA, withdraw lawsuits against the union, and take to the negotiation table on the collective bargaining agreement in a normalized employee-employer relation. Japan All Shipbuilding and Engineering Union Kanto regional Council 505 SAN-KOHPO 20-9 Toyookacho Tsurumi-ku, Yokohama-City 230-0062 JAPAN Phone & Fax ; 81-45-575-1948 E-mail : yuniyoko@d2.dion.ne.jp ------------------------------------- Corporate Watch in Japanese Transnational Resource and Action Center (TRAC) P.O. Box 29344 San Francisco, CA 94129 USA Tel: 1-415-561-6472 Fax: 1-415-561-6493 Email: cwj@corpwatch.org URL: http://www.corpwatch-jp.org ------------------------------------- ______________________ The Corporate Watch in Japanese http://www.corpwatch.org/japan (CWJ) mailing list is a moderated email list in English designed to connect activists campaigning against Japanese corporations and investments around the world. * To unsubscribe from the CWJ mailing list, send an email to majordomo@jca.apc.org with text "unsubscribe cwj". To subscribe to the CWJ mailing list, send a message to majordomo@jca.apc.org with the text "subscribe cwj" * The CWJ mailing list is NOT intended for wide distribution. If you would like to post messages from this list somewhere else, we ask that you first contact us at cwj@corpwatch.org ______________________