Workers of besieged company seek aid from Mandaue mayor
By CARINE M. ASUTILLA, ABS-CBN News Central Visayas | 02/04/2009 11:00 PM
More than two hundred workers who are still currently employed at Giardini Del Sole stormed Mandaue City Hall Tuesday morning to seek the intervention of Mayor Jonas Cortes in solving the labor issue in the furniture factory
Workers who have been laid off have been staging a strike for the past few days outside the factory.
The workers who sought the Mayor’s action were led by the owner of the furniture export company himself, Giovanni Boschi.
Boschi asked Cortes to stop the laid-off workers from picketing. Workers of the said company told Boschi that the strikers threatened to hurt them if they come to work.
“They threatened us that they will hurt us if we insist to go to work,” said Jilbert Camor. Camor has been working in lamination for three years in Giardini.
Cortes visited the picket line outside the factory of the furniture export company and urged the laid-off workers to calm down. He then invited the laid-off workers for a meeting with management of the furniture company Tuesday afternoon.
Cortes said that the laid-off workers could benefit from the emergency employment program of the Department of Labor and Employment and the local government unit.
“I want them to avail on the emergency employment but I will still have to check the guidelines from the Department of Labor,” said Cortes.
Cortes then went back to Mandaue City session hall where the workers of Giardini and Boschi were waiting for him. Cortes then told Boschi that the leaders of the union who also led the picket agreed to sit down with them.
“I really hope that everything will be okay. He (Cortes) promised to solve the problem, I just hope they (laid-off workers) will listen to him,” said Boschi.
Cortes then advised the workers still employed to go back to work. Cortes then ordered that the workers be transported with the city’s three buses back to the factory in Barangay Alang-Alang.
But the striking laid off workers did not allow the bus to come 10 meters near the factory’s gate. They also did not allow the workers to get off the bus and enter the factory premises.
An employee of the Mayor’s office asked the strikers to let the employed workers get in. The strikers then allowed only the supervisors of the company to get inside but told the city hall employee that the employed workers can only go back to work if there will be a negotiation that will yield a win-win solution.
Primitivo Guinoo, Nagkahiusang Pundok sa mga Mamumuo sa Giardini president, said that they are also hoping that with the intervention of Cortes, their request for work rotation and other benefits will be granted.
“We are hoping that this intervention will not fail. NCMB’s [National Conciliation Mediation Board] intervention did result a favorable solution for us,” said Guinoo.
Giardini already released a list of laid-off workers to receive a separation pay. Out of the 240 laid-off workers, 29 of them were listed last January 3. But these workers said they would not claim their separation pay until the company management adds an additional amount worth one-month salary.
Margie Cabelin, one of those listed for the separation pay, said that the management told them that the separation pay will be worth 13-days-pay times the number of years of service. She said that the amount is barely enough.
Last Tuesday, Boschi fearlessly told TV Patrol Central Visayas that the laid off workers were paid by Mandaue Foam to protest against him. He said that the company wants his business to go down because they are in close competition.
Mandaue Foam however released an official statement that they have nothing to do with the crisis Giardini is going through. The management said that they have no connection with Giardini.
Boschi later on in an interview said that he did not mention anything about Mandaue Foam.
as of 02/04/2009 11:00 PM
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