At GSPI, an all-capitalized Arial 14-pt one-page flyer stating:
“GSPI management does not permit the holding of any form of assembly or meeting on its property. Any violation of this notice shall be dealt with accordingly..”
Unfortunately, the flyer bore no official signature nor any marks that it passed through the stringent requirements of our human resource department that the flyer was officially sanctioned by management.
A week prior to the publication of this flyer, Elmer Nayon, the president of the rank-and-file union was sacked for reasons known only to management. Speculations among the labor union members point that the forced resignation of their president was evidently because of the spur-of-the-moment incident last year in 2007, when most of the outgoing shift personnel formed a human barricade in front of the Administration Building asking for the release of the delayed salaries.
Global Steel Philippines (SPV-AMC), Inc [GSPI] acquired all the assets of National Steel Corporation [NSC], a steel manufacturing plant located in the southern part of the Philippines for PhP13.5B in the latter part of 2004. GSPI, formerly known until 29 July 2005 as Global Steelworks International, Inc. [GSII], is a member of Global Infrastructures Holdings Ltd [GIHL], a holding company of Ispat International, owned by Pramod Mittal. Pramod Mittal is the chairman of Global Steel Holdings, Ltd. [GSHL] whose operations in Bulgaria and Nigeria have run into trouble [Livemint, 05 April 2008].
Novinite reported 11 June 2008 that the GSHL’s Bulgarian steel plant, Kremikovtsi, contemplates on declaring bankruptcy. Meanwhile, GSHL threatened a day in the International Court after the federal government of Nigeria rescinds concessioning its Ajaokuta Steel in April 2008.
This blogger believes that the flier violates the Philippine Bill of Rights, namely the right of peaceful assembly, and the sacking of the union president as a blatant form of union-busting! Interestingly, the question remains: who leaked this flyer which is now found distributed in the shop floor? Incidentally, daily meetings are still attended by management staff to discuss issues of the previous and present day. Are these not a form of assembly, if not pure-and-simple meeting?
Notes:
Disclaimer: The posts on this site do not necessarily represent any organization’s positions, strategies or opinions; and unless otherwise expressly stated, are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
