"Garment firm layoffs 300 to bust union in export zone", 28 November 2020

A garment exporting firm in the Mactan Economic Zone yesterday laid off 300 employees... This morning hundreds of its workers protested at the factory gate of First Glory Apparel then marched around the ecozone complex to air their demand for reinstatement... The workers are refusing to accept the termination offer and demanding their reinstatement...

[Cristito Pangan, president of the labor union and one of the workers retrenched said] “First Glory is just using covid and the bankruptcy of its main client J.Crew of US as an alibi to bust the union which has a pending petition for certification election. Production has not decreased and in fact workers are asked to report for duty even on holidays and Sunday. This belies management’s claims. Likewise, we know that J.Crew has already exited bankruptcy this September and is operating normally in the US. That is also why we are still making clothes for this global brand.”...