[APWSLMembers 757] Our Request for Immediate Start of Initial Assessment

[Oidon]

October 26, 2009

To: NCP Japan Attn: Mr. Kenko Sone
From: TMPCWA (Ed Cubelo) & Support Group (Masamichi Yamagiwa)

CC: OECD-TUAC
    　OECD-Investment Committee
   　 ITUC(International Trade Union Confederation)
   　 ILO(International Labour Organization)
    　IMF (International Metalworkers' Federation)

Subject: Our Request for Immediate Start of Initial Assessment

Regarding our case which has been left pending for a very long time since we
raised the Request in 2004, we has recently heard that you, OECD-NCP Japan is
now going to start its initial assessment at long last.

In the meantime, in the local in question, namely the Philippines, the dismissed
workers have been suffering from quite hardship in their living indeed while the
members of TMPCWA have been, both inside and outside of the factory, made a
variety of prey of union busting, harassment and intimidation of the Philippine
government,law court, and the company management of Toyota Philippines. In order
to have them stop these attacks and seek to resolve the dispute, it is much
expected that you, NCP Japan will take appropriate actions timely. If, on the
contrary, such actions as delayed too long will necessarily disappoint us, so
that you, NCP Japan will end up losing its reliability.

We, therefore, hereby request that you, NCP Japan immediately start the initial
assessment without any further delay and that you advance the same so as to show
us the conclusion thereof as soon as practicable.

Needless to say, it is a must that the scope of the initial assessment covers
not only the bargaining right issue but also the mass-dismissal issue as
intended by our original Request. Otherwise, the purport of our Request will
have to be utterly spoiled. That is the reason why we herein reiterate our
standpoint and also request you to fully take it into due consideration in
conducting the initial assessment so that you will not, even by accident, make
any such mistreatment whatsoever, as might be inconsistent with the purport of
our Request. Moreover, we firmly believe that you, NCP Japan making the right
treatment as such will become consistent with the spirit of the OECD Guidelines
on Multinational Enterprises and meet the requirement thereof.


In this regard, though you may be already aware, we make a supplementary
explanation by enumerating certain related information as follows:

As has been made clear by ILO’s open information, ILO’s Committee on Freedom
of Association has been steadfastly maintaining its standpoint of recommending
the Philippine government to reinstate the dismissed workers to their original
workplaces irrespective of the fact that the Philippine Supreme Court rendered a
judgment admitting the dismissal as legally effective.


Furthermore, to cope with the union busting, harassment and intimidation
incessantly repeated by the Philippine government and the company management of
Toyota Philippines in addition to the illegal mass-dismissal and the refusal of
the collective bargaining right about which the original Complaint had been
filed with it, ILO’s Committee on Freedom of Association opened a new case and
is now urging the Philippine government to submit its Reply.

In last September, the visit of the ILO’s High-Level Mission to the Philippines
was realized. As you may know very well, this was realized by the Arroyo
administration having determined to accept this visit this year in response to
the proposal previously made to the country by ILO, with grave concern about
extrajudicial killings rampant in the country, for the purpose of making the
domestic application of the ILO Convention No. 87, to which the Philippines is a
State Party, conforming to the international labor standards by having the
government of the country respect for the freedom of association, labor union
rights and civil liberties.

The visit to the Philippines by the Mission included as one of its mandates to
make investigation about the cases that have been pending for a very long time,
among those filed with the Committee on Freedom of Association. In this respect,
it is noteworthy that the top two cases on Toyota Philippines (Case Nos. 2252
and 2652) were listed as such long-standing cases and that a visit to its plant
and an investigation by hearing from its management were conducted by the
Mission. In this regard, please refer to ILO’s Terms Of Reference to the
High-Level Mission, a copy of which is attached hereto for your ready
information.

Such quick determination, quick decision making and quick action stance of ILO
is attracting large attention and expectancy from among the Philippine workers.
Both of us TMPCWA and its Support Group in Japan are also very keenly and
attentively looking forward to whatever conclusion the Mission will come up
with.

On the other hand, a big change can be seen on the side of the Philippine
government,
which accepted the visit of the Mission. For instance, according to what was
made clear on the homepage of the Department of Labor and Employment (“DOLE”)
http://www.dole.gov.ph/bwc/news/printable.asp?id=N000002378
Secretary Roque of DOLE expressly mentioned that “The DOLE … will also explore
practical measures and out-of-the-box solutions to long-standing cases in
collaboration with other agencies and stakeholders.” As greatly encouraged by
this statement, we are, with keen interest and eager expectancy, looking to any
breathtaking, out-of-the-common-sense solution Secretary Roque may propose.
Because it is obvious that the long-standing cases include at least our cases
and considering all factors,“out-of-the-box solutions” mentioned by him cannot
permit any interpretation other than that it suggests the withdrawal of
dismissal and the reinstatement.

Lastly, however, in the light of the nature of the matter, in other words due to
the conditions under which Toyota Philippines is placed, pursuing the resolution
thereof within the Philippines has its own limitation. It is for this reason
that we have raised our Request to you, NCP Japan to seek the resolution of the
matter in Japan by involving the Japanese enterprise Toyota Motor Corporation.

As seen in the foregoing, we have mentioned in various ways what we have in mind
including certain related information. But we do hope that you, NCP Japan could
be kind enough to take also into due consideration the things developing by and
around ILO and regard our true mind as never intending a forcing-through or a
taking what one wants by any means or for whatever reasons, and we ask you again
to start the initial assessment immediately, even within a few days.

ED G. CUBELO
President . Toyota Motor Philippines Corporation
Workers Association (TMPCWA)
Email: tmpcwa1998(at)yahoo.com

Masamichi Yamagiwa
Joint Representative
Support Group for Philippine Toyota Union TMPCWA in Japan
Email: protest-toyota(at)list.jca.apc.org

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ILO mission asks RP gov't: Denounce rights abuses
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/print/72804

by Aries Rufo, abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak | 10/01/2009 5:53 PM

MANILA - Short of indicting the government, a high-level fact-finding mission of
the International Labor Organization (ILO) asked the Arroyo administration on
Thursday to categorically denounce the killings of workers and the rampant
violations of trade union rights.

“A statement of the highest level of the Government instructing all government
actors to make special efforts to ensure that their actions do not infringe upon
the basic civil liberties of trade unionists could go a long way in reassuring
the workers that have brought their complaints to the ILO,” a statement from
the high-level mission said.

Mission member Cleopatra Doumbia-Henry, director of the ILO international labor
standards department, said this would send the message that the government
“does not condone” human rights violations and the killings of workers.

She added “it will help clarify allegations of the impunity” of abductions,
harassments and extra-judicial killings of laborers, which the militant Kilusang
Mayo Uno (May First Movement) brought to the attention of the ILO two years ago.

The mission arrived September 22 and concluded its task Thursday.

Facts gathered for ILO higher bodies

Members of the mission interviewed families and relatives of labor leaders
killed allegedly by the military. They also went to the economic export zones to
look into alleged violations of labor standards and laws, and inquired into the
labor problem in Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac. Government officials and
legislators were also interviewed.

Other members of the ILO mission are Karen Curtis, deputy director-general of
the ILO International Labor Standards department, and TIm de Meyer,
International Labor Standards Specialists of the ILO sub-regional office for
East Asia.

The ILO, the only tripartite body of the United Nations composed of government,
workers and employers, earlier requested the Arroyo government to accept the
high-level mission to probe the alleged labor rights violations.

The government initially rejected the request. But in this year’s International
Labor Conference, the government finally relented.

Doumbia-Henry said the team was able to gather facts and information, and will
submit its report to the ILO supervisory bodies on Freedom of Association and
the Protection of the Right to Organize Convention to make the final assessment.

The ILO’s Committee on Experts, which is composed of 20 eminent jurists who
assess a country’s application of labor standards, will come up with its final
report in February, while the Committee on Freedom on Association will give its
report in March.

Contradictory statements

Expectedly, during the inquiry, the ILO mission said it was “confronted with
contradictory statements concerning violence against trade unionists and the
sufficiency of the efforts made by the government to ensure that workers may
exercise their trade union rights in a climate free from fear.”

The government, in particular, the military, has maintained that those who were
killed were insurgents using labor as a front. Militant labor groups said the
killings were orchestrated to weaken the labor movement.

In a press conference, the ILO team dodged specific questions about its initial
impressions on the general labor situation in the country. However, it found
gaps and proposed some recommendations, among them:

1) A coordinated training of the national police and the armed forces on freedom
of association and its linkages to civil liberties
2) Training of judges and lawyers on international labor standards and their use
in the judiciary
3) Continuing education for the labor department and other government agencies
on international labor standards
4) The promotion of social dialogue.

Doumbia-Henry said it was an encouraging sign that the military is open to
training on labor rights and civil liberties, although she refused to say
whether this is an implicit admission that the armed forces were behind the
killings of labor leaders.

The KMU said almost 100 workers and labor leaders have been summarily executed
in the past four years, as part of the government's anti-insurgency campaign.
Aside from workers, human rights activists were also casualties of the military
drive.

Beyond its probe, the ILO team also recommended the creation of an independent
tripartite monitoring to validate allegations of violations. The creation of the
body would indicate “a commitment to comprehensive and coherent action and an
inclusive participatory approach to taking meaningful steps at the national
level.”