The United Church of Christ in the Philippines Solidarity Statement to Hanjin's Retrenched Workers in Korea and the Subic Bay, the Philippines

United Church of Christ in the Philippines
 
A Solidarity Message
to the
Retrenched Workers of Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction
and the Presbyterian Church of the Republic of Korea
 
“Genuine peace comes when justice is served...
...for as long as labourers do not receive just wages...
There will be no peace.”
UCCP Statement on Peacemaking
 
The United Church of Christ in the Philippines(UCCP) joins the Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Korea(PROK) in supporting the workers of Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction(HHIC) in their struggle for their workers’ rights as a result of illegal termination and unjust labor practices.  We salute the Korean people for their willingness to join in a peaceful protest that included more than 10,000 citizens on 195 buses to call for a resolution of the HHIC laid-off workers situation, on July 9, 2011.  Hearing that in the early hours of July 10, 2011, armed police fired tear gas and water cannons at civilian protestors, as they sought to visit Labor Leader Kim Jin-Sook who was protesting by occupying Yeongdo Shipyard Crane #85, reinforces the need for Church people around the world to join in solidarity with the struggle of the workers.  With the PROK, we strongly condemn the violent dispersal of the peaceful march to protest the termination of workers at HHIC on July 10, 2011 in Busan City, South Korea and call for the reinstatement of illegally retrenched HHIC workers. 

Globalization has allowed large Trans-National Corporations, such as the Chaebol conglomerate corporations where HHIC belongs, to move easily from country to country around the world, even when in the process they violate workers’ rights and welfare.  The lay-off of workers in Busan, South Korea likely precipitates from the opening of Hanjin’s new shipyard in the Subic Bay Freeport, Philippines. In 2005, Hanjin signed a 50-year lease and has since then invested US$721 million into this new shipyard.  With a ten-year tax holiday and a cheaper workforce of only PhP 306 (approx US$7.25) for nine hours labor in the Philipines, the HHIC likely intends increased profits by relocating their work to Subic Bay, Philippines. 

According to our investigation, the situation of Hanjin workers in Subic Bay Freeport is also fraught with violations of workers’ rights:
·         Although Subic government officials report that 21,000 workers and employed at Hanjin, the reality is that only approximately 17,000 are employed by Hanjin, while the others retained using 42 sub-contractors to circumvent the giving the benefits and rights of regular employees, including the right to join a union.
·         Not only do workers have a nine hour shift, they are also required to arrive to the company bus station 30 minutes before their shift begins.  Workers are often expected to work a double shift and have been known to work for as many as three days non-stop.
·         There are reports of wide-spread drug use for workers to cope with back-to-back shifts.
·         Since Subic Bay Freeport Hanjin opened, 30 cases of work-related deaths and more than 5000 accidents have been recorded.  Workers have been crushed by metal, impaled by slabs as well as cut, maimed and bruised to alarming degrees.  Families of death victims have been unable to collect death benefits.

The UCCP denounces the low wages, injury/death and violation of basic rights experienced by Filipino workers at the Subic Bay Freeport Hanjin shipyard AND the termination and violation of basic rights of Korean workers at HHIC Busan City, South Korea, most likely precipitating from the relocation of work to the Philippines. 

In response to the liberalization of trade and labor as is dictated by global capitalism, workers of different countries and those who stand in solidarity with them must increase their cooperation to expose and resist the violation of worker’s rights.  The efforts of Trans-National “Mega” Corporations to concentrate global power and wealth to themselves through the subjugation of the world workforce can be thwarted by a similarly global approach by broad social movements, including the Church, to struggle for fundamental changes that bring about a just, participatory and sustainable social order.

We commit ourselves to uphold the welfare of the world’s workers as a response to the call of faith, hope and mutual mission.  Our concern and support for the retrenched workers at the HHIC Yeongdo Shipyard of Busan is a solidarity expression not only of our partnership with the PROK, but also of our concern for workers everywhere.  We stand with those calling for the management of Hanjin Heavy Industries to be investigated, for the police committing violent dispersal against peaceful protestors to be held accountable, for the reinstatement of illegally retrenched workers, and for the respect of workers’ just wages and human rights.

 
 Signed By:

 
 
 
Bishop  Elorde M. Sambat                   Bishop Arturo R. Asi
North Luzon Jurisdictional Area            South Luzon Jurisdictional Area                


 
 
Bishop Jaime M. Morilles                    Bishop Dulce Pia-Rose                
Middle Luzon Jurisdictional Area            East Visayas Jurisdictional Area
 
 

 
 
Bishop Melzar D. Labuntog                    Bishop Modesto D. Villasanta
Northwest Mindanao Jurisdictional Area       Southeast Mindanao Jurisdictional Area
 
 

 
 
Bishop Reuel Norman O. Marigza
General Secretary