Toyota PH workers take fight to Japan

Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz met with the TMPCWA members on Monday at the Kyoto International Convention Center, where the ILO meeting is being held until Wednesday.

KYOTO, Japan—Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz met here with Toyota Motor Philippines workers and their Japanese supporters protesting the dismissal of 233 employees in 2001 and four more in 2010.

Baldoz met with Ed Cubelo, president of Toyota Motor Philippines Corporation Workers Association (TMPCWA), and Wenecito Urgel, vice president of the union, on the sidelines of the International Labor Organization’s (ILO) 15th Asia and the Pacific Regional’ Meeting here.

The ILO has recommended “an out of the box” solution for the labor dispute but Toyota has refused to meet with the workers after the Supreme Court upheld the company’s dismissal of the 233 employees. The car maker has also refused to recognize the TMPCWA.

“The ILO recommended an out of the box solution so that would mean a settlement, which would mean that both parties are willing to sit down and look for a solution,” Baldoz said in an interview.

“But the last time I met with (Toyota officials) in the Philippines, (they) said that if it’s about reopening a case that has been finally decided by the courts, they opt not to sit down with us. I don’t think that position will change,” she said.

Baldoz said she would have Undersecretary Hans Cacdac try to hold a dialogue on the dismissal of the four other workers, whose cases are pending before the National Labor Relations Commission.

Baldoz met with the TMPCWA members on Monday at the Kyoto International Convention Center, where the ILO meeting is being held until Wednesday.

“We held a protest at the (nearby) train station and we distributed our newsletter together with the various Japanese organizations who support us,” said Cubelo. Philip C. Tubeza