Workers at Nexperia Philippines launched a series of mass actions to oppose management’s layoff and attacks against the union, and to defend their right to work.

Nexperia Philippines is a subsidiary of The Netherlands-based Nexperia company. It manufactures semiconductors at its factories in Europe, Asia and the US. In 2022, it recorded $2.36 billion in total revenue, up by 10.7% from its previous year. Sales also grew by 12%. It is expected to grow significantly in the coming years, especially as its products serve the ever-expanding demand for technology worldwide. In 2022, it augmented its investment to expand its factories’ capacity in Europe and assembly lines in Asia. In fact, it employed 1,000 new workers that year.

Amid all this, the company relentlessly seeks to lower costs and amass even greater profits. For this reason the company closed the Sensors Department in its factory in the export processing zone in Cabuyao, Laguna and attempted to lay off 495 workers. Some affected workers were forced to accept the management’s offer of “voluntary retirement,” especially contractuals who only recently became regulars. This is while the union fought to absorb or have workers who lost their jobs transferred to other departments.

The company’s greed was demonstrated again when it notified the union on September 22 about retrenching eight more workers, including three union officers. This is despite “internal hiring” indicating there are still vacant positions in the company. This violates the prevailing collective bargaining agreement’s “last in, first out” provision. The three officers hold permanent positions and cannot be arbitrarily fired. To justify the layoffs, the company insidiously used these officials’ attendance as basis to declare them “not in good standing” despite them having not violated any guidelines.

Workers know that Nexperia only wants to fire regular workers to save money and weaken their union. It is set to face another round of negotiations next year.