Workers of Dong-In Scout Manufacturing Industrial Incorporated (SMII), a factory located at the Freeport Area of Bataan in Mariveles, Bataan, were suspended for 15-30 days last February after they signed and circulated a petition with their demands.

The workers’ petition include a proposal to the Labor Management Committee (LMC) to hold a general assembly and discuss the election of officers, cooperation, and financial status (transparency) of LMC members. Instead of addressing their grievances, the company arbitrarily suspended them.

Dong-In Scout Manufacturing Industrial Incorporated is one of the nine companies of Dong-In Entech Korea in the Philippines which produces bags and tents for export to various parts of the world.

The Nagkakaisang Manggagawa ng Freeport Area of Bataan (NMFAB) extended solidarity with the SMII workers on March 5. In its statement, the group said, “SMII’s retaliatory attack on workers is illegal and repressive.”

The NMFAB asserts that the workers’ desire for a general meeting is not wrong when it was last launched in June 2022. “It is also reasonable because it is about clarifying about the funds which workers have struggled for. It is everyone’s right to inquire about everything that affects their daily lives,” he stressed.

The incident also exposed the inhumane and anti-worker nature of the LMC, an initiative which the Dong-In Group of Companies boasts of. With the ban against unions, the LMC supposedly serves as a “dialogue channel” between the workers and capitalist.

“Dong-In workers should not expect the LMC will defend us as this committee was set up to protect the capitalist interests. They think of nothing but how to make profit from every hardship and sacrifice we make as laborers,” the NMFAB said.

NMFAB believes that this repression and exploitation of workers stresses the importance of building a union as genuine representatives of workers who will stand for their welfare. “Without it, workers will never effectively fight capitalist exploitation,” NMFAB stressed.