Handyman-True Value-Pet Lovers Empowered Workers Union (HANEP) workers went on strike on January 6 at the Handyman main depot in the Manila Bay Spinning Mills Compound in Marikina City. The illegal dispersal of their strike pushed them to leave and set up a picket line at the headquarters of Handyman owner Robinsons Retail Holdings Inc. (RRHI) in Barangay Libis, Quezon City.

The strike was the union’s response to the illegal termination of at least 122 Handyman-Robinsons workers in November 2024. The terminated workers had been employed for 4 to 22 years. RRHI terminated them for establishing a union.

RRHI began harassing and suppressing the workers’ union in May 2024 when the labor arbiter, at the union’s urging, decided that the members of HANEP were regular employees of the company. The capitalists disagreed and insisted that they were contractual workers as they were allegedly employed by a manpower agency.

In relation to this, RHHI appealed to the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) to overturn the decision and pushed for the cancellation of the union’s registration. In November 2024, the NLRC overturned the labor arbiter’s decision regarding the regular status of the workers, allowing the RHHI to terminate the 122 workers.

Along with the union’s filing of a motion for reconsideration, it also filed a Notice of Strike for unfair labor practices and union busting. Meanwhile, the NLRC dismissed RHHI’s petition to cancel the union’s registration in December 2024.

The workers’ strike and picket have currently been ongoing for a week. The workers expect that Robinsons agency and management will face them again on January 14 to discuss their demands.

Various workers and youth groups, including Anakbayan, have expressed their support and solidarity with the union. “Anakbayan stands in solidarity with all Filipino workers in their fight for regular employment and living wages,” the group said.

The comprador bourgeois Gokongwei family ($3.2 billion net worth in 2024) owns RRHI. They are among the Marcos family’s cronies, and family member Frederick currently serves as Marcos Jr’s Special Assistant to the President for Investment and Economic Affairs.

HANEP is a local union under the Solidarity of Unions in the Philippines for Empowerment and Reforms (SUPER). It is one of the two labor federations under the Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP), a group formed by former leaders who broke away from the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) in 1993.