SAN PEDRO CITY, Laguna, Philippines — A gamut of emotions ran through the halls of Honda Cars Philippines Inc. (HCPI) in Sta. Rosa City, Laguna province, as its workers took their final exit from the company they had served for years.
After a weeklong vigil, about 200 workers ended their unplanned protest over the Japanese company’s decision last week to transfer its car production hub to another Asian country.
HCPI cited low production for the closure that led to the dismissal of 387 workers at its manufacturing division. About the same number of workers will be retained in its marketing and administrative divisions.
Last year, the plant produced only 8,000 cars though it has the capacity to make 15,000 units a year.
The decision to leave the company premises came on Friday evening after the union and HCPI management agreed on the terms of severance in a meeting at the National Conciliation and Mediation Board in Laguna.
“At least, we could say we have won our very last battle,” Christopher Oliquino, vice president of the labor union Lakas Manggagawang Nagkakaisa sa Honda, said on Saturday.
‘Acceptable’ offer
The company’s separation package will be 280 percent of a worker’s monthly salary for every year of service (from the initial offer of 200 percent), along with other benefits like an extended health coverage until December.
Most of the retrenched workers used to take home about P30,000 a month.
The union found the final offer “acceptable,” Oliquino said as he swept a final look at the carmaking machinery to be decommissioned after 28 long years.
He acknowledged that he worries about the workers’ prospect of finding new jobs since most of them are already in their 40s.
Oliquino, 42, and a father of two with the eldest only 14 years old, said his wife has a job in another Sta. Rosa City factory, and they’d have to get by on her wages in the meantime.
But his coworker, Willy Cleofe, 44, said he was still too much “in shock” to make any plans at the moment.
His eldest son, who has just found a job in a computer company after graduating from college, would have to pitch in, he said. His daughter is still in high school and his wife is unemployed, he added.