Labor NGO Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR) calls on the Kasawaki Motors Philippines Corporation (KMPC) and the government to ensure that the rights of Kawasaki workers to collectively bargain is truly upheld and protected.

On May 21, Kawasaki workers, led by the Kawasaki United Labor Union (KULU), launched a strike in the bike manufacturer company’s Muntinlupa City factory to protest the one-year stalling in negotiations for a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).

The workers complain that the company management has refused to respond to their demand for a 12% wage hike and has even rejected its initial proposal of a 7% wage hike. CBA negotiations have been formally on deadlock since August 2024.

The substance of workers’ right to collectively bargain is the improvement of workers’ working conditions. The right is key to attaining other labor rights such as the right to a living wage and the right to security of tenure. It is emptied of meaning if managements refuse to increase wages and benefits and in effect stall negotiations.

The KMPC management should therefore review its handling of ongoing CBA negotiations with the KULU. Its current handling violates workers’ rights to collectively bargain and other labor rights. It is not surprising that it has resulted in the first strike in the company’s 57-year history.

We recognize KMPC’s claim that it has provided good wages and benefits to its workers for years. At the same time, we urge it to recognize the worsening cost of living crisis that is affecting its workers and all Filipino workers. It should sustain its good record in upholding labor rights in order to put actually enough food on workers’ dinner table.

We also call on the KMPC and the government to uphold the Kawasaki workers’ right to strike, especially as they have complied with legal requirements to hold a strike, submitting a Manifestation to Stage a Strike to the Department of Labor and Employment on May 14.

Kawasaki workers are complaining about the recent cutting of trees that provide shade to their ongoing strike. They warn that this action is a foretaste of what the Kawasaki management is willing to do to undermine their strike.

Workers’ right to collectively bargain is rendered toothless when their right to strike even in accordance with the law is undermined and violated. In this case, violating the right to strike is an extension of the violation of the right to collectively bargain and other labor rights.

The government of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr should look into the Kawasaki case. It is an indication of how even employers with relatively good records in upholding labor rights are now taking advantage of the government’s policy to press down wages in order to attract big foreign and local investments.