A militant labor organization on Wednesday said closing down the operations of media network ABS-CBN because of the franchise problems will not solve the issues of the network, but will only cause the loss of 11,000 workers’ jobs.
“While we recognize that there are numbers of labor-related issues in ABS-CBN, we see that the non-renewal of their franchise will not resolve nor address such disputes. In fact, it will be moot and academic to talk about the issues of regularization, wage, benefits, safe workplaces among other issues in ABS-CBN if the network will shutdown its operations because of the franchise woes,” said Defend Jobs Philippines, in an open letter posted on Facebook.
“We believe that such labor issues must not be used by the government in granting fresh legislative franchise for ABS-CBN. We strongly disagree to the propaganda of the admin’s troll armies stating that standing in favor of the legislative franchise is anti-labor and that the franchise must be used as leverage in resolving the issues of the workers with the management,” the group said.
“We believe that the job security of the 11,000 workers must not be put to risk over the franchise renewal issue,” they said.
On the issue of ABS-CBN franchise, Defend Jobs Philippines said they are standing with the almost 11,000 workers of the Kapamilya network who are threatened of being jobless if the company’s franchise will be revoked and will not be renewed.
“We will never allow ourselves to be used by neither the ABS-CBN management nor the Duterte government to advance their interests and agenda. We remain grounded to be of service to the Filipino working class at all cost, at all times,” they said.
The group said they have enough legal procedures and government agencies that can mediate and resolve the issues such as the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) .
Defend Jobs Philippines said they stick to their bias with the working men and women of ABS-CBN struggling for their livelihooods to feed their families, and to the Filipino people standing for free press and right to information.
“Once and for all, we would like to make our position clear to all those individuals, groups and supporters of the Duterte government who are hurling false information and accusations against us on the issue of the ABS-CBN franchise renewal. On the part of Defend Jobs Philippines, we remain firm to our commitment of advocating and advancing the rights and welfare of every Filipino workers across the country,” the group said./Stacy Ang
