NR0127: GMA's DTI appointee anti-labor

Mula sa Tanggapan ni Anakpawis Rep. Crispin Beltran
News Release January 27, 2005
House of Representatives, South Wing Rm 602
931-6615 Ina Alleco R. Silverio, Chief of Staff
Email: paggawa@edsamail.com.ph, anakpawis2003@yahoo.com
Cellphone number 09213907362
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Rep. Beltran opposes choice of PGMA for trade secretary; says Santos should
not be in government service

Anakpawis Representative Crispin beltran today echoed the protest of workers
against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's appointment of a corporate
executive for Trade and Industry secretary,
saying that the appointee was a well known union buster, and violator of trade
union rights. He said that he will file a petition at the Commission on
Appointments against the president's anointed anointed one for the DTI.

"Workers are against the appointment of corporate executive Juan B. 'JB' Santos
as DTI secretary because of his spotted record as as an anti-worker and
anti-trade union corporate bureaucrat. The Commission on Appointments should
invite labor groups to give their stand on the president's choice for DTI
chief," he said.

Beltran said that Santos is the first Filipino president of Swiss multinational
subsidiary Nestle Philippines Inc. and a current member of the board of
directors of the Danding Cojuangco-owned food and beverage conglomerate San
Miguel Group of Companies. He is also a member of the Governance Advisory
Council representing the private sector for globally-competitive service
industries.

"Santos may be a respected member of the corporate world, but workers regard him
as a union buster and exploiter extraordinaire. What business savvy he has is
equaled by the ruthlessness he has in pursuing the anti-labor agenda of
keeping wages down and unions out. The likes of Santos should not be in
government service. He should be kept out of the government bureaucracy because
it is certain that once part of it, he will contribute more to the
administration's anti-labor programs and policies," he said.

The veteran labor leader also cited Santos' management experience as "brutal"
and "cold-hearted."
"He is totally unscrupulous when it comes to imposing anti-labor policies. Under
him, the DTI will further promote and encourage anti-worker policies in
corporations and business, particularly the promotion of wage freeze policy,
labor contractualization and trade union repression. As a corporate manager of
Nestle and San Miguel, he imposed the most exploitative policies against
workers."

Beltran said that Santos' track record includes the following atrocities
against workers:

1) He is strongly suspected of masterminding the brutal killing of then Union of
Filipro Employees (UFE) union president Mel Roxas and three other workers
outside the Nestle Cabuyao plant in 1987;
2) Dismissal of 300 workers of Magnolia-Nestle in 1997; violent dispersals of
the Magnolia strike;
3) Dismissal of 900 striking workers of Nestle Cabuyao in 2002;
4) Violation of Supreme Court ruling including retirement benefits as Collective
Bargaining issue for Nestle workers;
5) Implementation of labor only contracting, sub-contracting and various
downsizing corporate schemes;
6) Closure of Nestle plants in Alabang, Pulilan that retrenched thousands of
workers;
7) Intensification of spin-off, merger and joint venture policies that led to
the dismissal of thousands of workers and abolition of various Nestle and San
Miguel companies.#