Sharing Anger against Toyota, Our Common Enemy

Issue No : 75  April - June 2010

By Ed Cubelo and Tono Haruhi

An email reached a group of Japanese friends in January 2000 from YCW (Young Christian Workers) Philippines asking Japanese workers, especially those working for Toyota Japan, to send a solidarity message to Toyota Motor Philippines Corporation Workers Association (TMPCWA), which had been organized in April 1998 and which was then seeking to be recognized by election as a trade union. This led Japanese friends to begin to support TMPCWA. Although they won the election, they were refused to have a negotiation with Toyota Motor Philippines Corporation (TMPC), which dismissed in March 2001 a host of workers numbering to 233. TMPCWA went on strike to pressurize TMPC to withdraw the dismissal of 233 local workers and to recognize TMPCWA as a trade union. They gained more support from Japan and Support Group for TMPCWA in Japan (Support Group) was organized in October 2001 to support them. It does not happen often not only in the Philippines but neither in Japan that a single international solidarity movement survives a decade. What has sustained such a long and profound international solidarity?

What underlies Japan-Philippine solidarity movements?

First, we have to mention that the international solidarity of these two organizations has risen against a historical background of bilateral international solidarity between the Philippines and Japan. Back in the 1980s, one  could see international solidarity movements among Japanese citizens, religious people, and workers who expressed solidarity with people in the Philippines under martial law. Of the Japanese workers organized in their company side trade unions, some were striving to build up a genuine labour movement. Partly because the Philippines was in political confusion, the international solidarity movement began to lose momentum in the early 1990s. There remained, however, thin and diversified international solidarity networks and Japan was well ready to answer TMPCWA’s request for support. As an authentic and reliable trade union in Kanagawa, Zenzosen (All Japan Shipbuilding and Engineering Workers’ Union), a core member of theJapan support group, has a long experience of struggling for the withdrawal of dismissals and against harassments at worksites, and organizing foreign and irregular workers, including struggling against workers’ accidents. It did not take them much time to understand why Philippine young workers resisted high-handed big business for the sake of justice, and how they had experienced hardship for years in struggling for the withdrawal of dismissals.

Through various communications 

It can be said that what holds international solidarity is close exchanges of information and face-to-face relations. Email helps us exchange information frequently, and local reports produced in the Philippines reach the members of Support Group by newsletter and a mailing list. Information is sent from Japan to the TMPCWA members as well. Visual information such as photos and video tapes is a big tool to enable the TMPCWA and Support Group members to understand each other in struggle. Sending information to the world depended at first on the Protest Toyota Campaign Newsletter prepared by both Japan and the Philippines, then was replaced by a website which allows easier access to information.

Picket protest in front of Toyota headquarters in Japan, with Ed Cubelo, president of TMPCWA

Photo: TMPCWA and TMPCWA Support Group

On top of this, Japanese and Philippine workers communicate with each other regularly. TMPCWA visits, for instance, Japan in September every year and extends protest campaigns against Toyota Japan and their dealers in Tokyo, Kanagawa, Aichi and Saitama. They also organize meetings.

When groups of Japanese members visit the Philippines, they come to TMPC, the Japanese Embassy and the courts, to protest with TMPCWA members. Direct communications serve us better than email to understand each other’s mutual situations.

From the very outset, neither financial resources nor human resources have remained  sufficient on both sides. The support group has paid a lot of money for TMPCWA’s traveling expenses to Japan and lobbying at each ILO annual general meeting, depending on donations made by workers and citizens. Fundraising needs much time and effort. In addition, the Support Group has suffered a great loss by one of the  projects which was proposed and conducted by TMPCWA. Since it was very hard for dismissed workers to make a living, TMPCWA made and carried out a project to farm pigs and chickens to help them make a living, which resulted in  failure because of market competition, weather and sickness. TMPCWA was afraid that the failure might put an end to the relationships between the Support Group and TMPCWA, but TMPCWA told the Support Group honestly and frankly about the fact. The Support Group dispatched a survey team to thePhilippines. As a result, the parties were able to go through the crisis, while deepening mutual understanding and trust.

Taking Toyota as a common enemy 

The pillar of international solidarity of the two organizations is a joint action against Toyota, a gigantic multinational company or Union Buster No. 1. In protest against unfavorable rulings made in the Philippines, TMPCWA filed an appeal in February 2003 with ILO’s Committee on Freedom of Association against the Philippine government. In March 2004, TMPCWA and Support Group jointly filed a complaint with the Japan NCP (National Contact Point) against Toyota Motor Corporation  over the violation of OECD Guidelines.

ILO issued recommendations which mostly followed what TMPCWA held. ILO then dispatched a High Level Mission in September 2009 to survey 8 cases including  extra-judicial killings and stationing of the armed forces. Following this, some action was taken by the Philippine government as to TMPCWA cases. TMPCWA and Support Group appealed to the Japan NCP more than 10 times in connection with complaints over the violation of the OECD Guidelines. The Japanese government is forced to do something to address the issues when they are faced with strict criticism made by such groups in the world labour circle as OECD-TUAC (Trade Union Advisory Committee) and IMF (International Metalworkers’ Federation).

In addition, TMPCWA joined in September 2004 Japan’s Zenzosen and tried to directly make negotiations with Toyota, which was rejected by the latter. In response to this, Zenzosen brought a suit against Toyota. The Japanese Supreme Court, however, rejected Zenzosen’s suit in August 2009 because no overseas trade union is  allowed to join an umbrella organization. While multinational companies can cross the border freely and enjoys favorable legal systems, low tax rates and cheap labour provided by countries of the South, local workers are not able to organize themselves in the same trade union to fight against them. It is by all means for the public opinion all over the world to redress such injustices.

TMPCWA and Support Group started in 2007 to jointly conduct a global campaign in September every year, gathering signatures to seek the withdrawal of dismissals and approval as a trade union. TMPCWA and Support Group have shared a lot of action against Toyota, their common enemy, through frequent mutual consultation and documentation. These joint actions have helped us disclose Toyota’s arrogance and lack of anything useful done by either government, mass media or company-side unions.

Picket protest in front of Japanese embassy in the Philippines, with Ed Cubelo, president of TMPCWA.

Photo: TMPCWA and TMPCWA Support Group

To conclude, it is the 104 dismissed workers who have not received severance payment and those workers who still work in the plant despite harassment that have supported the Support Group’s activities for the past 10 years. The members of TMPCWA believe that their victory will lead to the victory of other workers working for gigantic multinational companies. TMPCWA thinks that a lot of support from the world, including Japan, shows how they are just and right.

An experience of 10 years tells us that international solidarity needs sharing of anger and mutual trust.