Iligan City jobs: Going, going...

WORKERS in this industrial city of

the South cannot sleep soundly at

night, afraid they would wake up in

the morning jobless.

In fact, hundreds of them had already lost their jobs in the series

of retrenchments that has been plaguing Iligan in the past few

years. Some have opted to leave their companies voluntarily,

looking for greener pastures elsewhere.

Many of the young engineers, among the country's best, have

gone abroad.

The Maria Cristina Chemical Industries Inc. (MCC), one of the

pioneering companies that came to Iligan with the lure of cheap

electricity in the 1950s, closed shop in March due to foreign

competition, no thanks to globalization.

At the giant National Steel Corp. (NSC), formerly a

government-run company but now owned by a Malaysian

investment group, threats of workers being forced to go on

leave that could run for two months are circulating in the plant.

At the Iligan Cement Corp.(ICC), one of many Alcantara-owned

plants in the city, there is a plan to dismiss 75 employees.

4-day work week

In another Alcantara-owned company, the Refractories

Corporation of the Philippines, management is proposing a

four-day work week instead of six because of a dwindling

market.

These are just among the gloomy news in Iligan, which hosts

over a dozen major manufacturing companies. Aside from the

industries mentioned, Iligan is also Mindanao's major source of

electricity. It also produces flour, coconut oil and a few other

products.

''What's making things shaky in Iligan is the market situation,

the economic crisis,'' said Benny Badelles, president of the

Iligan Bay Chamber of Industries.

Others look at globalization as the culprit behind the crisis in

Iligan. Take the case of MCCI, which is owned by the Guevarra

family. MCCI's main product is calcium carbide, the raw material

for making lime, acetylene and a host of other products.

The reason it closed shop, company insiders say, is tariff and

electricity.

Former employees said competing products from China, India

and Bangladesh were sold at much cheaper prices because the

cost of labor and power there are cheaper.

Power rate hike

For its production, MCCI relies heavily on power because it

uses electricity-run furnaces. Things really went bad when

power rates increased.

Shortly before MCCI shut down, the company and its workers

petitioned the government to increase tariff by 10 percent and

lower power rates, Rodulfo Rule, president of the MCCI

Workers Union said.

Unfortunately, the request fell on deaf ears, and management

opted to cease operations.

As a result, 136 breadwinners lost their jobs early last March.

MCCI's workforce at its peak was 400. It gradually streamlined

operations since 1992. The second wave of retrenchment came

in 1996.

''With globalization, security of tenure is a thing of the past,''

said Simplicio Villarta, president of the National Steel Labor

Union.

He said local companies were apparently not prepared with

globalization's impact.

Villarta said the NSC could not compete with foreign companies.

He claimed that some buyers even resorted to ''technical

smuggling'' to get cheaper imported steel.

Forced leave

Rumors have been circulating all over NSC that employees may

be forced to go on leave anytime this month or probably in

June, but Villarta would not confirm this.

But other sources said that raw material supply, primarily iron

slabs, was short and good only for a few weeks. No immediate

purchase of iron slabs is in sight yet for the already privatized

cash-strapped company.

Sources said workers might have to rely on their vacation leaves

and other benefits to get by. But those who already availed of

them in advance may be in trouble, especially when enrollment

time comes.

Hundreds already lost their jobs at NSC when the company

started laying off workers in 1994. Things worsened with the

takeover of the Malaysians shortly after under the government's

privatization thrust. ''Many (workers) voluntarily left because

they were afraid of the company's financial status,'' Villarta said.

Orlando Maglinao, senior manager at NSC's Iligan plant,

confirmed that raw material supply would last only until the

middle of June. But he assured that there would be no forced

leave because even if production stops, they have ''contingency

plans'' to keep every worker employed.

Other jobs

''We will do rehabilitation works, preventive maintenance for the

upkeep of the mills,'' he said in a telephone interview.

The RCP, an Alcantara-owned company that manufactures

industrial bricks, is severely affected by the economic crisis in

the region.

''While our market used to be as big as a basin before, now it's

only the size of a saucer,'' said Agustin Orot, vice president of

the RCP Employees Union.

Fidel dela Cruz, assistant vice president for operations and

resident manager of the company's Iligan plant, said because of

the slowdown in the construction business, demand for RCP's

products has also dwindled. RCP's main customers are the

cement and steel plants.

''We have produced enough inventories in the past two years

that even without operating our kilns, we could still meet our

customers' requirements until the end of the year,'' he told the

Inquirer.

With the slowing down of production, management has

proposed to cut working days to only four in a week instead of

six.

Understanding union

Orot confessed they already know the effects of the economic

crisis and they understand management's need to cut costs.

''But we don't know how to cushion the impact. It's painful for

us because the proposal means deducting an average of P4,300

from our monthly take-home pay,'' he said.

Management and union have been holding a series of meetings

in the past few days on how to lessen the impact.

At ICC, union president Ingbar Esturco said management had

planned to lay off 75 workers. A management official confirmed

there was a ''program to streamline'' but declined to expound on

the matter.

Esturco said the Alcantaras were losing money because its third

cement plant in Iligan, a hi-tech factory built in 1997, was

affected by the crisis. He said from December last year to

January, workers had to go on forced leave for two weeks.

Although they were paid at that time, Esturco said they could

no longer enjoy vacation leaves because the money was already

used for the December-January leave.

Negotiations

As of this writing, negotiations are ongoing between union and

management to decide on the company's ''streamlining'' program.

Despite the bad news, however, there is still hope for a brighter

future for Iligan's industries and its workers.

Badelles said for one, Ispat International, a giant London-based

company owned by Indians, had proposed to buy NSC.

Ispat is supposed to be one of the biggest steel companies in

the world, with steel-making operations in the United States,

Canada, Mexico, Trinidad, Germany and Ireland. It has other

steel-related ventures in 60 countries.

Badelles noted that the current owner of NSC, Hottick

Investments Ltd., was not really into the steel business.

Maglinao said that Ispat executives already inspected the steel

plant here last week.

''We are very hopeful that they will buy the plant,'' Maglinao

said. ''If so, they're our savior,'' he said, adding that Ispat has an

unlimited supply of raw materials and a worldwide market that

could keep NSC afloat.

Badelles said only recently, ICC got an export commitment from

Nigeria for a year, which is about 30 percent of its production

capacity.

The MCCI, he added, is also considering reopening its plant if

power rates are reduced.