Akbayan calls for boycott on pastry chain (1:30 p.m.)

MANILA -- Party-list group Akbayan joined the call of Bukluran ng Independenteng Samahan na Itinatag sa Goldilocks (Bisig) to boycott all Goldilocks shops and its resellers for “resorting to underhanded tactics in trying to bust the genuine workers’ union.”

Reports said at least eight Bisig members were hurt when around 100 company union members on Friday tried to break the picket line at the Goldilocks factory in Mandaluyong.

“We condemn Goldilocks management by using workers against fellow workers,” said Akbayan Representative Walden Bello.

He said he will “personally” stop buying Goldilocks products until the management confirms Bisig as the sole representative of the workers in the company, which took five years to gain legal representation.

“I personally will immediately stop buying anything at Goldilocks and will ask my friends and family to do the same until our comrades win their fight against a union-busting company,” Bello said.

On February 8, the Goldilocks management summarily relieved 127 regular workers, mostly union leaders and members of the Bisig union, which won the union elections but had not been recognized by the company.

The country’s biggest pastry chain has yet to issue a statement on the matter. (Virgil Lopez/Sunnex)