Bankrupt US firm in Manila may reopen via workers’ coop

Workers of a dental facility, which shut down last month without due notice by its American owner, are planning to take over the business and resume its operation through their cooperative. According to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), the 300-plus workers of Skytech International Dental Laboratories Inc., which was reportedly abandoned by owner Laurence Fishman due to bankruptcy, may resume operation of the business through their duly-registered cooperative. “The 350-strong workers of the company have expressed desire to resume the operation of the company through the workers’ cooperative which is duly registered with the Cooperative Development Authority," said DOLE Sec. Rosalinda Baldoz in a release. According to DOLE-NCR Regional Director Raymundo Agravante, the workers, through their representative Darwin Landicho, Skytech’s former human resource manager, said they intend to operate the company with an initial staff of at least 10 percent of the company’s dental technicians. “We will initially cater to local orders. In three to four weeks, we might accept orders from abroad," Landicho said. The plan to reopen the business came after the company’s vice president, Wilma Redler, also an American, informed the workers that Canada-based investor Frontier Corporation, is “very much interested" in partnering with the workers. Skytech workers were left with unpaid salaries and separation benefits when the American company owner, Laurence Fishman, closed down the company late August without proper notice to the workers. (See: Over 300 workers lose jobs after US firm closes down in Manila) DOLE officials had been meeting with the workers to discuss further measures on how they could cope with the sudden loss of employment. One of the steps is the possibility of providing financial and technical assistance to the workers’ coop after it is designated as an accredited co-partner. According to DOLE, Skytech has been operating an outsourcing facility in the Philippines since 1995 for the production of dental-related products, such as dental prosthetics, for customers in the US. It also operates a facility in Vietnam which employs 11 Filipinos and an undisclosed number of Vietnamese workers, and another laboratory in China. Its headquarters, the Trident Dental Laboratories, is located in Los Angeles, California. Baldoz earlier said she would write Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo to seek the U.S. government’s help in looking for Fishman, whose last known business address is somewhere Hawthorne, California. “I already have alerted our labor attaché in Washington about the case and have instructed her to coordinate with the US government through the Philippine embassy," Baldoz said.—Jerrie M. Abella/JV, GMANews.TV