Cebu’s furniture industry opposes wage hike proposal
In a position paper submitted to the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB) 7, the Cebu Furniture Industries Foundation Inc. (CFIF) said any increase at this time would only cause more job losses and is “tantamount to a death certificate for the export furniture industry.” CFIF president Angela Paulin said the major markets of Philippine export furniture remained “very weak” amid the global financial crisis and that stiff competition from China, Vietnam and Indonesia presented additional challenges. CFIF, whose membership includes about 80 percent of the furniture manufacturers and exporters in Cebu and some companies in Negros Island, had already seen its membership plummet to 118, from 180 members in 2007, due to company closures, Paulin said in the paper presented to the regional wage board during a consultation with the furniture industry to get inputs on the proposed wage hike. With their finances “at an ultimate low,” Paulin said those furniture fir...