A national and international campaign led by a garment workers’ union in the Philippines and supported by international labour rights organizations has won a negotiated agreement to respect the workers’ associational rights at the MetroWear Two factory in the Mactan Export Processing Zone. The factory produces sportwear for the Canadian-based athletic apparel company lululemon.

Significant gains in the new agreement include: the reinstatement of the five dismissed union leaders with full back wages, the employer’s commitment to keep the factory open and ensure respect for freedom of association, and a July 31 deadline for negotiating a collective bargaining agreement.

Pressure to negotiate this agreement followed an international day of action organized on June 9, 2025 by the local OMEGA-PIGLAS union, along with national and international allies such as the SENTRO labour confederation in the Philippines, LabourStart in Canada, and the international Clean Clothes Campaign, in which MSN is an active member. The campaign denounced the employer’s anti-union actions, including the dismissal of five union officers and a three-month factory shutdown that placed approximately 1,800 employees on forced leave in what workers believed was retaliation for union organizing.  

Participants in the campaign urged local labour authorities to act and called on lululemon to ensure their Philippine supplier factories respect workers’ right to freedom of association.

A majority of workers at MetroWear Two voted to unionize in March 2024, and since then, the factory had repeatedly stalled on recognizing the democratically elected union, addressing poor working conditions and management harassment, and negotiating a collective bargaining agreement.

The new agreement represents a major victory for union rights in the country, which the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) ranks in the top ten worst countries for working people due to violence against unionists and common union-busting tactics.

For more information:

• Philippines: Victory for workers at Lululemon contractor (statement by SENTRO)