Re Strike looms at Dole Phils.; dispute now in the hands of labor secretary

Update: Mindanews emailed same day saying:

Thank you for writing, Peter.
We will look into this immediately.


Dear Editor,
Thank you for giving us updates of Mindanao.

Nevertheless, I am surprised that in your story of September 25, 2006 Strike looms at Dole Phils.; dispute now in the hands of labor secretary you said "The trimmed demands for three years would only cost the company around P2 billion, or about one percent of its annual net profit."

This was the exact point I raised in an email I sent you on September 8 (and also to Sunstar), which you did not acknowledge nor gave an update. I understand that this was a quote, but I believe this figure is wrong, and unless corrected, may cause people concerned to make conclusions that are unfortunate.

Probably another information that may be useful for you is that Dole Philippines contributes about 16-20% of ANNUAL REVENUES or at least USD848M (at 54:1, that will be about PhP45B) to Dole Food. At 10% net income from revenues (which is robust in these times), the annual financial considerations in the three year package the union is seeking will be about 16% of net income. I agree that even with this amount, 16% of net income is affordable.

This is not about whether DPI should give in or not. What I am raising to your attention is that perhaps the 1% of annual net income that was quoted is a mistake and that Mindanews should look into that statement from the union.

PeTeR


PeTeR to editor Hide options Sep 8 From: PeTeR < asmillan3@gmail.com> Mailed-By: gmail.com To: editor@mindanews.com Date: Sep 8, 2006 8:48 AM Subject: Dolefil strike I read Sunstar's Gensan story of September 7. I had heard of the strike vote at Dole from my Dad, who retired from Dole in 1993, but still resides in the Dole area. My younger brother works for Dole. So this interests me very much. The writer quoted NAFLU-KMU's Tony Pascual saying that their economic demands will amount to PhP2B, about 1% of Dole's annual net profit. I thought Mr. Pascual was pretty much exaggerating. No one earns that much. I thought the writer (there was no byline, so maybe it was "praise release"?). I believe the writer or the editor should have checked Mr. Pascual's statement before writing or publishing the story. I cannot believe Dole can earn PhP 200B in one year (culled from the 1% of annual profit, as the story says). Can you? No way, just cannot believe. With limited time to ask for figures, I did an internet search. The PhP 200B could probably be close to Dole Food Company, Inc.'s ANNUAL REVENUES. Dole Food Company Inc. is the mother company of Dole Philippines. DFCI has operations in about 20 countries and had revenues of USD5.3B in 2004. Obviously, this USD5.3B is not only from the Philippines. I also learned that Dolefil's NET PROFIT was PhP 239M out of PhP 5.7B revenues in 1998. It is statistically impossible for Dolefil to have revenues, much less, profit, in the amount Mr. Pascual says or the writer quotes. It is not unbelievable that Dolefil has said no to the union's demands. Was Mr. Pascual very believable when he said this? or na-ilad ba si writer? As Bill Maher said (sorry this is not verbatim, but what I can only remember) to Larry King on CNN, media are supposed to be more intelligent. (Bill Maher is a comedian -- should we believe him then?) Sadly this story appears here as well (Mindanews).


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