MANILA — Workers of the Chinese restaurant Kowloon House launched a strike and called for a boycott on April 15, 2026 in West Avenue, Quezon City, in response to the management’s refusal to implement the P25 wage increase for the past three years.
Striking workers under the Glowhrain KMU – Kowloon House West Avenue chapter said that the management, Katipunan Food Services Inc (KFSI), failed to implement the across-the-board wage increase for the workers since the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) was signed in August 2021.
“This is not even a wage increase we are asking for,” Bernard Dimaunahan, president of Glowhrain KMU – Kowloon House West Avenue Chapter, said in a statement. “The P25 is even less than what they are legally required to pay. Compliance is not negotiable.”
On April 16, the union held a dialogue with the KFSI management along with the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE). However, the management remained firm on their P13-wage increase offer, nearly half of what is mandated under the CBA signed in 2021. The negotiations reached a deadlock, with both parties failing to meet at a mutually acceptable settlement.
“We will continue to strike since the management did not heed our demands.” Dimaunahan said during a protest, April 16. “We, the workers of Kowloon, call for the strike to be further intensified to demonstrate the collective strength of the entire labor force, which continues to be trampled on by profit-driven capitalists.”
Last March, the company rejected the union’s P35 proposed increase, offering a measly P13-hike. There are over 60 union workers members and the majority of them have been with the company for more than a decade.
Read: Kowloon workers decry offer of P10 salary hike
In a day, the workers produce 10,000 orders of siomai at a standard price of P90 per order and 6,000 orders of siopao at a price of P105 per order. This translates to P1.53 million per day. The union estimates that the company is earning P400,000 of profit a day.
They also produced noodles and other products of the restaurant.
Labor rights demands are written in the placards in the Kowloon House restaurant. Photo by Dominic Gutoman/Bulatlat.
Three workers who have been working for the company for more than 15 years – Rodrigo Perez, Jason Gusi, and Ben Rivera – told Bulatlat that instead of a wage increase, they experienced pay cuts. When the government implements a wage hike, their company applies wage distortion since they are earning above minimum wage.
For example, if a Kowloon worker is earning P720 a day, it will decrease when the daily minimum wage in the National Capital Region is P695. They said that tenured workers like them will be earning P695 instead.
“They are not following the P50 across-the-board wage increase based on the wage order,” Perez told Bulatlat. “Even if you are tenured or have spent decades working for the company, your pay will remain the same as the entry level.”
The latest wage hike was implemented on July 18, 2025, mandating minimum wage earners in the National Capital Region a P50 daily wage increase, based on the Wage Order No. NCR-26.
The union also revealed that the company has not remitted to the workers over half a million pesos service charge collected by the restaurant.
The union also raised alarm over KFSI’s continued business expansion through new outlets – currently at around 85 outlets – while refusing to honor mandated wage obligations.
Management had employed “human resource consultants,” new security and personal bodyguards, and had changed legal counsels more than three times in the course of negotiations.
“The consultants, acting as HR, are implementing unauthorized memos,” said Rodrigo Perez of Glowhrain KMU – Kowloon House West Chapter. “Our workers are subjected to suspension over the slightest reasons. They even cancel the leaves we file despite following the proper procedures.”
For five consecutive years, Glowhrain KMU – Kowloon House West Avenue said that the KFSI has not submitted audited financial statements to the Securities and Exchange Commission, further intensifying doubts about the company’s claims of financial strain.
In the meeting with the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) on March 31, KFSI revealed that there are plans to increase product prices by up to P55 due to the oil crisis. The workers argued that this reflects the company’s priorities since KFSI has declined to allocate funds for workers’ long-overdue wage adjustments.
“They always say they’re the ones losing out because diesel is expensive. But they don’t realize that their workers are even more affected than they are,” Perez said in Filipino. “In my case, I commute by motorcycle from Bulacan. My fuel used to cost just 280 pesos for a full tank that lasted two days. Now it’s over 400 pesos.”
Perez added that during the peak season, the company will oblige them to sign a waiver to finish the production of a certain number of goods. Failure to comply will result in sanctions.
“Electricity, water, and basic goods are all going up. We’re left with almost nothing to take home. I leave the house before dawn and get back at night. We barely have any time for our families,” he added.
The negotiations should have begun in August 2025 but the union reported it was repeatedly stalled by the KFSI until January 2026. The union asserts that the situation mirrors the same violations that triggered their last major strike 18 years ago due to non-compliance with mandated wage orders and acts of retaliation.
“Kowloon workers have been pushed to the wall by the management’s refusal to increase their wages over the years and the worsening economic crisis. They are not asking for too much and their demands deserve to be addressed in a way that advances their labor rights,” said Kamz Deligente, Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR)’s executive director.
Deligente added that the fact that the strike was launched only on April 15 indicates that the workers have been willing to negotiate with the company. Before the strike, the workers of Kowloon House West Avenue held several breaktime protests and ribbon wearing inside their workplace.
Gabriela, a national alliance of women, also stands in solidarity with the striking workers of Kowloon House West Avenue. They highlighted that the strike coincides with the campouts of urban poor communities, transport strikes of drivers and operators, walkouts of students, and protests of peasant communities across the country — all converging in a “unified People’s protest.”
“The workers of Kowloon are the mirror image of the Filipino working class. They are the ones who create the nation’s wealth, yet they are the first to be crushed when a crisis hits. They are squeezed dry, denied a living wage, and robbed of their dignity by a conniving government and large corporations,” said Clarice Palce, Gabriela secretary general.
She also underscored that women workers bear a double burden in the face of labor rights violations. “They face the same exploitative conditions while carrying the weight of gender-based discrimination and violence. The fight for a living wage is intrinsically a women’s issue,” she added.
In the wee hours of April 16, when the workers were supposed to be resting at 1 a.m., owner’s son Stephen Ng shouted at workers and tore down parts of the shanties. Perez said that he even threatened to run over the resting workers with a vehicle. On the same day, around 2 p.m. in the afternoon, police in civilian clothes from the Quezon City Police District also entered the picket.
Under Article 264 of the Labor Code of the Philippines, the police force shall keep out of the picket lines unless actual violence or other criminal acts occur. In the same article, it is stipulated that no person shall also obstruct, impede, or interfere with, by force, violence, coercion, threats, or intimidation the peaceful picket of employees. (RTS, RVO)
Note: $1 is equivalent to P59.92 as of April 16, 2026 foreign exchange rate.
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