Short answer. Yes. Article 289 punishes anyone who, to organize, maintain, or prevent coalitions of capital or labor, a strike, or a lock-out, employs violence or threats to compel laborers or employees in the free and legal exercise of their work. The penalty includes arresto mayor and a fine updated by Republic Act No. 10951.
What the law says
The penalty of arresto mayor and a fine not exceeding Sixty thousand pesos (₱60,000) shall be imposed upon any person who, for the purpose of organizing, maintaining or preventing coalitions of capital or labor, strike of laborers or lock-out of employers, shall employ violence or threats in such a degree as to compel or force the laborers or employees in the free and legal exercise of their industry or work, if the act shall not constitute a more serious offense in accordance with the provisions of this Code.
Revised Penal Code, Article 289 — Coercing Labor Or Capital Combinations. Read the full provision →
Compelling workers by threats is criminalized directly
Article 289 addresses exactly this conduct. The penalty of arresto mayor and a fine not exceeding Sixty thousand pesos (₱60,000) shall be imposed upon any person who, for the purpose of organizing, maintaining or preventing coalitions of capital or labor, strike of laborers or lock-out of employers, shall employ violence or threats in such a degree as to compel or force the laborers or employees in the free and legal exercise of their industry or work. Using threats to force workers to join a coalition falls squarely within this description: the purpose is organizing a coalition of labor, and the means is threats compelling the workers involved.
The article cuts both ways — for and against organizing
Notice the article covers threats used for the purpose of organizing, maintaining or preventing a coalition, strike, or lock-out. It does not only punish someone trying to break up a labor coalition through threats — it equally punishes someone trying to force a coalition into existence through threats. Coercion is the wrong the article targets, regardless of which side of the labor-versus-capital divide the coerced outcome happens to favor.
'Free and legal exercise' is the interest being protected
The specific harm the article addresses is interference with a worker's free and legal exercise of their industry or work. Threats that compel a worker's choice about joining, or not joining, a labor coalition strike at that freedom directly, which is why the statute reaches this conduct even though the underlying goal — forming a coalition — is not itself unlawful. It is the coercive means, not the organizing purpose, that the article punishes.
A ceiling: this applies only absent a more serious offense
The article's own text limits its reach with the qualifier if the act shall not constitute a more serious offense in accordance with the provisions of this Code. If the threats used were severe enough to constitute a more serious crime under some other provision, that more serious offense would apply instead of this one. The Sixty thousand peso fine ceiling here also reflects the 2017 update under Republic Act No. 10951, which revised fine amounts throughout the Code.