Unionize, Be Fired and Get Sued

Reporters and employees of the radio station Bombo Radyo in Tacloban learned last week that forming a union leads to getting fired and being issued an arrest warrant.

BY ROWENA CARRANZA
Bulatlat.com

Eleven members and officers of the Bombo Radio Tacloban Employees Union (BRTEU) found out from their sources that they may soon receive arrest warrants this week because of the grave coercion case filed against them by Bombo Radio Tacloban management.

The BRTEU and the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) – Leyte decried the case as “pure harassment.”

The grave coercion case came in the wake of the decision issued by the National Labor Relations Commission last Jan. 8 declaring the picket of the Bombo Radio-Tacloban workers illegal.  BRTEU and NUJP-Leyte charged that Bombo Radio Management connived with the NLRC to harass the strikers.

The BRTEU members facing criminal charges are: Union president Allan Amistoso,  Lindo Villarin, Nestor Martinez,  Mark Morallos, Roy Tolibas, Alberto Palmaira,  Fe Talacay,  Noel Makabingkil, Joseph Ancheta, Emrick Talacay and Jonathan Rosal.

First provincial media union

“All they did was form a union,” said Maureen Japzon, NUJP-Leyte officer. 

The BRTEU is the first union to be established in any Bombo Radyo station and the only union of media workers existing in the province.

On March 11 last year, union officers in a letter formally informed the management of the union’s formation. Barely two hours after the letter was sent, all employees were terminated. The following day, March 12, the radio station was closed down by its owner allegedly due to “huge financial losses.”

Bombo Radio Tacloban is part of the nationwide Bombo Radio network owned by Rogelio Florete, Sr.

In a Bulaltlat.com interview earlier with the Amistoso, the union scored the move by management. He said there was no financial statement shown for the sudden closure of the station.

On the same day, the BRTEU declared a strike and put up a picketline.

Picketline harassment

According to the union, the management attempted on many occasions to break the picketline, using the security guards it hired to watch the strikers. 

The first security agency hired was the Gerconi security agency, followed by the Cavalier, Goodwill and Tristar security agencies. The latest agency they used was the Password security agency, based in Ormoc.

In one of the many instances of picketline dispersal, Fe Talacay, a drama talent, sustained bruises while Laureano Lim sustained wounds.     

“They could easily hire 30 security guards at a time to frighten struggling workers, yet declared bankruptcy?” employees asked.

Amistoso admitted experiencing some difficulty in maintaining the picketline. 

“At first, we were able to sustain it fully. On the second month, I appealed to the members to allot three days to the picketline, and two days for job-hunting. From the third month until the present, we were only able to sustain a skeletal force. Six days were allotted to job-hunting and a day for the picketline,” he said.

“Some of our members became drivers; some turned to various sidelines in the media, while others have started to put up small-scale businesses,” Amistoso clarified further. 

The union has filed cases of illegal lockout, illegal termination, union busting and unpaid salaries before the National Labor Relations Commission in Region VIII. Bulatlat.com

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