Strike One
for the Workers of
Hacienda Luisita
A
triumphant picket line stands today in front of Gate 1 of the Central
Azucarrera de Tarlac in Hacienda Luisita, a year after sugar mill and
plantation workers staged a simultaneous strike that halted operations of
Luzon’s largest sugar estate. Ignited by unfair labor practices, this
one-year old strike has brought to the fore the hacienda people’s
centuries-old claim to the land that is rightfully theirs.
BY
DABET CASTAÑEDA
Bulatlat
STAND-OFF: Hacienda Luisita strikers
during a confrontation with anti-riot police |
Enduring unspoken hardships, hunger, a
massacre and the murder of one of its leaders, the striking workers of
Hacienda Luisita, the 6,443-ha. sugar estate in Tarlac (120 kms from
Manila), stand proud as they observe their first year at the picket line.
Exactly a year ago on Nov. 6, around
5,000 cane workers belonging to the United Luisita Labor Union (ULWU) and
700 mill workers of the Central Azucarrera de Tarlac Labor Union (CATLU)
went on simultaneous strike that halted operations of Hacienda Luisita,
Inc. (HLI), the sugar plantation, and Central Azucarrera de Tarlac (CAT),
the hacienda’s sugar mill and Luzon’s second largest. Both companies are
owned and operated by the family of former President Corazon
Cojuangco-Aquino of the powerful Cojuangco clan in Tarlac.
|
For labor lawyer Nenita Mahinay, the
one-year old strike has been fruitful for two main reasons: first, it has
rendered the Department of Labor and Employment’s (DoLE) issuance of an
Assumption of Jurisdiction (AJ) inutile; and second, it has paved the way
for the resolution of the farm workers’ centuries-old claim over the
hacienda.
The AJ
Even before the strike could take
place, the ULWU was issued an AJ on Oct. 7 after it filed a Notice of
Strike (NOS) on Sept. 30. Union president Rene Galang, in an interview
with Bulatlat, said that they were forced to file the NOS due to
management’s union busting scheme.
A week prior to the NOS, 326 sugarcane
workers belonging to the ULWU received their termination papers stating
that they ceased to be employees of HLI effective Oct. 1, 2004. The
terminated workers included nine union officers including Galang and union
vice president, Eldy Pingol.
On the other hand, CATLU filed its NOS
on Oct. 25 due to a CBA deadlock. Mahinay said the management only wanted
to effect a P15 wage increase and a signing bonus of P12,500 against the
union’s demand of a P150 daily wage increase and a signing bonus of
P30,000.
However, it was the AJ issued to CATLU
on Nov. 10 that proved dangerous.
“The management wanted the AJ badly
not only to cut-cost by saving on lower wages and benefits but more
importantly, to bust the union by eliminating its officers who are capable
of leading and consolidating the union,” Mahinay said.
Mahinay, who is the lead counsel for
both unions, said the management got what it wanted from the DoLE. The AJ
issued to CATLU ordered the union to accept management’s offer and return
to work. It also declared the strike illegal and ordered the dismissal of
the union’s 35 officers.
The AJ also gave leeway for DoLE Sec.
Patricia Sto. Tomas to ask assistance from the Philippine National Police
(PNP) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to effect the order.
The AJ led to what is now known as the
infamous Hacienda Luisita Massacre, the most violent picket line dispersal
in the nation’s history that killed seven strikers and their supporters in
the afternoon of Nov. 16.
“It is the belief of the capitalists
that the AJ is their ultimate weapon against strikes,” Mahinay said.
“After the AJ, however, the battle shifted from the negotiating table to
the picket line.”
Galang, on the other hand, said the
strikers’ assertion to fight for their legitimate demands was resolute and
proof of this, he said, was their gallant effort to go back to the picket
line on Nov. 18, two days after the massacre.
“That the picket line stands until
today is proof of the principle that the AJ can be rendered inutile if the
workers are only willing to sacrifice. Although it was difficult for them
and they paid for it with their lives, the striking workers of Hacienda
Luisita have proven the capitalists wrong,” she added.
The land claim
The most significant gain of the
strike, Mahinay said, is that it has helped project the sugar workers’
rightful claim to the hacienda land and pushed the Department of Agrarian
Reform (DAR) to resolve the issue in favor of the workers.
Galang said the plantation workers of
the hacienda have struggled for decades to own the land they say is
rightfully theirs.
In a report by Bulatlat in
December last year, 89-year old retired sugar farm worker Ernesto Basilio
said that he, together with thousands of original hacienda workers, have
struggled to own the land even before the Cojuangcos acquired the hacienda
in 1958 from its Spanish owners.
Basillio said he was among the
founding members of ULWU who staged a strike sometime in 1957 to force the
Spanish owners to recognize their union that was then fighting for land
distribution.
The Cojuangcos were only able to
acquire the hacienda by using government funds on the pretext that the
lands will be distributed to its tenants after 10 years, or in 1968.
The Cojuangcos, however, did not
comply with its agreement with government. It was only in 1980, or 12
years after, when the government of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos filed
a case before a Manila court to enforce the 1958 agreement to distribute
the land to the hacienda’s tenants.
In 1985, the court decided in favor of
the government, compelling the hacienda owners to turn over the land to
the Ministry of Agrarian Reform for appropriate land distribution. But the
motive of the court and former President Marcos was suspect as the
decision was handed down at the height of the campaign against the Marcos
dictatorship. Corazon Cojuangco-Aquino was emerging as the moral force of
the anti-dictatorship campaign after her husband, Benigno Aquino Jr.,
Marcos’ chief political rival, was gunned down allegedly by government
troops in 1983.
Before the hacienda land could be
distributed to the sugar farmers, a people’s uprising against the Marcos
dictatorship brought Cojuangco-Aquino to the seat of power, assuming the
presidency of a revolutionary government in February 1986.
The turn-around
In 1987, the Cojuangco-Aquino
government enacted the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL). Part of
the challenge to the new president was to fulfill its promise to
distribute Hacienda Luisita to the sugar farmers.
As a land distribution scheme, the
Cojuangcos implemented the Stock Distribution Option (SDO), a provision
under the CARL that allows landlords to operate their landholdings as
corporations. Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI) was incorporated. Instead of
distributing the land to the farmer worker beneficiaries (FWB), they were
made stockholders of the agri-corporation.
The SDO also allowed the Cojuangcos to
convert the agricultural land to non-agricultural uses. So far, more than
2000 hectares from the original 6,000 hectares have been converted to
industrial, commercial and residential purposes.
At the onset, Galang said this meant
lesser man-days (workdays) for the FWBs. In fact, during off-milling
season, they were only able to work one day a week and were forced to
incur loans from the management. After paying off debts, they are left
with a measly take home pay of P9.50 a week.
But in the long term, Galang said the
conversion of the land to other purposes negatively affected their
rightful claim to the land. “Kapag na-convert ang lupa, mawawalan kami
ng trabaho at sa kalaunan ay mapapalayas na kami dito sa asyenda at
tuluyan na kaming tatanggalan ng karapatan sa lupa, (Once the lands
are converted to other uses, we will lose our jobs and eventually be
evicted from the hacienda. Our rightful claim to the land will be lost),”
he said.
The Strike
Mahinay noted that the valiant stand
of the strikers at the picket line has compelled DAR to act on the
petition of the farm worker beneficiaries (FWBs) to revoke the Stock
Distribution Plan (SDP) of HLI.
The FWBs filed the petition in
November 2003, a month after retired and active HLI supervisors filed a
similar petition to the same agency.
The DAR, however, did not act on the
petition until after the strike was staged in November last year. After
almost a year of investigation, DAR recommended in September to recall
HLI’s SDP because, it said, the lives of FWBs did not improve but have
worsened under the SDP. The investigation also showed that the HLI
violated several provisions of the Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) regarding
HLI operations.
“The FWBs were able to maximize the
strike, persisting even after the AJ was issued,” Mahinay said.
According to Mahinay, there is an 80
to 90 percent probability that the land will be distributed to the FWBs.
The final decision will be handed down
by the Presidential Agrarian Reform Committee (PARC), the highest
governing body of the government’s agrarian reform program. It is expected
to announce its decision on Nov. 19.
Decisive
The most decisive factor that spelled
victory for the strike was the coordination of ULWU and CATLU, said
Mahinay.
“Had there been no coordination, one
could have been used to weaken the other. But because of their
cooperation, they were able to achieve maximum impact,” she said.
CATLU cannot do it by itself, the
labor lawyer added, and it would have been difficult for ULWU had CAT
workers continued to operate the mill.
The coordination was manifested in the
recent negotiations between the CATLU and CAT vice president for
operations Ernesto Teopaco. While both parties have principally agreed to
a P15 wage increase, a P13,000 bonus and the reinstatement of all union
officers except two (Medical Department Director Romeo Sarate and Adviser
Renato Tua) who have voluntarily resigned. But the union refused to sign
a MoA until the issues being raised by ULWU have been resolved.
Mahinay believes that with the case
still pending with the PARC, the Cojuangcos do not see an immediate
resolution to the issues being raised by ULWU.
In a previous interview with HLI vice
president for external affairs Atty. Vigor Mendoza, he said that the
attitude of the company is still to “wait-and-see” before deciding on what
to do.
Galang, on the other hand, said that
in an exploratory talk with Teopaco on Oct. 22, he had asked if the HLI
management would resume operations. “Ang sagot lang sa amin ay puro ‘I
don’t know,’ (His reply was I don’t know)” he said.
Mahinay said that although the
peripheral issues being raised by ULWU concerning unpaid wages and
benefits could still be resolved, the strike could not be lifted unless
management categorically states whether it will resume operations of the
plantation or not.
Moreover, the labor lawyer said, the
issues being raised by ULWU regarding wages and benefits will be rendered
moot and academic once the agrarian issue is settled.
“If this is the case, then this would
still take long. And the Cojuangcos know that,” she said.
In the face of the unresolved agrarian
issue, Mahinay said, the Cojuangcos wanted to immediately operate the
mill.
“Gigil na gigil na silang buksan
ang mill kasi kabyawan na. If CAT does not operate now, yung mga planters
will have their canes milled in Pampanga and the Cojuangcos will continue
to lose business, (The Cojuangcos are hell-bent on operating the mill
because it is already milling season. If CAT does not operate now,
planter will have their canes milled in Pampanga and the Cojuangcos will
continue to lose business)” she said.
But the Cojuangcos may have to wait
longer, Mahinay said, because not even the murder of CATLU president Ric
Ramos can break the resolve of both unions that they will only enter into
an agreement with the Cojuangcos if all their issues are resolved.
Bulatlat
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