This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. V, No. 39, November 6-12, 2005
Strike One
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 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 © 2005 Bulatlat
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A year of struggle and triumph in Hacienda Luisita
Bulatlat