LABOR
WATCH
LMWD
Employees Association: Trials and Triumphs
As members of the
Metropolitan Water District Employees Association in
Leyte
celebrated its anniversary last June 12, they looked back and savored the
lesson they learned from their four-year union work: that the strength of
a union emanates from the unity of its members.
BY MAUREEN JAPZON
Bulatlat
TACLOBAN CITY – June 12, 2002 was a
historical moment for all Leyte Metropolitan
Water District Employees Association (LMWDEA)
employees. It was the day they
formed their union. It holds much significance not only because of what
had transpired in LMWD on June 12 four years ago, but also because of what
had transpired in our country on the same day more than a century ago. On
that day, history repeated itself, albeit in a far narrower scope.
The day marked the start of the employees’
struggle against the so-called “tyrannical rule” of Engr. Ranulfo
Feliciano, then general manager. Despite what the workers called the
“iron-hand” management tactics of Feliciano, a union was secretly being
formed, akin to the secrecy of the Katipunan before the outbreak of the
1896 Philippine Revolution. Just as the 1896 Revolution vowed to end
colonialism, the struggle of the LMWD workers also vowed to attain freedom
from Feliciano’s corruption and mismanagement in the water district.
As when the forces of the Filipino
revolutionaries surrounded Intramuros for the final blow against colonial
Spain, the controversial
“take-over” of the LMWD offices by the union took place one early morning
of March 29, 2005 which led to the end of Engineer Feliciano’s reign as
general manager of LMWD along with everything that the workers believed to
be unjust.
“The fourth
year celebration of the LMWDEA last June 12 is different from its previous
anniversaries. It is not just another year but a moment to reflect and
look back at the power that emanates from the strength of a union that was
able to overthrow a management that haunted us for several years.” Thus
said Ricardo Palencia, management information systems head of LMWD and
newly elected union vice president.
Promising efforts
A week before the anniversary, the union
and LMWD management signed a notice of agreement drafted by LMWDEA.
General Manager Nestor Villasin signed for management.
The agreement favors the union demands
which included the release of the employees’ 1998 cost-of-living allowance
(COLA), promotion and regularization of job-order employees, commencement
of the collective negotiating agreement (CNA) and union representation
during board meetings.
Establishment of
the union
Before LMWDEA, there were two unions
existing in the company, the Leyte Metropolitan Water District Employees
Association-Alliance of Labor Unions (LMWDEA-ALU) and the United Employees
Association (UEA).
LMWDEA-ALU, said Engr.
Armando Baino, member of the union’s Board of Directors and
officer-in-charge of the Maintenance Division, was pro-management. He said
its collective bargaining agreements (CBA) from 1989 to 1992 was
manipulated which which prompted Baino and other employees to form another
union, the UEA. But UEA suffered a fatal blow when 18 of its members were
fired in the guise of reorganization.
The affected employees brought their case
before the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) and won.
Both Owen Adona, union president and head
of the LMWD’s Internal Control Unit, and Baino were part of the LMWDEA-ALU.
They later joined the minority UEA and eventually pioneered in the
establishment of the LMWDEA-Courage.
Emergence of LMWDEA–Courage
From 1998 to 2002,
Palencia
explained, Feliciano kept placing his trusted men in key positions and
displacing regular employees in favor of job-order workers, who were even
given administrative positions.
There was a common belief among the union
officers that “discreet organizing” of the union was effective during the
early days of the establishment of the association due to the reign of
terror and the climate of fear in LMWD.
“The basis of unity
then during our formation was just to have a voice of employees,”
reminisced Palencia.
From 14 interim
officers during the formation, a week after, their membership rose to 53.
According to Adona, a
great effort was exerted by the union to educate the workers on the basic
rights of the employees and for them to recover from the fear that
engulfed their workplace.
“Ruben Manatad, the regional chairperson
of the Coalition for the Unity, Recognition and Advancement of Government
Employees (Courage) that time was influential in educating us about public
unionism and the basic rights of a union,” Engr. Gonzalo Caidic, Jr.,
founding president of the union and officer-in-charge of the Production
Department, explained.
Displacement of employees
“Feliciano’s efforts to disband and weaken
the union heightened when he arbitrarily dismissed 14 employees
Oct. 12, 2005, most of them are officers
of the union,” Palencia said. “But contrary to what he expected, this was
the start of his great nightmare and prelude to his overthrow.”
The aggrieved parties did not accept the
dismissal order: instead, a picket was formed. Two days after the
formation of the picket, unidentified assassins gunned down Sammy Bandilla,
regional coordinator of Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU or May 1st
Movement)-Eastern Visayas, as he was heading for home along with Bernie
Devaras (member of the union Board of Directors) who survived with a
wound.
“The death of Sammy did not weaken my
resolve, instead it encourages me more to continue what we had started,”
teary-eyed Devaras said. “Sammy, a veteran unionist had been very helpful
to us in tacticizing and consolidation of our union.”
The dismissed workers gained support not
only from their families but also from the consumers. “Although Feliciano
had been active in making counter-measures against us…all these efforts
were in vain because of the widespread support we had received from the
public,” Palencia stressed.
Controversial “take-over”
After series of assessments, five months
of union consolidation work and public education about the situation and
corruption inside LMWD, a union “take-over” of the water district’s main
office and the production plant took place.
“We had just implemented the long-pending
Civil Service Commission (CSC) decision that Feliciano has no right to sit
as LMWD manager and was therefore a usurper of authority and must vacate
his position immediately, because nobody took action despite the fact that
the decision had been long overdue (it was promulgated Feb. 28, 2005),”
Caidic clarified.
According to Adona, the conquest of the
LMWD had been a success since they were able to preserve the documents
that Feliciano’s men had intended to burn. This allowed the Commission on
Audit (COA) and the CSC to probe and prove allegations of corruption and
mismanagement.
The water district’s Board of Directors
and the Leyte provincial government
were thus compelled to execute the CSC decision and put an end to
Feliciano’s reign in LMWD . Villasin was appointed to take over as general
manager.
Emancipation of workers
Thirteen days after the take-over, the
Board of Directors issued a return-to-work order for the 14 displaced
employees.
“It only shows that when there is
collective action and unity among the workers, it can topple down any
anti-worker tyrant just like Feliciano,” says Baino.
Overwhelmed, the unionists were proud,
saying that their collective management of the water district for almost
three months had unlocked secrets kept away from the water consumers of
the district and given them enough time to formulate plans for the
betterment of the employees as well as the public.
“It only proved that the workers can
handle the job of running an establishment even with the absence of a
manager, and a manager cannot do it without the workers,”
Palencia explained.
Aftermath
COA findings show
that Feliciano had made unliquidated cash advances that amounted to
several millions. He had also given unusually high salaries to job-order
employees. Likewise there were amounts missing from the LWMD’s funds.
After the take-over,
the CSC was able to pay the employees and administrative officers their
rightful salaries. As part of the reorganization, regular employees
qualified for administrative positions were promoted. The reorganization
has made the company financially viable again and made improvements in its
service possible, Caidic said.
Lessons learned
LMWDEA-Courage is now
the sole bargaining union in the water district and was accredited by the
CSC last Feb. 23.
“After the March 29 episode, we had been
thinking that everything had been solved but we were taken aback because
one year had already passed our most awaited CNA had not yet started,”
Devaras said. “We will continue our vigilance so that the sacrifices will
not be in vain. The union will consolidate itself and heighten its
awareness to safeguard the hard-won victories.” Bulatlat
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