LABOR WATCH

Port Workers Set to Strike over Privatization Scheme

When the Terms of Reference (TOR) for the privatization of the North Harbor is finalized this month, workers at the port will stage a work stoppage even if this meant no wage for a day, a week, or a month. “We will endure it because we have no choice…it’s either we fight or we lose our jobs,” said Ronald Carascal, 32 a shop steward rotation officer for United Dockhandlers, Inc. (UDI).

BY JHONG DE LA CRUZ
Bulatlat

When the Terms of Reference (TOR) for the privatization of the North Harbor is finalized this month, workers at the port will stage a work stoppage even if this meant no wage for a day, a week, or a month.

“We will endure it because we have no choice…it’s either we fight or we lose our jobs,” said Ronald Carascal, 32 a shop steward rotation officer for United Dockhandlers, Inc. (UDI).

Last Friday February 10, workers massed up at Pier 14 to show the authorities that they are against the sale of the North Harbor, at the expense of thousands of their families.

The Philippine Ports Authority- Manila Office (PPA-MO) is set to auction off the harbor in line with the Medium-Term Development Program of the government. The sale, according to its manager Alex Cruz, may take a year or two to materialize. But the PPA-MO plans to finalize the TOR this month.  The TOR, said the workers, underwent a “clandestine” process meant to exclude the workers.

Workers’ demands

Some 5,000 port workers and 2,000 vendors are currently working in the port. The port workers, truckers, and vendors are organized under the Alliance of Port/Transport Workers and Porters –North Harbor (APTWP). According to APTWP, the almost 5,000 workers are employed under four firms namely UDI, Pier 8 Arrastre and Stevedoring Services Inc., North Star Port Development Corp., and Isla Putting Bato Arrastre and Stevedoring Corp.

Alex Cruz, PPA-MO manager, admitted that the authorities supervising the privatization process have failed to consider the plight of the workers and vendors. In a dialogue sought by the PPA-MO with APTWP, they have ensured the workers that two of their demands will be included in the re-evaluated TOR.

The PPA-MO agreed to include in the TOR a provision compelling the new operator to hire the current porters and truckers.  The TOR will also include a provision recognizing the APTWP as the workers’ legitimate union.

The PPA Board of Directors is set to meet within the month to finalize the TOR and discuss the demands of the union. 

Fast-tracking privatization

Jake Azores, president of the APTWP and employee of UDI, said the union is not buying the assurances made by the PPA-MO.  “The Philippine Ports Authority’s Board of Directors is keen on finalizing the TOR with or without public hearing and without due consideration to the plight of the workers,” said Azores. 

Oscar Sevilla, PPA general manager, was quoted, last week, saying that the TOR provides for the reduction of terminals from the current ten to two based on the recommendation of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry. 

Azores said that the two-terminal proposal would reduce job handling at the port.  The union estimates that around 5,000 workers will lose their jobs with the privatization of North Harbor.

In the proposed TOR, a provision for retrenchment is allowed and shall be undertaken “only for a period of no more than 36 months but not less than 24 months…from the commencement date.”

Azores said that they are not against the modernization of the port but are against its privatization.  They said that with the impending privatization, their livelihood is at stake.   

In a statement, KMU National Chairperson Elmer Labog said that truck drivers stand to lose their job once the privatization of Manila’s North Harbor pushes through. “The full impact of the privatization scheme will affect all sectors from the Arrastre and Stevedoring contractors, workers, porters, restaurant owners, vendors and even the local truckers in the harbor."

“The North harbor is already being controlled by private firms…so what’s the need for its privatization?” Azores asked.

The PPA is set to finalize the sale of two of the ports it oversees this year, the North Harbor and the Batangas City Port. Oscar Sevilla, PPA general manager said North Harbor and the 113 other ports controlled by the PPA, have been opened for private bidding.

PPA is waiting for the go-signal from the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) to proceed with the sale of the two ports. Aboitiz, owner of big shipping lines Super ferry, the Asian Terminals, Inc. (ATI), and the International Container Terminal Services, Inc. have expressed their intention to participate in the bidding.

A 25-year renewable contract will be awarded to the winning bidder as contained in the TOR.

Politics

“We fear that politics is behind the privatization,” said Azores. Azores said that Malacanang is fast tracking the privatization process to favor a business magnate close to the first family.  “A vital installation such as the North Harbor rakes in billions every year,” he said.

The Philippine Ports Authority (PPA), which manages the port, registered a profit of P2.87 billion in the first half of 2005 alone based on data released by its finance department. The figure, according to the protesting workers, is sufficient to fund the improvements at the port.

Attack on workers’ rights

Labog said that the port privatization is an attack on the unionized sector in the shipping industry as “it will eventually lead to the disregard of existing union CBAs in the port as new foreign contractors arrive." Labog said that contractual and agency-hired workers will eventually replace regular workers. 

Azores said that the sale of the port will also result in higher rates of services as what happened in other government-owned and controlled corporations that were privatized. 

North Harbor accommodates all types of inter-island vessels with six main piers. It also includes Isla Puting Bato, Vitas, Pier 2, Terminal 16 and Marina slipway.

“The privatization scheme of the Arroyo government is a desperate attempt to squeeze more money from the toiling workers and people and to serve as milking cows for corruption by the present administration,” said Labog.  Bulatlat

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