LABOR WATCH
Miners' benefits delayed
Lepanto
Refuses to Recognize Union Leaders
Exactly one year after they were elected, officers of a miners' union in
Mankayan, Benguet have not yet been recognized by the Lepanto Consolidated
Mining Corp. (LCMCo), Asia’s top gold producer. As a result, the
Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) between Lepanto and its workers
remained unsigned by the company, more than a year after both sides agreed
to settle the deadlock. This has delayed the expected benefits that the
miners and their families fought for in a grueling three-month strike last
year.
BY ARTHUR L. ALLAD-IW
Northern Dispatch
Posted by Bulatlat
BAGUIO CITY
(246 kms. north of Manila) – Exactly one year after they were elected,
officers of a miners' union in Mankayan, Benguet have not yet been
recognized by the Lepanto Consolidated Mining Corp. (LCMCo), Asia’s top
gold producer.
As a result,
the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) between Lepanto and its workers
remained unsigned by the company, more than a year after both sides agreed
to settle the deadlock.
This has
delayed the expected benefits that the miners and their families fought
for in a grueling three-month strike last year.
New officers
On Oct. 22
last year, the Lepanto Employees Union (LEU) elected new officers to
replace an earlier set of officers who were fired by the company for
leading the June-September 2005 miners' strike.
Lepanto had
invoked the right to fire union leaders who defied the “back-to-work”
order of then Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas when she assumed
jurisdiction of the labor dispute. The LEU had agreed to the termination
of its key leaders as part of the strike's settlement.
Most of the
new officers, led by Christopher U. Bautista as chair, also supported the
LEU strike and the union's continued affiliation with the National
Federation of Labor Unions (NAFLU). NAFLU is a member of the Kilusang Mayo
Uno (KMU), a militant national trade union center.
Bautista
said the losing party, which won only two seats on the union board, filed
a case asking the Department of Labor and Employment-Cordillera
Administrative Region (DoLE-CAR) to nullify the election results allegedly
due to massive cheating.
On May 26
this year, the DoLE-CAR mediation arbiter dismissed the case. The
mediation arbiter reasoned out that the issue should have first been
referred to the union election committee and obtained a certification
against forum shopping, which he said the petitioners failed to do.
Not
'de-facto' officers
In a phone
interview, Bautista said that the petitioners, through their lawyer
Lourdes Maita San Andres of the Domogan Law Office, appealed the decision
to the national office of the Bureau of Labor Relations (BLR).
Bautista
said management is invoking the pending BLR case to insist that “we are
merely de-facto officers.”
The LEU
chair clarified that he and other officers were elected fair and square,
and took their oaths before the late Judge Thomas Rufino. He said the
union is asking the BLR to immediately resolve the case by adopting the
DoLE-CAR mediation arbiter decision.
Lepanto
legal tactic
LEU members,
who asked not to be named, said the petition to nullify the October 2005
election results is a legal tactic to disable the union and to delay the
implementation of the new CBA.
Both union
and management agreed on the CBA – the key issue in the 2005 Lepanto
strike – but management has not signed it so far.
Interviewed
by Nordis, several LEU members said that the Lepanto management uses the
“non-recognition” tactic and delays the CBA signing as leverage to
convince the union to disaffiliate from the militant KMU-NAFLU.
Most LEU
officers however said they remain steadfast in their decision to remain as
a KMU-NAFLU affiliate.
They also
explained that the Labor Code allows them, should one year lapse without a
duly-signed CBA, to re-submit the CBA after the notice of ratification of
the majority of the members and after a five-day posting. Northern
Dispatch / Posted by Bulatlat
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