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No Turning Back
Workers Defy Sto. Tomas’
Order
After their strike was
declared “illegal” by the labor department, mill workers at the Cojuangco-owned
Hacienda Luisita face mass lay-off. The workers have vowed to defy the
DoLE order and to maintain their two-month long strike.
BY DABET CASTAÑEDA
Bulatlat
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BARRED:
One of the Hacienda Luisita workers prevented from getting near the
DoLE building in Manila
Jan. 10.
Photo by
Dabet Castañeda |
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Still hurting from
the gunshot wound he sustained when police and military forces tried to
break up their strike on Nov. 16 last year, Ferdinand Aquino, 38,
continues to help man their two-month old picket line at Gate 2 of the
Central Azucarera de Tarlac (CAT) – the sugar central of the Cojuangco-owned
Hacienda Luisita, 120 kms north of Manila.
“Hindi kami
babalik sa trabaho” (We’re not going back to work), he told
Bulatlat in a phone interview after learning that Secretary Patricia
Sto. Tomas of the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) declared on
Jan. 14 that their strike was illegal.
Speaking for his
co-workers, Aquino, an operator of the Distillery Department of the CAT,
said they would continue to hold their strike despite the labor
department’s order for them to go back to work within five days.
CAT Labor Union (CATLU)
president Ricardo Ramos, in a separate interview Jan. 15, confirmed
Aquino’s reaction adding that their union counsel will file a motion for
reconsideration to the labor secretary’s ruling on Jan. 17.
Sto. Tomas’ order
paved the way for the dismissal of the 35 officers of the CATLU. The union
officers were also chided by the labor secretary for misleading union
members on the legality of the work stoppage.
Mass lay-off
If that happens,
warned CAT counsel Adison Castro in a separate phone interview over the
weekend, the Hacienda Luisita management will terminate union members and
hire new laborers.
“If they do not
report for work, they are deemed to have abandoned their employment,”
Castro said. “So I hope the workers will comply with the law.”
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Reacting to Castro’s
threat, Ramos said the imminent mass lay-off would just lead to further
violence at the picket line. “Dadanak lang ulit ang dugo” (Blood
will spill), he said.
FIGHT GOES ON: Sugar central union president
Ricardo Ramos.
Photo by Dabet Castañeda
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Nenita Mahinay,
counsel for both CATLU and the United Luisita Workers’ Union (ULWU),
called the labor secretary’s order as union-busting. The DoLE’s dismissal
of the CATLU officers is tantamount to union-busting, she said, adding
that without them the rest of the union members cannot protect themselves
from management repression.
“Parang langaw na
lang silang pipitikin ng management dahil wala na (ang lakas) ng unyon”
(They will be like flies who will be crashed to death), said Mahinay, who
is from Pro-Labor Legal Assistance Center.
The CATLU went on
strike simultaneously with the strike mounted by ULWU – the plantation
workers’ union – on Nov. 6 last year after their separate Collective
Bargaining Agreement (CBA) negotiations bogged down.
About 500 of the 768
union members took part in the CATLU strike.
Ruling the strike
illegal, Sto. Tomas said the CATLU did not comply with the 30-day
cooling-off period and the strike vote.
Salaries
In her 10-page
resolution, Sto. Tomas ordered the CAT management to pay its workers their
unpaid salaries based on complaints that they have not received their 13th
month bonus and for the 21 days they had worked for before going on
strike.
The labor secretary
also approved a P15-wage increase to be given this year and another P15
next year. But Mahinay said the increase was even lower than last year’s
CBA that gave the workers a one-time-pay of P48. The workers are demanding
a P100 increase per day.
DoLE also approved a
one-time lump sum of P12,500 as against the union’s demand for a two-month
gratuity pay as retirement benefit. No ruling was made on the P30,000
signing bonus sought by the workers even if the management initially
offered P12,500.
Joel Maglunsod,
secretary general of the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU – May 1st
Movement) said the DoLE decision is just part of the scheme to gloss over
the massacre that took place in the picket line on Nov. 16.
In the first place,
Maglunsod said, the violent strike dispersal could not have happened had
the DoLE tried to settle the labor dispute even before the strike could
start. The labor department added heat to the labor row when it assumed
jurisdiction (AJ) on the case and deputized police and military personnel
to enforce its order.
At least seven died
and scores were wounded when Sto. Tomas’ directive was enforced on Nov.
16. Another peasant leader, Marcelino Beltran, was also shot to death by
suspected military men on the night of Dec. 8 in Tarlac
City.
With the turn of
events, Maglunsod renewed militant labor’s call for the nullification of
the AJ and the immediate ouster of Sto. Tomas as labor secretary.
“Ang AJ ay
ginagawang lisensya ng DoLE para supilin ang mga lehitimong pakikipaglaban
ng mga manggagawa”(DoLE is using the AJ as license to suppress the
legitimate struggles of workers), he said.
Documentation by the
church-based Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR) showed that
since 2001, 85 of 132 incidents of strike dispersals by company guards,
police and military personnel were directly connected to the AJ.
The DoLE has not
acted on the labor dispute between the sugar farm workers under ULWU and
the Hacienda Luisista, Inc. (HLI). The case is set to be heard on Jan. 18
and 20 at the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) at the DoLE-Region
III office in San Fernando, Pampanga. Bulatlat
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© 2004 Bulatlat
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