Photo by Dabet Castañeda
For the first time,
this reporter met the workers from the other side of the fence in the
afternoon of Jan. 21 when some supervisors of the CAT allowed journalists
to enter the compound through the hacienda’s East Gate. This gate also
leads to Las Haciendas de Luisitas, an exclusive residential village, and
Barrio Alto, the Cojuangco clan’s elite and private village inside the
hacienda.
The CAT personnel
department’s logbook showed there are 452 CAT employees, excluding the
supervisors, managers and confidential employees, who continue to work
despite the strike.
When checked by
Bulatlat, the logbook showed only the number of workers present in
each department but did not show names or signatures of the employees.
Jesus Fino, CATLU’s board chairman who entertained the media inside the
compound, said they have stopped using their time cards since the start of
the strike.
Some non-striking
workers who agreed to be interviewed on condition that they remain unnamed
said that for the first time the company paid them in full since the
strike. As an incentive for not joining the strike, they were given free
food, an eight-hour overtime pay and 30 percent night premium everyday.
With these, they receive almost P 1,000 a day compared to their regular
pay of P327. Some of them have brought their families inside the compound.
But the non-strikers
agreed that the P15 wage increase and the P12,500 signing bonus ordered by
DoLE was way too low especially at this time that prices of basic
commodities are up. “Pagtyagaan na. Mabuti na yun kesa wala” (We
can live with that instead of receiving nothing), said one lady who works
as a company secretary.
The non-striking
workers were for the resumption of the mill’s operations but Fino said
that the mills are impossible to operate if Gate 1 remains blocked by the
strikers.
Staff specialist Amor
Gregorio said that they have enough labor force inside the company
compound and could operate even without the strikers going back to work. “Pero
hindi kami makakagiling kung walang tubo” (But we cannot still mill
without the sugarcane), he said.
Back to the table
In a press conference
in the evening of Jan. 21, CATLU president Ricardo Ramos reiterated that
the solution to the labor dispute between them and the CAT management lies
on the negotiating table. “No labor order can solve our problems,” he
said.
In the same press
conference, CATLU adviser Rene Tua said that the Cojuangcos are the
violators of the law citing as proof the non-remittance of wage order
numbers three to 10 amounting to more than P100 and the P15 Emergency Cost
of Living Allowance (ECOLA) issued in Feb. 2004.
He added that union
mill workers continue to defy management’s offer of a P12.50 wage increase
and DoLE’s order of a P15 wage increase because this is way below what
they negotiated for - P100. This is also very low compared to what they
bargained for in the 2001 CBA where they got a P48 wage increase.
This developed even
as the CAT, in its financial statement submitted to the Securities and
Exchange Commission (SEC), earned a total of P48.645 million since 2001.
Tua added that while
the company earned P7.821 million in 2001 when they were given a P48 wage
increase, a P15,000 signing bonus and a P200,000 union fund, the company
is only offering P12.50 wage increase today despite earning P13.438
million in 2004.
“Habang lumalaki
ang kita ng kumpanya, mas lalong lumiliit ang kanyang binibigay, kaya
hindi katanggap-tanggap ang offer nila” (While the company’s earnings
are getting higher, it offers lower wages. This is unacceptable.), Tua
said.
CATLU leaders also
decried the continued threats of retrenchment against the mill workers. In
1997, about 500 union members were retrenched, 200 of whom came from the
railroad department that was shut off that year. Ten-wheeler trucks took
over the transportation of canes from the plantation to the mill.
They charged the
company of downsizing its workforce by not replacing those who have been
retrenched, resigned or were terminated due to work-related sickness. In
return, the vacated positions are merged with those who have been
retained. As a result, a retained worker holds two jobs but is only given
an increase of at least P140 a month.
Negotiate
Ramos maintained that
they still have the bigger number of workers at the picket line. In its
general assembly at the CATLU office just across the CAT’s Gate 2 last
week, the union mustered around 500 members.
But he also explained
that the problem in the non-resolution of the labor issue lies in the
Cojuangcos’ refusal to negotiate with CATLU and ULWU, the plantation
workers’ bigger union.
“Hanggat naka-strike
ang ULWU, hindi aandar ang central” (With the ULWU members still on
strike, the CAT mill will not operate), he added. Bulatlat
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