This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. V, No. 33, September 25-October 1, 2005
LABOR WATCH
Bloodshed in the Picketline The death of Nestle union
president Diosdado Fortuna is the second strike-related murder case recorded this
year. With almost a hundred thousand workers from 400 commercial establishments
registering their desire to strike, labor groups expect more bloodshed at the
picketlines. BY DABET CASTAńEDA CABUYAO, Laguna - “Nasaan ang patay?”
(Where’s the funeral?) Two dark, burly men on board a maroon car
asked this question to leaders of the Organized Labor Association in Line
Industries and Agriculture (Olalia) at around noon of Thursday, Sept. 22. The
labor leaders were having a meeting at the Olalia headquarters in Shineland
Subdivision, Cabuyao, Laguna province (some 40 kms south of Manila). “Wala po rito” (There’s none here),
Olalia staff Emer Demetria remembers one of them answering. Interviewed by a fact-finding mission (FFM)
team led by the union rights group Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR)
- including this reporter - Demetria added that the two men hurriedly drove off
afterward. The union leaders went on with their
meeting, none of them ever thinking that the incident could be a warning to them
– certainly not to Diosdado Fortuna, president of the
Union of Filipro Employees (UFE), the labor group in Nestle
Philippines' Cabuyao factory. Ka Fort, as Fortuna was
fondly called, had been leading the workers’ strike
in Nestle’s Cabuyao, Laguna plant for three years. Triggered by the management’s
refusal to give workers retirement benefits through a Collective Bargaining
Agreement (CBA), more than 600 workers have been on strike. But the prolonged deadlock
in the CBA - despite a Supreme Court decision in favor of the union – has
brought a series of violent dispersals in the picketline and continuous
harassment of union leaders. At least 10 striking workers have already died due
to poverty and illnesses. Fortuna proceeded after the meeting to the
picketline to meet with visiting students from the University of Santo Tomas
based in Manila. He received a text message from his wife Luz a few minutes past
5 p.m. that their grandson was sick and should be brought to the hospital.
Riding his purple motorcycle, Fortuna was
five minutes away from his house in Calamba City when shot twice at the back by
two motorcycle-riding men. By 6 p.m., Nestle union vice president Noel
Alemania received word from a union member manning the picket line that Fortuna
was shot and brought to the Calamba Doctors’ Hospital. He was pronounced dead on arrival at 5:50
p.m. He was 51. The felled union leader who had worked in
Nestle since 1976 now lies in state at his home in Rodriguez Village, Barangay
Pasyano, Calamba. Fortuna was the second Nestle union
president killed. In 1987, Meliton Roxas was shot in front of the picket line,
also in Cabuyao. Fortuna is also the second union leader
killed this year. The first was Teotimo Dante, union board member of the
Schneider Packaging Workers’ Union (SPWU), in Caybiga, Novaliches, Quezon City,
who was killed while the union was on strike Sept. 13. The SPWU went on strike Aug. 15, demanding
that management observe the minimum wage law and manage their Social Security
Service (SSS) funds well. In an interview with Bulatlat, SPWU member
Mariz Zaragosa said majority of the workers get P148 ($2.63 at $1=P56.32) to
P175 a day for eight to 12 hours of work. Moreover, they are listed as
self-employed under the SSS. The company’s 15-man security force and
policemen under Station 4-Urduja led by P/Supt. Joselito Fahrillaga reportedly
first attacked the picket line on Aug. 25. Six union members were arrested and
detained while the strikers’ properties were destroyed and stolen by the police,
said Zaragosa. The strikers then set up their picket line a
few meters away from the company gate. On Sept. 13, Zaragosa said the union held a
forum in front of the company gate but the company’s security force prohibited
them from doing so. Around 5 p.m. a commotion ensued between them and the
security force. Workers, including Zaragosa, then heard that
plant manager Filipina Mandap ordering members of the security force to open
fire on the strikers. Zaragosa herself said she heard the plant manager telling
the security guards: “Pagbabarilin nyo yan. Pag hindi nyo binaril yan, kayo
ang tatanggalin ko sa trabaho.” (Shoot them. If you don’t, I will fire all
of you.) The strikers then heard a warning shot
followed by successive gunfire. Dante’s certificate of death said he
sustained “multiple gunshot wounds on the trunk and extremeties” and was
pronounced dead on arrival at the Lourdes Hospital in Novaliches at 5:30 p.m. Seven other strikers were injured in the
incident. The CTUHR said it has recorded 27 cases of
assault at the picket line victimizing 1,457 individuals and involving 11
companies nationwide from January to September this year. Among the documented cases are 17 incidents
of physical assault, injuring 1,011 strikers. Union leaders from other companies have also
experienced harassment and threats in the past months. Joseph Fausal, secretary general of the
Samahan ng mga Manggagawa ng Ren Transport (Organization of Workers of Ren
Transport or Smart) was on his way home on Sept. 16 when he noticed three men
trailing him. He was with co-worker Jovito Labay and was
followed from the picket line to the jeepney terminal in Litex, Quezon City.
The following day, Sept. 17, on his way back
to the picket line, Fausal noticed a silver van with plate number XEL 299
following him. He said he saw the van stop and two men alighted. One of the men
reportedly pointed him to his companion and both started toward his direction.
Since it was raining hard that day, Fausal covered himself with his umbrella and
ran away. About 250 garbage collectors and truck
drivers of Ren Transport have been on strike since Aug. 25. Union counsel
Remigio Saladero, in an interview with Bulatlat, said the strike was
mainly due to management scheme to clip Smart’s power as a bargaining agent by
forming what he described as a company-run union. The labor lawyer said the
company has alleged that Smart is a militant union due to its affiliation with
ADLO-KMU (Association of Democratic Labor Organizations - Kilusang Mayo Uno or
May First Movement). Smart Union president Nestor Fulvinar also
charged that management has failed to remit their SSS contributions since 2002
although workers have been getting deductions every month from their salaries as
reflected in their pay slips. He said the strikers’ earned wages for the July 25
to Aug. 24 have been held in the bank since their strike erupted. The garbage collectors also complained
management has failed to deliver previous CBA agreements including uniform and
safety device provisions, hospitalization benefits and regular sick and vacation
leave benefits. Meanwhile, in Hacienda Luisita, site of the
Nov. 16 massacre that killed seven strikers and their supporters, harassment
continues at the picket line and the adjoining barangays comprising the
6,443-hectare sugar estate. On Aug. 7, 19-year old Harley Amurao, whose
parents are members of the striking union, was shot at close range by a security
guard in Las Hacienda de Luisita. He was identified by one of the Hacienda
guards himself who was on duty on the night of the killing. No one has been
arrested however as of this writing. On Sept. 9, in Mapalacsiao and Asturias
(villages inside the Hacienda), bulldozers escorted by soldiers tried to run
over the sugar and mill workers and their families who were protesting the
construction of the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway Project (SCTEP) and are
blocking the bulldozers’ way. Previous to this, there have been many attempts by
soldiers and company personnel to forcibly clear the land. Meanwhile, union leaders continue to receive
harassment in different forms. Ric Ramos, president of the Central Azucarrera de
Tarlac Labor Union (CATLU) and Rene Galang, president of the United Luisita
workers’ Union (ULWU) have been receiving death threats through their mobile
phones while some of them received threats through registered mails, Bulatlat
also learned. Last week, CATLU adviser Rene Tua’s home in Mapalacsiao was
surrounded by soldiers. CTUHR has documented six cases of arbitrary
arrest and detention involving 30 strikers, among them 20 miners from Lepanto in
Mankayan, Benguet, four from Solid Development Corp. in San Ildefonso, Bulacan
and six from SPWU. All have been released. Daisy Arago, CTUHR executive director, said
that 90 percent of picket line violence is due to the Department of Labor and
Employment’s (DoLE) Assumption of Jurisdiction (AJ) power over strikes.
AJ usually allows the company to continue
operations which means that the workers are also ordered to get back to work
without the labor disputes being settled. Controversial Labor Secretary Patricia Sto.
Tomas came under fire last year when she assumed jurisdiction over the strike of
sugar mill workers of the Central Azucarrera de Tarlac (CAT), the largest sugar
mill in Central Luzon owned and operated by the family of former President
Corazon Cojuangco-Aquino. The AJ allowed the entry of hundreds of
police and soldiers inside the 6,443-hectare Hacienda Luisita (HL) in Tarlac.
The subsequent dispersal on Nov. 16 last year killed seven strikers and injured
several others while an unidentified number of sakadas (seasonal farm
workers) have been declared missing. Known today as the Hacienda Luisita
Massacre, it is noted as the bloodiest picket line dispersal in history.
Among the cases of violent strike dispersals
due to AJ documented by CTUHR under Macapagal-Arroyo are those of Toyota, Nissan
and Nestle Philippines in 2001, Sulpicio Lines in 2002 and Good Found Cement in
Bicol in 2003. Ninety-five percent of the cases reportedly
point to the Philippine National Police (PNP) and company guards as
perpetrators. The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) on the other hand has
been reportedly involved in three violent dispersals: Good Found, Sulpicio Lines
and Hacienda Luisita. Meanwhile, records of the National
Conciliation and Mediation Board (NCBM) show that in the last nine months,
around 94,200 workers from 400 commercial establishments nationwide have filed
strike notices; of these, 41 percent have become full-blown strikes.
The NCBM’s records also show nine percent of
the country’s work force has been involved in labor disputes.With reports
from Dennis Espada and Abner Bolos of Pokus Gitnang Luson. Bulatlat © 2005 Bulatlat
■
Alipato Publications Permission is granted to reprint or redistribute this article, provided its author/s and Bulatlat are properly credited and notified.
Two killed, thousands hurt since January
Bulatlat
A well-known labor organizer, Fortuna held a roster of
organizational responsibilities. He was chairman of the Pagkakaisa ng Manggagawa
sa Timog Katagalugan (Pamantik or Unity of Workers in Southern Tagalog),
chairman of Anakpawis Partylist-Southern Tagalog, co-chairman of the National
Coalition for the Protection of Worker's Rights in Southern Tagalog, national
council member of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan or New Patriotic Alliance)
and convenor of Southern Tagalog for the Ouster and Punishment of Gloria (Stop
Gloria).The killing
Targeting union leaders
Harassment
Violence against workers