Detained Striking Workers Hold Fast to their Unity

Seventy workers of Packing Plant 95 – Fresh Banana Agricultural Corporation/AJMR-Sumitomo Fruit Corporation were detained yesterday morning at 11:00 am in Brgy. San Jose, Compostela. The workers, who are members of Nagkahiusang Mamumuo sa San Jose (NAMASAN-NAFLU-KMU), have been on strike since August 18 on the grounds of mass termination, runaway shop, illegal lockout, and union busting.

The workers were charged with indirect contempt of court for defying a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) issued Monday by the Provincial Trial Court -- Branch 3 in Nabunturan. The TRO was issued after individual growers of Packing Plant 95 (PP95) filed a case against NAMASAN for damages allegedly resulting from the strike. In accordance with rights defined under the labor code, beginning September 19, members of NAMASAN have blocked the entrance to the packing plant units now being used to pack the bananas which should be packed at PP95.

A similar case for damages was filed in August by the Fresh Banana Agricultural Corporation (FBAC) with the Regional Trial Court in Davao City, but was dismissed on September 12 on the grounds that it is outside of the jurisdiction of the RTC since the action of the union is part of an ongoing labor dispute and should be settled at the Department of Labor and Employment.

“We are determined to see our struggle through to the end,” said Joel Cuyos, President of NAMASAN. “FBAC management is doing all they can to break our union. They have now resorted to provoking the small growers into filing a baseless case against us, when in fact it is the workers and the growers that should unite against this greedy company. We know what our rights are under the constitution, and we will not give in.”

While only nineteen of the union’s leaders are named in the suit filed by the individual growers, other union members accompanied them to the detention site to demonstrate their unity.

The National Labor Relations Commission decided in favor of the union on July 12, 2006 for a money claims case filed against FBAC for underpayment of wages, holiday pay, and service incentive leave. FBAC has yet to pay the more than P1.7 million in back wages and other benefits due to more than 150 workers of PP95. All 196 workers of PP95 were then dismissed from their work starting on August 12, 2006.

FBAC is under Sumitomo Fruit Company, a giant Japanese transnational corporation that maintains thousands of hectares of banana plantations in Mindanao.