Fruitless Dole CBA negotiations decried by employees

Members of National Federation of Labor Unions-Kilusang Mayo Uno (NAFLU-KMU) staged another picket protest at the head office of Dole Philippines in Makati today to urge Dolefil to fairly resolve their CBA negotiations with the union and to stop harassing the workers in its 14,000-hectare plantation, cannery and packaging plant in Polomolok, South Cotabato .

The South Cotabato-based union Asosasyon ng mga Mamumuo sa Dolefil Alang sa Kalingkawasan ng Demokrasya sa Nasud (Amado Kadena), a member union of NAFLU-KMU, has faithfully sat through all the negotiations stipulated in the ground rules, but so far all those meetings have been "fruitless," said the union leaders. Worse, they cried that members and leaders of the union are being endangered by the Dolefil management's red-baiting and whipping up of communist hysteria in Polomolok.

According to NAFLU-KMU Chairman Lito Ustariz, the streets leading to Dolefil plant were now littered with graffitis accusing the Dolefil union of being communists. He said union leaders in Polomolok are wary given that there's a spate of unresolved killings of members of progressive organizations who are also tagged by the military as communists.

Worsening working condition on top of "ugly" management proposals

In their picket-protest at the head office of Dolefil, members of NAFLU-KMU condemned Dolefil's fresh anti-worker offensives on their 20,000 workers in Cotabato.

"Dolefil has delayed paying some unionists their wages; they're also pushing for more widespread and stringent coverage of card swiping for time-in and time-out, said NAFLU-KMU secretary general Tony Pascual.

On top of that, Pascual added that Dolefil is practically killing off the union-run minimart that's providing the workers with cheaper basic goods such as rice and groceries. Pascual explained that the management simply stopped deducting the workers' payment for (their loans in) the minimart from the workers' payroll, supposedly in retaliation to the union's efforts to push for a fair CBA.

So far, said Pascual, thousands of Dolefil union members have been participating in various mass actions calling for fair wage increases and working conditions at Dolefil. Pascual reiterated the union's report that an overwhelming majority of the union members have participated in their rallies at the Dolefil office in Cotabato.

Pascual also condemned the Dolefil's crafty way of taking back some of the workers' previously hard-won gains such as rice subsidy and retirement fund, among others. He said that the Dolefil management is capitalizing on the poverty of its workers by dangling before them a one-time lumpsum offer that will take the place of monthly rice subsidy and yearly retirement/leave allocation. Pascual said that to the exploited and destitute workers, one-time lump sum may appear huge at first glance, but come the next year of their CBA coverage, the workers will no longer receive the same rice subsidy or retirement/leave allocation.