SPECIAL REPORT: Politics threatens workers' enterprise

The proverbial sword of Damocles now hangs on the heads of worker-enterprenuers at the Cebu port as political persecution hits the labor sector, threatening to shatter the only successful workers enterprise in the country.

The recent pronouncements made by Senator John Osmeña virtually declared the end of the year as doomsday for worker-enterpreneurs of the Oriental Port and Allied Services Corp. (Opascor) the exclusive cargo handling services provider at the Cebu International Port (CIP).

The contract of Opascor expires on December 31, 2000. Osmena made it clear he would be pressing the concerned government agencies, particularly the Cebu Port Authority, not to renew the contract of Opascor which he tagged as "the milking cow of the family of union patriarch Democrito Mendoza."

The doomsday declaration may have sent shudders to the workers of Opascor, but for knowledgeable port stakeholders, it simply painted a grimmer picture of a port still stagerring from the effects of the 1999 " port war " between the Associated Labor Unions and a coalition of shipowners.

And the apparent sacrificial lamb the -- 487 worker -enterpreneurs of Opascor.

The Council of Waterfront Leaders resented what it described as " the meddling of Osmena into union affairs, as far as the ALU-NUPP is concerned, and into corporate matters, in the case of Opascor.

The resentment even turned into sarcasm when the workers' leaders met the press, in a news conference, stripped to the waist as an expression of protest to Osmena's " stripping them of their rights." "Turning his ire on Mendoza and Opascor and using his influence on the Estrada administration to topple down Opascor could only be an an indication of two things - Osmena is persecuting labor and wants the President's sanction for it or he is moving against the unions and the workers' enterprise at the behest of the coalition of shipowners and arrastre operators, council of waterfront leaders president Jessielou Cadungog said.

These may have been spurred by personal vendetta against the Mendozas which is aggravated by the sad reality that Osmena had been grossly misinformed about Opascor, he said.

Cadungog said that either way, Osmena is becoming a persecutor of labor and is apparently undermining the pro-poor stance of the Estrada administration, Cadungog added.

Osmena, however, had remained silent on the issue after his recent tirade against ALU and Opascor.

So the workers made good their protest against Osmena on Labor Day, pinching, punching and then burning the senator's effigy.

Though he did not prod the workers to do such things, Mendoza took full responsibility of the Labor Day act, pointing out the union members' ire was understandable.

The significant fight against poverty and opression of portworkers took a step forward on April 17, 1954 when ALU was born in the Cebu port.

At that time, the port was reeking with the stench of the infamous "cabo system," the cabo figure meant both labor leader and employer.

Fighting the ills of the cabo system had been and remains a major task of the union for the system breeds exploitation and harassment of the portworker.

The cabo system, also known as the "kabit system" in the cargo handling industry also promotes corruption and underdeclaration of cargo volume to the prejudice of government.

In the desire to alleviate the plight of the portworker, a group, coming from the ranks of pierhands, established a workers' enterprise in 1990.

A presidential directive of divesting the government of companies it owned started the process. The Cebu operating unit of the National Stevedoring and Lighterage Corp., then under the supervision of the National Development Corp. was bidded out on November 28, 1986.

After an evaluation of a failed bidding, the Commission on Audit considered the offer of NLSC employees and workers.

It was at this point that the employees of the NLSC Cebu operating unit decided to buy out the company at a COA set price acceptable to both parties and manage the operations themselves.