Cebu port labor unions declare war vs Osmeña

CEBU CITY - The Associated Labor Unions-National Union of Portworkers in the Philippines (ALU-NUPP) has virtually declared war on Sen. John Osmeña who they demanded to resign.

In a news conference the other day, the Waterfront Council of Leaders asked Osmeña to step down from office, accusing him of taking sides in the conflict at the port and of persecuting the labor sector.

The workers vowed to stage a protest action against Osmeña on April 17, the 46th anniversary of ALU which was founded in 1954 at the Cebu port.

In an interview over radio station dyLA, ALU-NUPP national president Democrito Mendoza criticized Osmeña for going beyond his jurisdiction as a legislator and dipping his hands into union and corporate matters.

Mendoza, however, declined to comment on Osmeña's accusations that he and his family had profited from the union and from the Oriental Port and Allied Services Corp. (Opascor).

Last weekend, Osmeña said he would push for the non-renewal of the contract of Opascor as the cargo handling service provider at the Cebu International Port, which he described as a milking cow of the Mendoza family.

Osmeña said one way to save Opascor from closing down after its contract will expire at the end of the year is to retire Mendoza from the company and from the ALU-NUPP.

Opascor workers are members of the ALU Local 1.

For its part, the Waterfront Council of Leaders, through ALU Local 1 president Jessielou Cadungog, said the union and the 487 worker-owners of Opascor are rallying behind the leadership of Mendoza and are demanding that Osmeña step down as senator.

Cadungog said Osmeña should confine his concerns to legislation. His persecution of the union and the labor sector has contributed to the bad image of the Estrada administration, causing the continued plunge of the popularity rating of the President, he said.

During the news conference, the council's leaders and workers were stripped to the waist, signifying their protest of Osmeña's harassment of Opascor.

"Senator Osmeña has stripped us of our rights as workers and entrepreneurs," the workers said.

ALU legal officer Joselito Pedaria said the right to call for the resignation of Mendoza, who is chairman of the board of Opascor, rests with the worker-entrepreneurs of Opascor and not with Osmeña.

He said calling for the resignation of Mendoza is tantamount to meddling in the corporate matters of a private company.

Opascor is a workers' enterprise established in 1990 when the Aquino administration privatized some government-owned and controlled corporations, including the National Stevedoring and Lighterage Corp. (NSLC) in 1986.

Only the Cebu unit of NSLC was viable for privatization at that time and was bid out. Unfortunately, there was a failure of bidding.

The NSLC workers, under the leadership of their manager, Benjamin Akol, now the Opascor president, conceived the workers' enterprise which was finally realized in June 1990.

According to Cadungog, Opascor started out with a net worth of P12 million. Now the company, owned by 487 workers, is worth over P200 million.

Opascor modernized operations at the CIP with an equipment capability better than the Manila international port's cargo handling service providers, contributing revenues of nearly P40 million in 1999.

The lowest paid employee receives P250 per day or about 70 percent above the current daily minimum wage rate. As worker-entrepreneurs, Opascor employees receive shares of the company's profits.

Council leaders warned that if Osmeña succeeds in convincing the President to close down Opascor and pursues his persecution of the labor sector, the country will be rocked by protests that could culminate in a nationwide strike by the ALU-NUPP and the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines and their affiliates.

To emphasize their point, the workers will stage a march-rally on April 17 from the waterfront area to the capitol. The protesters will carry placards denouncing Osmeña's anti-labor pronouncements. --