EDITORIAL - Company award revives forgotten Cebu story

Away from the major news shakers in Cebu over the past week was this tiny little item about Toledo City-based Carmen Copper winning national recognition along with its workers union for having sustained harmonious relations. The recognition was given by two government entities involved in labor and management relations -the Department of Labor and the National Conciliation and Mediation Board.

So why is this recognition for harmonious relations even significant enough to merit the news, even if only as a tiny little item, amid so many other similar harmonious labor-management relations? Because there is a story in this story that truly needs to be told. It is a story that is as much about the company as it is of Cebu itself.

Before Carmen Copper was Carmen Copper, there was Atlas Consolidated Mining and Development Corp., or just plain Atlas to most Cebuanos. There was no need for a qualification. When you say Atlas, people knew what you meant. At its peak, Atlas was the biggest copper producer in Asia, perhaps third biggest in the world. It was a time when, if you worked with Atlas, you were somebody. Kids whose fathers worked for Atlas had more than other kids had.

But those were the days. In the early 1990s, Atlas fell into bad times. World copper prices plummeted. And if that wasn't enough, Atlas had to deal with a union whose leftist character made it hard and difficult to deal with. It was the worst time to go from push to shove, so unlike the people of South Korea who, during the Asian financial crisis, took pay cuts from their employers and gave their valuables to the government.

In 1994, not even Atlas can survive the circumstances. It ceased operations. The mines from which the city of Toledo sprung were no longer. Fast-forward to 2004. Carmen Copper was incorporated as a subsidiary of Atlas to operate the mines again. By 2013 it made its 100th shipment of copper concentrate, marking its full return to its former status as a leader in its field.

And now the award about a healthy and harmonious relationship with its workforce. Gone may be the days when entire communities are dependent on single industries. But the return of Atlas or Carmen Copper makes for an inspiring story of coming full circle and a noteworthy chapter in Cebu's own story of God-given abundance and a people's hard work, patience, sacrifice, resiliency, and sense of community.