Politics threatens workers' enterprises

Establishing a union at the port area in 1954 was the first step of the vision, of the founders of the Associated Labor Unions, of fighting poverty at the waterfront area.

The union went to work on awakening and orienting the workingman on their rights.

ALU-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines did not limit the effort at the level of the workers and the companies they worked for.

It went into lobbying with Congress for the passage of pro-labor legislation and improvement of social security benefits.

But the union went a step further in the fight against poverty. It transformed the workers into enterpreneurs.

The task was tailored-fit for ALU-national president Democrito Mendoza and then manager of the Cebu unit of the National Stevedoring and Lighterage Corp., Benjamin Akol, who is a professional manager and corporate man.

When the workers of the NSLC Cebu unit decided to buy out the company, Akol and Mendoza went to work to start a workers' enterprise.

The decision was spurred by two presidential proclamations which threatened the employees' job security by providing the new owners of newly privatized firms the absolute discretion to hire new employees or retain some of the previous workers.

The idea of forming a workers' enterprise was conceived by Akol and was translated into the first letter of intent submitted by the group to then Trade Secretary and National Development Corp. chairman Jose Concepcion on Dec. 5, 1986.

The NSLC was under the supervision of the government-owned NDC. Akol's concept was supported by his immediate superior, Ambrosio Makalintal, NSLC executive vice president, and fully endorsed by the workers represented by lawyer Democrito Mendoza, ALU national president.

Basically the buy-out plan involved the pooling of resources of workers derived from their retirement benefits from NLSC, ownership in the new company to be determined in proportion to their service credits.

The long negotiations started. The workers needed someone with statue to help represent them.

Mendoza, ALU national president, entered into the picture as he was acceptable to both the NDC and the banks guaranteeing the transfer transactions of NLSC from NDC to the new workers' corporation. The workers executed individual powers of attorney authorizing Mendoza to represent them.

Mendoza started as a dockworker of the Visayas-Cebu Terminal Company Inc. in 1946 from which he organized the union of portworkers - arrastre and stevedores.

When negotiations for the transfer of NSLC Cebu unit to the new corporation were under way, the workers were then affiliated with the Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines which Mendoza headed as its national president.

But the NDC, as a condition of sale, allowed Mendoza only one share worth P1 to qualify him to sign documents of sale and other related documents representing the workers. The condition stressed that Mendoza, at that time, was no longer a portworker.

A deed of sale was signed on May 1, 1990. In her Labor Day speech, then President Aquino congratulated the workers for establishing a workers' enterprise -- "the first in the history of our country and the first in the history of labor."

On June 17, 1990, the operations of the new corporation, the Oriental Port and Allied Services Corp., was formalized with a document that again stipulated limitations of ownership for Mendoza, limiting his shareholdings to only one share.

In a statement, TUCP spokesman Alex Aguilar said Sen. John Osmeña's call for Mendoza to resign from Opascor is unsubstantiated. "How can the retirement of Mendoza from Opascor or from the unions bear any substance when he is the unifying factor of the workers," Aguilar pointed out.

He said Osmeña does not know anything about ALU affairs. "Unless he produces an ALU membership card, we will give him the benefit of calling for the ouster of Mendoza as president."

The transformation from workers to enterpreneurs was a difficult process but Mendoza kept the workers together while Akol kept the company going and growing.

Now Opascor, with 487 worker-owners, has an average capability of 26 to 30 containers per crane or 56 containers per hour, using two cranes, surpassing that of Manila port (with an average capacity of 22 containers per hour) and other Asian ports with rates will very much lower than Manila, Akol pointed out.

In 1999, the .69-kilometer CIP serviced 572 foreign vessels with 38,255 containers coming in and 40,809 going out, accounting for a total cargo volume of 1,646,627 metric tons.

It spelled close to P40 million income for the Cebu Port Authority in terms of its share cargo handling fees and value added tax.

For his part, Gaudencio "Tatay" Cadungog bared the equipment of Opascor can handle more cargo traffic than what is coming in or going out.

Cadungog recalls that way back in the 50s, portworkers received meager wages, in fact the Christmas bonus in 1954 was P5.

Cadungog, now a port operations manager, said he relied on his strength and the volume of cargo he can unload with his bare hands for his daily needs.

He started as a cargado in 1954 with the Cebu Stevedoring Company where his father worked as kapatas or arrastre foreman.

Now as operations manager of Opascor, Cadungog said the workers enterprise revolutionized cargo handling at the CIP, acquiring modern equipment such as two 35-ton Gantry Cranes, 10 35-ton Transtainers and several other machineries which catapulted work efficiency beyond the demand in the service area.

Opascor is not just leading in terms of cargo handling efficiency but also in workers' benefits. Its lowest paid utility worker receives P261 per day or 70 percent above the minimum daily wage required by law.

Opascor provided the workers, who are entrepreneurs at the same time, the opportunity to improve the quality of their lives and liberate themselves from the bondage of the cabo system which other cargo handling firms had not done away with.

However, the proverbial sword of Damocles is indeed hanging over the heads of worker-enterpreneurs of Opascor.

Senator Osmeña dangled that sword over them.