Mass action shuts down Luisita operations

HACIENDA LUISITA, Tarlac — The operations of the sugar refinery in this 6,000-hectare plantation owned by the family of former President Corazon Aquino were shut down yesterday after a number of its workers walked out of their posts.

Protesters from the Central Azucarera de Tarlac Labor Union (CATLU) and the United Luisita Workers’ Union (ULWU), reinforced by militant activists, also blocked the main entrance and exit gates of the refinery’s main plant at noon.

CATLU, which has reached a deadlock in its ongoing collective bargaining agreement (CBA) talks with the management, represents more than 700 factory workers of the sugar refinery.

The ULWU, on the other hand, represents more than 5,000 farmworkers regarded as "co-shareholders" of Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI) under the stock distribution option (SDO) scheme of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).

According to the HLI management, only about 20 CATLU members manning the refinery’s boiler division joined the mass action.

But without them, the refinery cannot operate because it is the boiler that provides steam to produce sugar.

CATLU is demanding a P100-wage hike and P30,000 CBA signing bonus for each worker. But the HLI maintains that it can only give a P12 salary increase and a P12,000 signing bonus.

The ULWU, on the other hand, protested the retrenchment last October of 327 farmworkers, including Rene Galang and Ildefonso Pingul, their president and vice president, respectively, and eight other union officers.

After the walkout, the HLI management immediately called for an emergency meeting to determine who among the non-striking workers could man the boiler division to resume the refinery’s operations.

The CATLU protesters blocked the refinery’s Gate 2, while those from ULWU barricaded Gate 1.

They were backed by militants from the left-leaning party-list groups Bayan Muna and Anakpawis and their affiliates, the radical Nagkakaisang Manggagawa ng Tarlac-Kilusang Mayo Uno (NMT-KMU), Alyansa ng mga Magbubukid sa Tarlac-Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (AMT-KMP), Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan-Tarlac), League of Filipino Students (LFS) and Alyansa ng Nagkakaisang Kabataan Para sa Bayan (Anakbayan).

Trucks stranded

With the refinery’s main gates blocked, trucks ferrying newly cut sugarcane from different Tarlac towns as well as from Pampanga, Nueva Ecija and Pangasinan, were stranded along the plantation’s main road, causing traffic gridlocks along the MacArthur Highway, from Barangay San Rafael in Tarlac City to as far as Capas town.

Also joining the protest action was the left-leaning Alyansa ng mga Manggagawang-Bukid sa Hacienda Luisita (AMBALA), an affiliate of the KMP and Anakpawis, which the HLI management has refused to recognize.

The management declared the walkout illegal, saying CATLU did not conduct a "strike vote" among its members.

About 100 CATLU members reportedly met with their president, Ric Ramos, and asked him to explain what direction the union leadership was taking in the CBA deadlock and the sudden protest action.

The HLI has claimed losses in its operations, with shortfalls of P215.11 million in 2002 and P165.49 million last year.

Hacienda Luisita, which operates the biggest sugar refinery in Luzon, has been hounded by labor and agrarian unrest. Militant groups have been prodding farmworkers to demand the scrapping of the stock distribution option in favor of land distribution.

Anakpawis party-list Rep. Rafael Mariano said he would ask Rep. Gregorio Ipong, chairman of the House committee on agrarian reform, to immediately set hearings on House Resolution No. 155 seeking an inquiry into the implementation of the stock distribution option in Hacienda Luisita.

Mariano co-authored the House resolution along with fellow party-list Reps. Crispin Beltran (Anakpawis) and Liza Largoza-Maza (Gabriela).

Spaniards used to run the sugar plantation but gave it up due to the Huk rebellion, led by the old Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas (PKP), in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The Cojuangco family later acquired it. — With Ding Cervantes