Thursday, August 14, 2008 Tomas raps strikers By Mia E. Abellana Sun.Star Staff Reporter
A LABOR group yesterday condemned Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña for allegedly brandishing a firearm as he faced a workers’ picket in front of the Gaisano South department store.
The Associated Labor Union-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP) described the move as “an assault on workers and basic human rights.”
ALU-TUCP reported that Osmeña, accompanied by bodyguards, broke up the picket at 9:30 a.m.
“The Rambo-like attitude of Mayor Osmeña and his cabal should not be left unnoticed. His actions are totally uncalled for,” the group added in its press statement.
While he did not categorically deny that he brandished a gun, Osmeña said he went to the rally to “establish my presence there,” after hearing that the strikers were rowdy.
“The security guard got scratches because they closed the fence,” the mayor said during his press conference a few hours after the incident.
The incident came less than two months after Osmeña denied carrying a gun as he apprehended taxi drivers for traffic violations near Fuente Osmeña.
The Regional Coordinating Council of the agencies under the Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) held an emergency meeting yesterday to discuss the labor disputes at Gaisano South and Gaisano Mactan.
Lawyer Erlinda B. Ramos, counsel of Taipan Development Corp. that owns Gaisano South and Mactan, said that the protesters were no longer connected with the company.
She said these workers’ services were terminated for loss of trust and confidence and for violations of company policies. The venue for their complaints is not the picket line, but the National Labor Relations Commission, she added.
For his part, Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Arturo Radaza will meet today with the Tripartite Industrial Peace Council (TIPC) to discuss solutions to the strike against the department store.
Expected to attend are Dole Regional Director and TIPC Regional Chairman Elias Cayanong and Director Edmund Mirasol of the National Conciliation and Mediation Board (NCMB), among others.
None of the workers were reported injured in either Gaisano South or Mactan. However, reports of Osmeña’s moves provoked discussions on how local officials should
handle labor disputes in these trying times.
“What he did was an act unbecoming of a mayor. He is supposed to be the father of the city, hence, he should have mediated (in) the labor dispute between the striking workers and the management,” said ALU-TUCP spokesperson Josefina Lim.
In its statement, ALU-TUCP said that union mayors “saw the mayor alight from his car carrying a shotgun. The mayor reportedly cocked his gun and began shouting at the striking workers. He was also reported to have a pistol tucked in his waist(band).”
Blotter
The police reportedly accompanied him.
Lawyer Democrito Mendoza, founder of ALU-TUCP, said that Osmeña is the only local official who breaks workers’ picket lines anywhere in the country.
He said the labor group is definitely filing criminal and administrative charges against Osmeña.
The incident has been recorded in the police blotter, said Lim.
Osmeña, in his press conference, said he rushed to the place to protect the police from getting hurt, remembering a 2005 hotel strike when then city police director Melvin Gayotin was dragged into the conflict.
Gayotin, he said, just tried to keep the peace but ended up being charged by ALU.
“When Gayotin tried to disperse the strikers in Holiday Plaza, ALU filed a case against him, and his promotion was frozen for three years. Up to now, his case has not been resolved,” Osmeña said.
“Let them harass me, I’ll go there myself. They can suspend my promotion, I don’t care,” he told a press conference on what was on his mind when he went there.
Presence
He said the strike was illegal, and it is his job to maintain peace and order.
“My security came with me. I just want to establish my presence there. Many of them (in the picket line) were covering their faces, I didn’t like that,” the mayor said.
“I’m sorry, I just have to do my job. I don’t look if it’s ALU or whatever, whoever will violate. Bahala na who they are. I just told them to move back, move back,” he added.
At the Dole meeting, Director Mirasol of the NCMB confirmed that the Independent Labor Association of Workers (ILAW), an ALU-TUCP affiliate, filed a notice of strike with NCMB, citing unfair labor practices at Gaisano Mactan.
But the management said during a conciliation meeting last Monday that they don’t recognize the ILAW-ALU-TUCP as the workers’ bargaining agent, because “the real ILAW” already has a collective bargaining agreement with the management.
City Councilor Eduardo Cuizon, Radaza’s alternate chairman at the Lapu-Lapu TIPC, said the mayor is worried about the workers whose services were terminated and the strike’s effect on the city’s industrial peace.
“Many things need to be straightened out in this situation, particularly the internal conflict among union members themselves,” he said.
Company owners or their representatives, workers and local government officials compose the TIPC. The council was organized to resolve conflict between management and labor, but if it fails, the conflict may reach the NCMB and the Regional Adjudication Board of the National Labor Relations Commission. (EOB/RHM/AIV)
