Friday, August 15, 2008 Wenceslao: They never learn By Bong O. Wenceslao Candid Thoughts
I DID not see Mayor Tomas Osmeña brandish a shotgun in the video footage I viewed on the picket at the Gaisano South last Wednesday. Perhaps the video cam operator of the Associated Labor Union (ALU) was caught off guard when the mayor appeared. But Osmeña did push placards and workers with his other hand grasping his holstered pistol.
The mayor was with cops, one of whom carried a shotgun that he was tinkering with. Either he was cocking it or making sure it wouldn’t accidentally fire. It must have been a sight, like what pickets usually are when authorities side with management against protesting workers. Capital (no pun intended) and some mayors, they never learn.
Harassments won’t work in protest actions like the one waged by Gaisano workers. Ask ALU’s grand old man Democrito Mendoza, a veteran of many encounters in the battle for union control at Cebu’s port area decades back. Ask leaders of the Kilusang Mayo Uno. Threats and abuse only heighten the tension, complicate matters.
To be specific, did the mayor’s Rambo act work? Was the strike, or the resolve of the picketers, broken? It wasn’t. Yesterday, the workers simply went back to the picket line with renewed determination. An ALU official was correct: Osmeña should have mediated, not acted like a stooge of capital. Mayors mediate, not take sides in labor rows.
In the meantime, here are other observations:
- Lest we forget, this is a labor problem: the management of Gaisano South and Gaisano Mactan against some of the firm’s employees. This is also not only about unionism but more so about the working condition in the concerned establishments. Department store employees are traditionally the most exploited and abused hereabouts.
I hope the Gaisano management will learn its lesson and treat its people well from hereon. Or this should prod labor officials to once and for all look into the plight of department store employees.
- Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Arturo Radaza met with the Tripartite Industrial Peace Council yesterday to find out solutions to the strike against Gaisano Mactan. I don’t know what happened in that meeting, but consider the act. Despite his faults and corruption cases, Radaza managed to do the right thing, so unlike the other mayor.
- I heard Councilor Edu Rama being interviewed over dyLA about the Gaisano row and Osmeña’s act. Not that I expected much from this loyal BO-PK soldier, even if he is chairman of the Council’s labor committee. But when he focused on the legality of the picket and refused to touch on the righteousness of the mayor’s act, I put off the radio.
- The Osmeña fanatics were busy texting radio commentary programs yesterday defending their idol. One said that despite what his idol did, he still considers him a good mayor. That is another good argument why radio commentary anchors should limit the usual text message-reading portion of their programs. Too much precious air time wasted.
Oops. I now think it is actually unfair to John Rambo to compare him with the mayor. The film character played by Sylvester Stallone a monotonous number of times only fights just causes. He flaunts high-powered firearms and shoots people like he is in a karnabal shooting gallery, but he ends up heroic before the film credits start to roll.
