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Sunday, February 23, 2003
Miners ink MOA with Lepanto, end strike
By Harley Palangchao
MANKAYAN, Benguet -- Striking miners of the Lepanto Consolidated Mining Company (LCMCo) has finally left the picket line after 22 days following the signing of a memorandum of agreement between the management and union leaders early Saturday morning.
It took the management and two labor unions 15 hours in a closed-door meeting at the office of the National Conciliation and Mediation Board (NCMB) regional office in the Cordilleras to forged the MOA, which signaled the end of the strike at the gates going towards the mine site.
Reliable sources said the protesting members of the Lepanto Local Staff Union and Lepanto Employees Union abandoned the picket lines Saturday midnight.
Lepanto's corporate environment manager, Engr. Glenn Batilando, in a statement sent Sun.Star, said that the mine operation would resume at the soonest possible time. He, however, refused to give details of the MOA so as "not to jeopardize the result of their final talks."
The operation of Lepanto, the country's biggest gold producer in Northern Luzon, was crippled when the workers started their strike on February 1 this year.
Batilando, on the hand, admitted that the company is firm with its earlier decision not to re-hire the terminated 42 labor leaders.
Terminated union members, however, can still be re-hired after a review by the management of their records.
Earlier, the Secretary of the Department of Labor and Employment assumed jurisdiction over the labor dispute, after efforts to achieve an acceptable compromise between Lepanto and the unions failed.
Dole strictly ordered the unions to cease and desist from going on a strike and certified the matter to the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) for compulsory arbitration.
But the unions defied the order even as concerned employees, civic organizations and community members also urged the protesters to heed the Dole's order.
On Wednesday, violence erupted at the picket area, when close to 100 policemen tried to disperse protesting workers at a picket line near the Tubo shaft. Dozens of workers, including women, were also reportedly hurt while five more workers were detained.
The five workers, identified as Alan Saraan, Johnny Sab-it, Rodolfo Becya, Salvador Labiang and Michael Marnag, were arrested and detained for at least three hours.
The protest caused Lepanto to incur production losses of as much as P200-million already. The company, with a workforce of about 2,000 people, has an annual export receipt of more than P2.5 billion.(Sun.Star Baguio) |
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