by Lorie Ann A. Cascaro
MEMBERS of the newly-formed labor union Radio Mindanao Network Employees Union (RMN) picketed premises of the network’s radio stations on the corner of Rizal and Anda streets in Davao City last week accusing management of continuing “workplace repression.”
The rallyists also speculated the possible dismissal of new station manager, Rico Jumuad, for failure to stop the formation of the employees union.
Any attack on media workers’ rights is an attack on the freedom of the press, said the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines Davao City chapter.
Local radio broadcasters last year filed cases of illegal dismissal against their network management. They were Mario Maximo “Dodong” Solis, AM station manager of Radio Mindanao Network (RMN) – DXDC Davao, Dennis Lazo and Art Borneo, who worked with Bombo Radyo Davao for more than 20 years.
After Solis’ dismissal, in the same year Alex Roldan, senior anchorman of RMN-DXDC Davao, Jessie Casalda, program director, and Elgin Damasco, news director, were forced to resign because of alleged pressure from management.
“Forming a union is the last recourse that members of the media have taken in order to protect their employment. They have resorted to form a union as a venue by which they could bat for just wages and favorable work conditions, but it looks like employers such as the RMN are showing signs of depriving even this right to them,” said NUJP Davao.
RDEU alleges that management employed tactics of preventing the upcoming certification election.
Union president Rey Hernan Fabe said, “They (management) used flimsy reasons, like making it appear that the members of our union are not of the rank and file. They also made it appear that their favored union, the one which did not have collective bargaining agreement for many years, is still active when in fact it is now defunct.”
The defunct union, Fabe was referring to, was the Mindanao Congress of Labor (MCL-Tupas) that was allegedly being used by management to block RDEU’s attempts to achieve a certification election.
Moreover, RDEU members are apprehensive that management will “sack” Jumuad for being supportive of the union.
“We are worried, especially since we heard talks that Rico (Jumuad) is going to be transferred to Laoag, Ilocos Norte,” Fabe said.
NUJP Davao is calling on the department of labor and employment (Dole) 11 to order the holding of a certification election for RMN Davao employees “in the spirit of free trade unionism as an instrument to strengthen democracy by way of ensuring social justice.”
Calling Dole to also sanction abusive employers, NUJP Davao said, “Poor and underpaid as they are, and lacking security of tenure, media workers are forced to work under unfavorable conditions. This has been made worse by the fact that the worst violators of media’s political and economic rights remain unsanctioned.”