TUCP appeals to PRRD: Save 10,000 TADECO jobs

The Associated Labor Unions – Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP-NAGKAISA), the country’s largest labor federation yesterday expressed “grave concern and serious alarm” at the possible loss of employment facing 10,000 workers of the Tagum Development Corporation (TADECO), who are ALU members by way of ALU affiliate Southern Mindanao Federation of Labor (SMFL).

“ALU laments the legal vigilantism that has already concluded that the Joint Venture Agreement (JVA) between TADECO and the Bureau of Corrections is “null and void”. In this unseemly and hasty rush to kill off the JVA, the real injustice will be to the ordinary workers who will be the first casualty when they lose their jobs. Thousands of workers and their families’ futures will no longer have a human dimension as they will be reduced to subsistence survival levels, mere shadows forgotten in the spotlight of the elect and the elite,” said Michael Mendoza, president of ALU-TUCP.

“We appeal to President Duterte to look into the plight of workers and their families who have been overlooked in this teleserye brouhaha. They are the true human face to this controversy. These workers have been his avid supporters since he was Mayor and are just toiling day-to-day to provide as decent a life for their children as they can. If indeed there were legal infirmities in the JVA then corrective measures must first be made,” explained Mendoza. “What the legal rulings conveniently forgot were the 10,000 workers and their families. A corrective order should have been resorted to and would have been more forthcoming. Also, the correction should not be at the cost of workers lives,” added Mendoza.

There are currently some 8,000 workers working under the Joint Venture Agreement. 1,100 other male inmates under rehabilitation are also working and receiving stipends. There are 101 women workers in the packing station. The inmates are called Inmate Trainees and receive a stipend equivalent to the daily minimum wage. TADECO is the number one producer of export-quality Cavendish bananas in the Philippines.

“Rulings that are mere table studies done by lawyers in aircondtitioned rooms, do not reflect the hard,backbreaking work of workers under the sun eking out a vibrant banana industry with little or no government assistance. After years of benign neglect from Government, we are met with the harshest legal findings, manufactured without hearing out the workers or the communities they have built from their blood and sweat,” said Mendoza.

“Enough is enough.Let us be real here. This rush to so-called justice may have less to do with truth and has more to do with our collective hypocrisies.Their rulings are clearly towards a pre-ordained conclusion. We want to remind all, that these conclusions will determine who will be employed, where they will be employed and under what terms. Our workers thought that the determination of what is legal and illegal is done by the Judiciary following due process. Our workers expected more than this callous, cavalier, high-handed execution of our livelihoods.”

“Government should put workers interest first,” explained SMFL-ALU President Sammy Cardenio. “Marami sa kanila walang pagtingin sa manggagawa. Baka magkaroon ng mga occupy-occupy yung mga miron. Kagulo ang industriya. Kawawa naman mga pamilya namin. Stabilize muna sana,manggagawa muna” he added.