Assert Justice! Support the Citra Mina Workers’ Struggle for their Rights

Today, for the nth time since September, the National Conciliation and Mediation Board (NCMB)  of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) is calling a mediation session between the union of Citra Mina workers and the Citra Mina Group of Companies’ (CMGC) management.  The issue of dispute : the arbitrary, summary dismissal of 180 workers and employees of Citra Mina Group of Companies  last September 16, 2013, in the wake of the workers’ formation of their union. Majority of those dismissed are union members and officers.  The mass dismissal forced the workers to go on strike on November . 

To effect the mass termination of employment, the CMGC employed the old, long-exposed trick of so-called “independently-operating” sister companies, where one is made to appear losing while the other is making money.  

CMGC  claims, after the union was organized and duly registered with the Bureau of Labor Relations, that they have five independently-operating sister companies – the Citra Mina Seafoods Corporation (CMSC), the Mommy Gina Tuna Resources (MGTR), Philfresh, Tuna Exporters, Inc and the Citra Mina Seafoods Market, Inc. (CMSI), the retailing arm. And that they have decided to cease the operations of CMSC because it was losing due to “reduced market demand for fresh frozen fish”.  

The fact is that all the first four so-called independent companies are operating as one under the CGMC.  CMGC’s operation is divided into divisions, not companies – the CMGC Human Resource Department, the CMGC Administrative Department, the CMGC Accounting Department, the CMGC Plant Production Department,  etc. This singular operation is centered in a single compound in Tambler, General Santos City with a signage as Citra Mina Group of Companies, in just one building within the compound with no distinct production areas. The production hall is divided not along “distinct companies” but rather, along product line with no distinction in employers.  Regular lead persons listed as CMSC workers are likewise listed as MGTR lead persons. Meanwhile the bulk of the workforce is provided on contractual basis by another Lu-operated labor only-contracting company, the Manpower  

There is a common employee ID card issued by the CMGC CHRD in 2010, common CGMC-issued forms from each department to be filled-up by all employees without so-called employer distinction; common office policies and employee manual. Production groupings are formed without distinction as to distinct “employers”. The single CMGC CHRD can transfer production workers from one product line to another; can hire, suspend and dismiss any of the employees; can transfer workers from so-alled “CMSC” list to “MGTR” lists. Each CMGC fishing vessel is manned collectively by a crew without “employer” distinction – the boat captain maybe listed as MGTR employee, the boat engineer, a CMSC employee. 

The claim of “reduced market demand for fresh frozen fish products” does not hold water. Just a day after the arbitrary termination of employment of the union officers and members, the CMGC, through “Mommy Gina Tuna Resources” posted an announcement for urgent hiring for the same positions vacated.

The claim of “ CMSC losses” will likewise not hold.  CMGC was hiring new probationaries in 2013 prior to the arbitrary dismissal of workers, in fact listing 49 of these probationaries as new CMSC employees and workers.  

The termination of 180 employees and workers is plain and simple union busting.  There was no “cessation of fresh frozen fish operation” as claimed.  The urgent hiring for the same positions vacated attests to this. It clearly demonstrates that the Citra Mina management simply cannot, and will not, allow the workers to exercise their right to free association, i.e. to organize a union. The workers cannot be allowed to have a collective voice on matters of common concern.

A considerable number of those dismissed have been with the company for more than a decade, some for more than a score.  Yet they still receive only the daily minimum wage of P270  while being made to assume bigger responsibilities.  A boat captain, a boat engineer, a boat oiler receive the same wage as a vessel crew.  Worse they are made to poach in Indonesian waters, and face the risk of incarceration, as indeed a whole vessel crew were caught by Indonesian authorities in 1995 and imprisoned for two years.  

Suspensions are imposed arbitrarily even for minor infractions. Worse, even for the most unreasonable pretexts.  Last year, when a boat oiler refused to fish in Indonesian waters without the proper legal documents, he was arbitrarily suspended. A worker who got dizzy due to inhalation of hazardous gas while at work, sent home by his supervisor, and suffered the lingering effect of such inhalation for days was arbitrarily suspended when he reported back for work. 

And minor infractions are used to cut short the employees work record.  Thus an old boat captain who has been with the company since 1992 is recorded as hired only in 2005. In fact, the company’s employees record show the earliest hired employee as being with the company only since 2002.     

In 2010, the workers were made to work for extended hours (2-4 hours more) for months without extra pay, purportedly to help the company take off. Yet when the company did take off, the workers’ condition never improved.

It took years before the workers succeeded to form a union that can serve as their collective voice.  Yet that success in exercising that right became their own curse.  They lost their jobs; their families are now starved, penalized for the workers’ effort at building a capability to seek more humane terms and conditions of work.

The right to free association is an inherent workers’ right, a right borne out of their being members of the human specie, the most social of living species. And this right, and the accompanying rights to bargain collectively and to concerted action when justified have been enshrined for nearly a century in international statutes and for decades in local statutes.  Yet the family of Joaquin Lu, out of greed for profit, can shamelessly, arrogantly trample on these rights.

The condition in Citra Mina mirrors the condition of workers elsewhere in the country. Workers get short-changed; perpetually kept on contractual employment; paid with starvation wages; denied their rights. No wonder poverty is high even among employed wage-and-salaried workers. And why despite the gargantuan increase in the labor force, the number of unionized workers nearly halved in the past ten years.

This injustice to workers cannot be let to pass. We stand with the workers of Citra Mina in their struggle to assert their rights : to a fair share of the fruits of their labour; to associate and address common concerns in concert; for humane conditions of work and life. And we call on all those who value justice and democracy to join us in this struggle.

We call on other similarly situated workers : Dare to assert your rights. Break free from the chain of submission that have kept you passive while your rights are violated.  You will not be alone.

We call on the DOLE: Perform your constitutional duty to uphold the workers’ rights.  Let your action on this issue speak on the PNoy government’s attitude and policy on human rights.

 Kilusan sa Pambansang Demokrasya

18 February 2014