News:
Series of transport strikes breaks out

Basahin ang artikulong ito sa Pilipino

Strikes rocked various lines of transportation following the successful nationwide transport stoppage on March 1-2.

The workers of Sulpicio Lines, Metro Rail Transit guards as well as buses, jeeps, tricycles, pedicabs and calesas (horse-drawn carriages) plying routes in the entire Caraga region held strikes in March.

Sulpicio Lines. A five-day strike paralyzed the operation of Sulpicio Lines, Inc. (SLI), the country�s second largest shipping line. Twenty-two out of Sulpicio�s 27 vessels did not set sail from March 9 to 14.

The strike was launched by members of the Unyon ng mga Mandaragat sa Sulpicio Solid (UMSS)-Alliance of Nationalist Genuine Labor Organizations (ANGLO)-KMU. It was the workers� second strike in eight months.

Sulpicio�s workers demanded recognition of their union, an increase in their overtime pay and food allowance and an end to other unjust labor policies. The Sulpicio management refused to negotiate with the strikers, invoking a supposed CBA with a yellow union which the workers had long repudiated.

The strike, which was launched in the ports of Manila, Iloilo, Cebu, Ormoc, Davao and Cotabato pushed through despite the return to work order issued by the Department of Labor and Employment and the violence inflicted by paid goons and police. Aside from KMU, BAYAN, Anakpawis, Bayan Muna and Anak ng Bayan supported the strike.

MRT. Three-hundred employees of the Vanguards Security Agency assigned to the Metro Rail Transit 3 staged a sitdown strike on March 11-12.

Earlier, they picketed to demand that the agency release a month and ten days� worth of unpaid salaries.

Caraga Region. Up to 98% of all vehicles in the Caraga Region stopped plying their routes on March 15 and 16 under the leadership of the Transport Federation of Caraga and the Butuan Auto Calesa Operators and Drivers Association.

They demanded a P1.50 increase in fares, a P1 rollback in oil prices and the repeal of the oil deregulation law. The strike affected all routes to the cities of Davao, Cagayan de Oro, Butuan and Surigao, the towns of Bayugan and San Francisco in Agusan del Sur and Tandag, Surigao del Sur.

21 March 2004
English Edition

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