Workers resist layoffs in Hacienda Luisita
Farm workers greeted the unjust mass layoffs in Hacienda Luisita, Inc. (HLI) with a series of protest actions. According to the Alyansa ng mga Manggagawang Bukid sa Hacienda Luisita (AMBALA) and the local union, 327 farm workers were laid off from their jobs on August 26. HLI justified the layoffs, claiming that the company lost money in 2002 and 2003.
Nine union leaders had earlier been terminated from their jobs. The layoff of the union leaders was done a month before the scheduled CBA negotiations in order to weaken the union at the negotiating table.
The police and military unleashed violence during the series of mass actions staged by the farm workers to protest the layoffs. Police tear gassed the rallyists on August 27. Meanwhile, the Central Azucarera de Tarlac, another Cojuangco-owned company filed charges of disturbance of public order, alarm and scandal, malicious mischief and trespass to property against 22 union members when protest actions were launched within company premises on August 30. The filing of a trespassing case against the farm workers is hilarious in view of the fact that they were supposedly stockholders of HLI according to the devious Stock Distribution Option scheme (SDO), and therefore co-owners of the company.
The farm workers are doubly harassed with the deployment within the hacienda of the Yellow Army, which consists of HLI guards who serve as the Cojuangcos' private army. They harass and threaten farm workers and their families, and violate their human rights. Aside from the Yellow Army, four of the hacienda's ten barangays have police, military and CAFGU detachments, which are also involved in violating the human rights of farm workers in the hacienda.
Up to 1,009 farm workers have already been fired from their jobs in Hacienda Luisita since 1989. Aside from mass layoffs, farm workers in the 6,453-hectare Hacienda Luisita also suffer from extremely low wages, union-busting and militarization. In a privilege speech on September 6, Rep. Rafael Mariano of the Anakpawis party-list group said that the farm workers received slave-wages of only P9 per day�a far cry from the already dismal P280 minimum daily wage in Central Luzon.
The Cojuangcos' use of the SDO intensifies the suffering of Hacienda Luisita's farm workers. The SDO provides for the distribution of stocks instead of land to farm workers. Under this scheme, the farm workers are stockholders of a mere 33% of HLI. Big landlords like the Cojuangcos continue to control the farmlands.
The Cojuangco family also enforces the "no work, no stocks, no dividends" policy. And the farm workers are allowed to work only 80 days a year.
Representatives of the progressive parties Anakpawis and Gabriela are now pushing for a congressional inquiry into the SDO scheme in Hacienda Luisita.
On September 15 and 16, thousands of farm workers marched from Hacienda Luisita and staged an overnight vigil at the Ninoy Aquino Plazuela. They headed for the Tarlac city hall and the provincial capitol the following day. The Tarlac provincial board has issued a resolution supporting the investigation being pushed by progressive parties in Congress. The board also called for a dialogue between the farm workers and the hacienda management, but HLI and DAR representatives failed to arrive even though the DAR office was very close to the capitol.
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