Luisita-Streik erfolgreich beendet

Am ersten Jahrestag der Morde an sieben Streikposten, am 8. Dezember 2005 werden die beiden Gewerkschaften ULWU und CATLU mit der Direktion der Hacienda Luisita ihre jeweiligen neuen Tarifverträge unterzeichnen. Dies wurde während den Verhandlungen in der Nacht zum 6. Dezember beschlossen. Neben den geforderten Lohnerhöhungen rückwirkend ab 1. Juli 2004 und dem ebenfalls geforderten Jahresbonus auch für Kontraktarbeiter werden auch alle insgesamt 123 entlassenen Gewerkschaftsaktivisten und Beschäftigte wieder eingestellt. Des weiteren wird ULWU künftig 19 hauptamtliche, von der Firmenleitung bezahlte Gewerkschaftsfunktionäre haben. Die Farmarbeiter bleiben, wie gefordert, Anteilseigner mit Pachtrechten. Die Verbesserung der Lebensbedingungen für Festangestellte wie Kontraktarbeiter, für Schnitter wie Mühlenbeschäftigte ist weitgehend erreicht worden, die Versuche, Gewerkschaften zu zerschlagen sind gescheitert. Ein Kampf, der insgesamt 13 Menschenleben kostete. Die Gewerkschaften weisen in ihrem Abschlusskommuniqué auf die Verantwortung der Eignerfamilie - die der Präsidentin - ebenso hin, wie insbesondere auf die des kommanidierenden Generals des Armeebezirks und betonen, dies sei nur ein erfolgreicher Schritt gewesen, dem weitere folgen müssten, unter anderem der Landübergabe an die arbeitenden Pächter. Die (englische, hiermit kurz zusammengefasste) Pressemitteilung der ULWU "Hacienda Luisita Strike Victoriously Ends" vom 6. Dezember 2005

Hacienda Luisita Strike Victoriously Ends

JOINT PRESS STATEMENT, December 6, 2005

Rene Galang, President United Luisita Workers' Union

Rene Tua, Spokesperson

On Thursday, December 8, 2005, the United Luisita Workers' Union [ULWU] and the Central Azucarera De Tarlac Labor Union [CATLU] will sign their respective agreements with management and the strike in Hacienda Luisita will finally be over.

The agreement to end the strike was forged between company representative Ernesto Teopaco and the officers of both unions at about 10 pm last night in the final leg of marathon negotiations held at the United Church of Christ in the Philiippines in Quezon City.

Our unions consider the strike a historic victory for the people of Hacienda Luisita. The workers and the people of the hacienda have proven that they can withstand the combined might of one of the most powerful clans in the country and the military- and bureaucratic apparatus of the Arroyo government and be able to decisively end the strike with all their major demands in the bag.

We consider the strike a victory because the agreement contains the following major demands:

1. All the thirty four [34] dismissed union officers of CATLU and fifty [52] of the remaining retrenched union officers and members of ULWU will go back to work. The thirty seven [37] retrenched seasonal workers belonging to ULWU will go back to work as seasonal workers.

The fifteen [15] retrenched permanent workers of ULWU will receive full separation benefits and will be rehired as seasonal workers. [There were originally 35 CATLU officers who were dismissed, including CATLU president Ricardo Ramos who was murdered last October 25.] The unions will remain as the bargaining agent of the workers. A new collective bargaining agreement [CBA] for CATLU will also be signed on Thursday and the new CBA for ULWU will be forthcoming as plantation operations normalize. Nineteen [19] ULWU officers will receive regular pay while doing full-time union work. Management failed to bust the unions.

2. A financial package worth about P21 million will be given to more than 700 CATLU members. This includes a daily wage increase of P15 retroactive from July 1, 2004 to the end of the strike, a one-time signing bonus of P13,000 as well as this year's christmas bonus and other benefits. ULWU will receive about P8.2 million in unpaid wages and benefits for more than 5,000 master list, seasonal and permanent workers.

3. ULWU is given the right to harvest and get the proceeds from the standing sugar cane crop worth about P30 million. In addition, ULWU chapters in all the ten [10] barangays comprising the hacienda will receive P200,000 each as financial assistance for crop production.

4. The plantation workers will retain all their rights as stockholders of the corporation.

As agreed upon, there will be a simultaneous payment of the workers' money claims and signing of the respective memorandum of agreement for both unions on December 8. The occasion will be held at the picket line in Gate 1. The picket line will be lifted after the payment and MOA signing has been concluded.

In this occasion, we pray tribute to the thirteen [13] martyrs of Hacienda Luisita whose supreme sacrifice made possible the victory of the people of the hacienda. They are the seven victims of the Nov. 16 massacre: Jhavie Basilio, Jun David, Juancho Sanchez, Jesus Laza, Jimmy Pastidio, Adriano Caballero and Jessie Valdez. Peasant leader Marcelino "Ka Marcing" Beltran, shot and killed in his home in Sta. Ignacia on Dec. 8, 2004; Tarlac City Councilor Abelardo Ladera, assassinated in Tarlac City on March 3 this year, Father William Tadena, killed in an ambush near his church on March 13 in La Paz, Tarlac, regional peasant leader Ben Concepcion, shot to death in Angeles City, Pampanga on March 17; Bayan Muna leader Florante Collantes, shot and killed in his home in Camiling, Tarlac on Oct. 15, the latest victim CATLU president Ricardo Ramos who was shot and killed near his home in last October 25.

All were either directly involved or actively supported the striking workers.

The triumph was, first and foremost, due to the courage of the workers and their families who were able to maintain the picket lines for more than a year in the face of the most brutal attacks by the military, police and the hired goons of the Cojuangco-Aquino family.

The consistent moral and logistical support of organizations and individuals from the local, regional, national levels and even from the international community also helped tremendously in building a wide network of support for the striking workers. The support succeeded in propagating the legitimacy of the workers' struggle.

We hold the Cojuangco-Aquino family, the Arroyo government and NOLCOM, particularly Gen. Jovito Palparan of the 7th ID, responsible for the recent and future attacks on the people of the hacienda. We condemn the emergence of STATE FASCIM in its crudest, most barbaric form not only in Hacienda Luisita but in the rest of the country.

State fascism is spawned by the semi-feudal and semi-colonial social system wherein the guns of the ruling classes are pitted against the defiant voices of the millions of poor and oppressed Filipinos.

We condemn th e Office of the Ombudsman for dismissing the case filed against the perpetrators of the November 16 massacre.

The end of the strike is but one chapter in the struggle of the hacienda people. The strike has paved the way for the revocation of the stock distribution option [SDO] in the hacienda. We will continue to cultivate the land and work for its eventual transfer of ownership to the hacienda people.

We vow to pursue our struggle for land, jobs and decent wages.. We are confident that in the future, those who have committed crimes against the people will be meted justice they deserve.