Lepanto Mining (Phillipines)THE three-month strike at the Lepanto Mining Company ended with the signing of a memorandum of agreement (MOA) between leaders of the Lepanto Employees Union (LEU) and the management over the weekend.
Part of the agreement would be for the 19 dismissed LEU officers to accept their termination from service for leading the strike and for both parties to drop charges and counter-charges filed against each other.
A report from the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) based in the Cordillera region said the MOA materialized following the last bout of negotiation between the two parties last September 3 and 4 held in Lepanto's main office in Makati City.
The MOA stated that LEU and the management recognized the need to establish and foster industrial peace and unhampered operations to promote productivity.
It was also agreed that all other dismissed LEU members who have been fired by reason of or in relation to the strike will be reinstated to work under the same terms and conditions prior to the strike and all other LEU members will, upon signing of the agreement, immediately report to work under the same terms and conditions prior to the strike.
The LEU will not take any action that would violate the industrial peace and the management will not take any retaliatory actions against the union members who will be reinstated to work. The two parties will also take steps to promote industrial harmony and productivity.
Likewise, the present officers will continue to discharge their functions until their successors will have taken their oath; and that both parties will agree to conclude the 23rd bargaining agreement, which started in November 2004 and ended in a deadlock in May 2005.
LEU president Ninian Lang-agan, who is one of the dismissed employees, said the officers went through a very difficult, tough and emotional process in coming up with a last option to consider "in order to save the whole membership of the union."
"I would like to assure the whole membership of LEU and our families that we have not sold the union. The termination of the union officers does not mean defeat. This is a new phase of renewed commitment to face the challenges ahead. We have been together in this struggle for more than three months; we have built stronger unity among us. But we have to come up with this heartrending decision of sacrificing the union officers' employment for the sake of the majority." Lang-agan said.
Meanwhile, KMU commends the 19 officers of the LEU for "sacrificing themselves for the interest of the majority."
"They (19 LEU officers) did this for the sole intention of saving the union and uplifting the economic and working conditions of the mineworkers and their families," the group said.
The company and the union filed criminal charges and counter-charges against each other due to alleged coercion, direct assault on the part of the company and alleged human rights violations against the company and the police on the part of the union.
The union filed a notice of strike before the Office of the National Mediation and Conciliation Board in Cordillera last April 5 on the basis of a deadlock in their collective bargaining agreement (CBA) after a series of negotiations that went futile following the company's refusal to approve some provisions of the CBA.
On April 20, the union staged a strike vote referendum where 95 percent of the membership agreed to strike. A series of conciliation meetings were conducted in an attempt to resolve the dispute but both parties failed to reach any agreement. The strike started June 2.
https://www.sunstar.com.ph/static/bag/2005/09/12/news/3.month.mining.firm.strike.ends.html