zoniggiling aggressive, Marxist guerrillas of the RPA-ABB intervened. They burned two cargo trucks and a motorcycle, warning ATC not to use force against its employers. RA-ABB regional spokesman Jose Montero said the managers of the ATC now acted "as if they owned the corporation."
ATC used this attack as a pretext to suspend negotiations, and shut down production at the mill.
On 23 March, 97 of the company's 250 workers picketed the plant. They said the closure represented "unfair dismissal," and condemned the management for refusing to dialogue with them. Although managers had threatened a six month closure, they reopened after four weeks.
But the "professionalisation" of ATC continues. Farmers organisations are now invited to deliver their bananas, and ATC drivers are told that there is no work available. Some have accepted individual redundancy agreements worth about
Fair trade, foul play The "privatisation" of an alternative trade company has forced workers to unionise. Mark Johnson The economy of Negros island took a nose dive in the 1980s, when sugar prices collapsed. The Alter Trade Corporation encouraged farmers to diversify into banana and handicraft production, as well as opening a niche market for organic, unrefined moscovado sugar.
By the early 1990s, ATC was the marketing arm for the export of 120 tonnes of bananas to Japan every month, as well as 2.5 tonnes of organic moscovado sugar to Japan, Germany and Switzerland.
The ATC was established by a range of people's initiatives, linked to the Communist Party of the Philippines CPP). Guerrilla support and protection of the project was essential to its success.
Although ATC functioned as a cooperative, its legal structure required that six members be registered as the egal owners. When the CPP began to fragment in 1992, those shareholders decided to transform their formal ownership into a reality.
Under a smokescreen of "professionalisation," the six manager-shareholders began to transform the ATC. In 1994 the company stopped hired and training members of the rural poor organisations. Management preferred to recruit collegeeducated outsiders, with no link to the social movements, and a personal loyalty to the new "owners." Existing workers were forced to sit "professionalisation" exams, and threatened with redundancy if they failed. Their skills in community liaison were not thought relevant.
According to local union leaders, "we aren't against modernisation. But this particular model of professionalisation is very problematic. Before, when a worker visited one of the administration offices. he was greeted and made welcome. Now, it's arrogant, its 'what do you want?'' Admin. workers protest that "now we look really smart in our 'professional' office clothes. But visitors don't realise that we've gone into debt to buy these clothes, and that we don't have enough food for our children."
In an attempt to reduce staff and dismiss more radical workers, management became obsessed with identifying and punishing even the smallest errors.
These exacting standards did not apply to the managers themselves. According to one former clerical worker, the company has two sets of accounts, and an unknown number of bank accounts. Tax officials have been bribed not to investigate the company.
The managers' nouveau riche lifestyle contrasts with that of their former co-workers, who earn 5,000 pesos per month (US$130), except for the four months a year when there is no work, and no salary.
Frustrated with these developments, workers formed a trade union, and demanded a collective bargaining agreement.
ATC president Danilo Guinabo refused, claiming that the workers demands would force the plant to close, threatening the livelihood of 20,000 sugar cane workers.
As managers became increasingly
P6,000. Others have asked the courts to overrule this "undeclared policy of retrenchment".
The "no work, no pay" system for Negros' sugar workers means that drivers and haulers are unemployed for four months every year, when there is no sugar to transport. Unions say a company like ATC should pioneer new working relations, by finding alternative work for its staff during this dry period. The company should also provide education and housing loans, to enable employees to better their situation. "But AT's managers won't even consider an advance on next week's wages-so some workers can't come to work because they simply don't have the bus fare."
The company has also abandoned its "alternative" relationship with producers. ATC used to purchase sugar cane at the market price (P900/tonne) but provide farmers with a range of development services. The company now offers P600/tonne. Farmers have little choice but to accept. They now depend on ATC for their fertiliser and other inputs, and for pre-harvest credit. Because they control so much of the production and marketing process, it is easy for ATC to extract a disguised profit by manipulating the prices of the various inputs and services it provides.
Rather than eliminating the middleman and giving producers full market information, AT's activities make it impossible for growers to compare the price and risk of different options. Rural organisers have been bluntly told "keep sending the sugar at P600/tonne, or we'll close down the mill."
To make matters worse, ATC is the major local buyer for organic sugar. Organic production means lower input costs, but also lower yields per hectare. Most small organic farmers quite simply have no alternative to ATC.
The new trade unions at ATC say the
International Viewpoint #313 July 1999 25
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MANGAGANA LARAN MANUACAMA NO MASANS (СИС
* Philippines only solution is for a workers' representative to participate in all board meetings. "Let them open the books! If it is true that we are really losing money, then let the workers discuss how to improve production. After all, we play the major role."
Management has branded workers' representatives as allies of the "terrorist" guerrillas, and says all criticism is an attempt to "take over" the ATC.
But former admin. worker Lucille Perartilla is not surprised that most workers refused to condemn the rebel attacks, "For one thing, the workers were not involved. Second, the rebel attack reflected a real problem-who should ATC serve, the managers, or the community.
"And thirdly, by demanding that workers choose between management and the rebels, the managers were trying to legitimate their own theft of the company. And putting the workers in the middle.
"Whatever their dispute with the guerrillas, the management had no right to close the alter-trade network. The livelihoods of hundreds of people are at
Rebel connection
According to the Visayas Daily Star newspaper, ATC formerly paid the communist-led NPA guerrillas a monthly
"tax" of P500,000 (US$13,000). Former leaders of the NPA explained that this am represented about 30% of the profits of the organisation, as a legitimate taxation and payment for support and defence services by both the guerrilla and party units. The rest was plowed back directly into the popular organisations and local communities.
Rebel leaders say AT's assets and bank deposits are worth at least P100m. (US$2.7m).
Not surprisingly, they are outraged that a handful of former comrades used the crisis in the party to appropriate the movement's major "treasure chest" Guevarra, "self-serving interest and business interest that ride on people's empty stomachs should not be tolerated. Those who truly desire genuine people's empowerment should be vigilant against those who discover possibilities for personal enrichment within the peoples movements."
But rebel leaders recognise thei partial responsibility for the unhappy degeneration of the ATC. A region leader of the Revolutionary Work Party in neighbouring Panay (w supplied bananas to ATC) says project was always surrounded stake." Labour Unity Forum Building the movement The second largest Philippine city, Cebu has avoided the worst excesses of sectarianism within the progressive and labour movement. The town's Labour Unity Front has regrouped many of the splinters of the Communist movement, as well as trade union leaders from the region's main sectors.
Mark Johnson The success of the Labor Unity Front (LUF) is partly due to a lack of competition from more sectarian labour projects. The Communist Partylinked KMU union federation is "marching towards oblivion" in Cebu. Its unreconstructed Maoism was unable to attract more than a few hundred workers to its May Day contingent.
Groups which have copied the
CP's sectarian and manipulative style have failed to take root in Cebu.
The Cebu Labor Education Advocacy and Research Centre (CLEAR) recently disaffiliated from the Alliance for Progressive Labor, which
"wanted to fill the role of the KMU, and especially to control all overseas funding contacts," according to
CLEAR director Pepe Gasapo. "They wanted us to convene a forum of 26 International Viewpoint #313 July 1999 independent unions, but their main ambition was to recruit the union leaders to Bisig la non-aligned socialist group] and establish hegemony over the labour movement. "
For CLEAR, leadership in the labour movement can only come through "years of union-building and leading disputes. Leadership is won every day. It isn't a matter of "capturing" the leadership and manipulating the members."