But the banana plantation workers started agitating for their legally mandated rights in 2004. Nagkahiusang Mamumuo ng Suyapa Farms (United Workers of Suyapa Farms NAMASUFA), led by Vicente Barrios, is one of the first successful unions to have done so. Their success inspired workers from other packing plants in organizing their unions and working for humane working conditions. However, the spread of militancy in the banana export industry has spawned militarization and armed intimidation of the workers’ communities.

Tony Pascual, secretary general of the National Federation of Labor Unions-Kilusang Mayo Uno (NAFLU-KMU or May 1st Movement), said banana plantation workers are organized into unions according to their farms or packing plant number in order to collectively press for their minimum wages and other already legally mandated workers’ rights. But the military and other hooded armed men would frequently order the workers to stop doing so at gunpoint. In fact, like a chronicle of a death foretold, the armed attack on Vicente Barrios’ convoy in December 17 had been forewarned in various infringements by these armed groups since 2004, said Tony Pascual.

Unarmed unionists treated as enemies of the state

“We urge all well-meaning citizens to help press the Arroyo government to stop treating militant unionists as enemies of the state,” said Tony Pascual. “Instead of treating the workers as criminals whenever they act collectively, within the bounds of law, to work for humane working conditions, we hope the government will respect the workers’ human and trade union rights,” he added.

Pascual said what is happening in Southern Mindanao, where NAFLU-KMU has a regional chapter, utterly demonstrates the Arroyo government’s “diabolical” treatment of workers. Since two years ago when banana plantation and packing workers began forming unions and agitating for legally mandated minimum wage rates, soldiers from the 28th Infantry Battalion have also started harassing them in their barangays (villages), shared Pascual.

Men with high-powered firearms and hiding their faces in ski masks frequently barged into their homes. Union leaders were tailed and harassed by armed men. Vicente Barrios and fellow officers, for instance, have repeatedly been questioned by the military and other armed men. He’d been hit with a slingshot at least once. And recently, while other banana plantation workers in Compostela Valley were on strike, the military jailed and tightly guarded in a gym some 70 of the striking workers. The military reportedly told the jailed workers, “Don’t join the union or KMU and we will not jail you!”

Pascual said, “If this is the Arroyo government’s response to workers’ legally recognized demands for fair wages and decent working conditions, then it’s the Arroyo government itself who’s urging the workers to join the New People’s Army, not the KMU.” (Bulatlat.com)

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