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The militant Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) lambasted the management of Batangas Sugar Central Inc.for playing with the lives of the workers in the company by closing and opening the plantation in a matter of days. According to Danilo “Ka Daning” Ramos, secretary general of the group, “this is tantamount to economic sabotage, Federico Serrano and his ilk are toying with a key sector of our economy and may be held accountable if the price of sugar rises in the market,” “The management’s primary motive for this dastardly act is to break the union of workers under the Bisig ng Batangas Labor Union. Serrano has not complied in any of the agreements that have been signed by the management and the workers and now he has the gall to close the company,” added the peasant leader The Batangas Sugar central covers 14,000 hectares of agricultural land that spans 12 towns in Batangas. It employs more than 800 workers and its average yield of sugar is 400,000 metric tons of sugar per cropping season. It was closed last October 2003,then reopened September 1, 2004,then closed again September 20, 2004, then opened again September 24, 2004. “What the BSCI management is doing is inimical to the national interest, our sugar supply as well as its price are being toyed with. It is niggardly in dealing with its workers and yet it rakes in profits in the hundreds of millions, it is as if the management is a miser,” said Carl Anthony Ala, public information officer of KMP. “The national government should intercede
and let the workers return to their work as well as compel the BSCI management
to comply with the collective bargaining agreements as well as the contracts
it signed with the workers. A calamity fund should also be given to the
workers to tide them over due to the wrong doing of Serrano” ended Ala.
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KMP - 27 September 2004 |
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