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Open letter to the Philippine National Police-CAR and the Department of Labor and Employment-CAR on the ongoing workers’ strike in LCMC

By Innabuyog-Gabriela and Gabriela Women’s Party

July 22, 2005

The workers’ strike in Lepanto Consolidated Mining Company (LCMC) has been going on for 50 days now. On the part of the workers and their families, these have been 50 grueling days of hunger, tension and sacrifice. This strike is not for the sake of the 1,600 workers alone, but also their 7,000 family members and dependents. This struggle is not just for the moment, but for the years to come, and for the future of the children.

It is not the intention of the strike to cripple the mining company or to bring it to its knees. The workers will not just give up 50 days of wages there were petty issues. What they are fighting for is a matter of grave importance, of life and death in the face of the ongoing crisis battering the country. For the workers and their families, the strike is a sacrifice in the hope of getting better wages and benefits and a better chance of surviving the prevailing economic crisis.

What bothers the workers is this. “With our present wages, how can we survive the rising cost of living, rising prices of oil, rising tuition fees, prices of food, fare rates? As it is now, our wages are barely enough to feed the family from day-to-day.” The company claims that the wages and benefits they give are relatively high – P610 per day. But with all the deductions, workers come up with only P 340 per day to spend for the needs of a family of six, way below the P573 cost of living per day.

Another question is, “Why are we paid so little when we are the ones who endure the difficult working conditions in the underground? The company is making an estimated P2.6 billion pesos each year. Top LCMC executives received almost P20 million pesos each in 2004, while workers receive only P340 per day. Can we not be given a fairer share of the wealth we produce?”

Igorots believe that we should only take what we need or what we work for. You can harvest only what you plant. The land is not there to enrich the few, but for the good of the whole. As we say, “Adi tako bokodan ti gawis.” The workers are not greedy. They only want what they deserve. Let us give what is due to the workers.

Igorots also believe in standing by our kakailian or fellow-Igorots. “All for one, and one for all.” Which is why the workers will never agree that the union officers or even one union member will be terminated or sacrificed when all he was doing was working for the good of the whole. Nor will the workers allow their co-workers to be arrested without just cause. This is why they will never agree to be charged with something that is just. They are merely fighting for what they believe is right.

To the PNP and DOLE in the Cordillera, officials and rank-and-file, as kakailian, kakabagyan, we appeal to your sense of justice and fair play. Let us not use the might and power of the gun and the state to bully and harass the workers into submission. Let us not be instruments of the company that merely wants to squeeze out the last grain of gold from our lands and the last drop of sweat from our workers just to make billions of pesos in profits.

Rather, let us be proud of the workers’ perseverance in the face of difficult sacrifices. Let us stand by and support our kakailian in their desire for just compensation and benefits. After all, what they are asking for is just a small portion of what they really deserve. #

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