Скачать или смотреть PHILIPPINES: TRANSPORT STRIKE IN MANILLA

(27 Jul 2000) Tagalog/Nat
XFA
Public transport employees in the Philippines have staged their third day of industrial action affecting hundreds of thousands of commuters.

Union workers of the Light Rail Transit (L-R-T) in capital Manila called the strike following a deadlock in collective bargaining.

Police managed to break up union picket lines on Thursday.

But labour officials have yet to restore services, despite meeting with management and union representatives.

Wednesday's strike at one of the train's main stations in Manila proved to be a testing ground for the L-R-T workers' resolve.

Defying an order by the Labour Department to return to work, workers disabled the power system that runs the trains, barricaded some of the tracks with piles of concrete slabs and wood and padlocked some stations.

The government's Light Rail Transit Authority, which owns the line, said the strike was illegal because the union did not wait for a mandatory 30-day cooling-off period.

Riot police using metal shields and truncheons were brought to the scene as part of the train management's efforts to break the barricade and restore normal operations.

Striking workers stood their guard and refused to be intimidated by the police.

The police tried to drag the workers away, but the strikers were determined to maintain their barricade, fighting back as police tried to push them away.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"Our strike is against the privatization of L-R-T. Our future is at stake. And secondly we are asking for wage increase based on C-B-A (Collective Bargaining Agreement)."
SUPER CAPTION: Martin Palanca, L-R-T union worker

Though no serious injuries were reported, Union president Sammy Malunes claimed scores of workers were hurt and at least eight were hospitalised after clashes between police and workers at two train stations late on Wednesday and early on Thursday.

He added that five workers were arrested.

The trains carry about 400-thousand passengers daily.

About half that number were affected when about 1-thousand workers of the private Metro Transit Organization Inc., which operates the system under a contract with the government, walked out on Tuesday.

The workers, affiliated with the May One Movement, the country's largest left-wing labor federation, were supported by student activists.

The strike was called following a deadlock in collective bargaining.

The union is asking for a wage hike and other benefits totalling 1.6 billion pesos (35 (m) million U-S dollars) just for the first year of the proposed three-year collective bargaining agreement.

The company say they have offered 35 (m) million pesos (786-thousand-500 U-S dollars) for the first year.

The union president say they are opposed to a plan by the government to privatise the line, fearing that many workers would be laid off.

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