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Article

29 May 2017

Author:
Mart D. Sambalud, Davao Today

Philippines: Labour groups allege that govt. soldiers threatened and harassed workers on strike, amidst martial law in Mindanao

"Martial Law in Mindanao: AFP’s intrusion, threats vs. Comval banana workers slammed", 29 May 2017

Labor group Kilusang Mayo Uno slammed...the Armed Forces of the Philippines for hurling threats, intimidation and intruding the camp of protesting banana workers in Compostela Valley province amid the Martial Law in Mindanao.

KMU reported that government soldiers belonging to the Army’s 66th Infantry Battalion “forcibly occupied and camped” inside the Shin Sun packing plant..., two days after the imposition of Martial Law. The soldiers had also “barged in the picket line” of striking Shin Sun workers just outside the banana plantation.

The labor group also said that soldiers coming from the same army unit “threatened to kill” the protesting farmers if the 2-month strike against the Korean-owned banana company would not be lifted.

More than 80 banana workers mounted strike against Shin Sun Tropical Corp. because of the company’s continued practice of labor contractualization and union busting... 

“We strongly condemn these atrocities against workers. Instead of fighting terrorism, Duterte’s Martial Law is being used to sow state terror to suppress Filipino workers’ and people’s legitimate and just demands,” KMU Secretary General Jerome Adonis said... 

...Danilo Ramos, secretary general of the Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA), claimed that labor organizers and affiliated members of Shin Sun Workers Union-NAFLU-KMU received death threats... on May 23.

Adonis said the attack against Shin Sun workers “could serve as a prelude to further suppress other workers’ strikes in Mindanao and sends a chilling effect on workers asserting their legitimate demands against contractualization and for a significant wage hike.”