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          Shipping Stevedoring Port Services Hydrocarbons Diving  Sep-Oct 2008 
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Filipino seafarer strike spreads31 July 2003
Striking seafarers determined to defy return to work order until their demands are met, KMU union federation reports. On the second day of Filipino seafarers, members of UMSS- ANGLO-KMU, maintained that they will not lift the strike even if the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) issued a Return to Work Order . Union President Generoso Sasis said that they will not lift the strike unless management answers their demand to resolve issues raised by the protesting workers including union busting, lifting of suspension orders against union members, immediate reinstatement of terminated workers, payment of backwages and stopping of harassment against seafarers. "We will go on with our strike. As of today, all employees of Sulpicio's 9 passenger luxury liners, 5 container vessels, 2 express boats and 3 tugboats have joined the strike. Crew of 4 passenger vessels dry-docked at various ports also declared their participation in the protest," a spokesperson said. "We will not stop until our demands are answered by the management led by Sulpicio President and Chief Executive Officer Carlos Go." The seafarers union strongly criticized the National Conciliation and Mediation Board (NCMB) and DOLE Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas for taking side with the Sulpicio management. Sasis said that members of the media and the management legal panel were furnished first with a copy of a return to work order even before DOLE could serve the order to the striking workers. "We have not officially received a copy of the return to work order and there's no reason at all for us to lift the strike. The meeting facilitated by NCMB Arbiter Hernandez yesterday failed to give significant solutions to our grievances," Sasis said. Meanwhile, KMU Chairman Elmer Labog expressed full support to the workers' strike. He said that Sulpicio workers are rightful to hold such action to assert their demands for employment, job security and other democratic rights. "Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas once again proved her title as "Assumption of Jurisdiction Queen" with the latest order she issued against the striking seafarers. The return to work order she issued is actually a license to quell the strike and crush the picket line through violent means. The Philipine National Police and the Coast Guard might interfere soon to disperse the strike." Labog likewise denounced the Alliance of Labor Union-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP) for aiding the Sulpicio management in harassing the striking workers in Cebu Pier 1. ALU-TUCP organized a group of 100 heavily armed thugs and scabs to stop the workers' protest.
For further information
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