(Official statement of Regent Foods Corp.)
This is in response to the Facebook post of Mayor Vico Sotto last Saturday.
Regent Foods Corp. (RFC) respects the sentiments of our good Mayor, inasmuch as it also respects the rights of its workers to hold a peaceful strike. However, it must be remembered that these rights presuppose that the strike was first peaceful and that it was carried out within the bounds of the law.
Unfortunately, contrary to how Vico depicts the situation, the strike involved here was never legitimate and never peaceful, and up until it was dispersed, it was exercised in violation of RFC’s own rights, as well as the rights of other people.
For the record, RFC has been in business since 1988, and has continuously provided jobs to hundreds of workers. Pasig has been home to RFC for the last 30 years now. Throughout its existence, RFC has always been able to dialogue properly with its work force on every concern—labor or otherwise.
Unfortunately, for the information of the general public, a minority group at RFC was able to conduct a strike recently, although the same was done outside the confines of the law. It had no legitimacy from the beginning since there is an existing sole and exclusive bargaining agent within the company. On top of this, the strikers also committed criminal activities during the conduct of their unlawful strike.
RFC was immediately accused of initiating a lockout when the truth of the matter is that it was the minority union—UMRFC-KMU—who locked RFC and its employees out of the company, gravely affecting the lives of more than 400 innocent employees.
To address this situation early on, RFC had sought the help of several government offices, including that of Vico’s. In his post, Vico deliberately failed to disclose to the public that, before any of this had happened, RFC actually wrote his office to ask his assistance in amicably pacifying the situation. This request merely fell on deaf ears, which is precisely what constrained RFC to resort to private security assistance for the sole purpose of reopening the gates of the company and resuming its usual business operations.
Unfortunately, the strikers did
not only resist these security enforcers, they also blatantly attacked the
latter using sharp weapons and other tools. As a result, several of these
security agents were injured; one of them is, in fact, still in
critical condition.
Because their activities and unlawful attack upon private citizens were caught firsthand by Pasig police forces, these strikers were arrested and were properly investigated through inquest proceedings. The Office of the City Prosecutor of Pasig City eventually found probable cause to indict these arrested strikers in court for their crimes.
Despite all of this, Vico still portrays RFC as an evil corporation ready to “put poor and powerless people to jail.” Vico deliberately overlooks that RFC is not the complainant who pressed these criminal charges, RFC did not order their arrest, and RFC did not even participate in the preliminary investigation of these individuals.
Worse still, Vico has cast RFC as anti-labor. But, the truth is, RFC only meant to protect the rights of its non-striking employees who were prevented by the strikers from working and providing for their own families.
When RFC said that it trusts the judicial process, it did not only speak on its own behalf but, more so, on behalf of those non-strikers who were also affected during the illegal strike and on behalf of those individuals who were hurt by the illegal strikers.
RFC respected Vico’s former decision not to help out in resolving this matter in the past three weeks. RFC, however, had been left with no other choice but to watch affected non-strikers fear and worry for what the future holds for them. RFC vowed to ease their worries by assuring them that during the strike, they would be properly compensated—again, to the detriment of RFC whose business was completely stifled by the illegal strike.
Through a prior phone call and during the personal meeting between Vico and RFC representatives, the good mayor lectured RFC to be more humanitarian. Vico, however, refused to listen to RFC’s side and consciously turned a blind eye to the plight of the majority of RFC’s employees. He also failed to see the company’s humanitarian effort in providing its affected employees financial assistance during such a dark time in the company’s history.
For 24 days, RFC stood by and did nothing to the strikers, even when they barricaded its ingress and egress, and even when the banner of KMU was visibly displayed in RFC’s private property, which are clear violations of RFC’s rights. Not to mention, a clear violation of the rights of the lawful union existing in RFC, recognized therein as the employees’ sole and exclusive bargaining agent.
RFC believes there is nothing wrong in trusting the justice system. Otherwise, RFC would practically be encouraging civil disobedience, lawlessness and illegal use of force.
RFC still maintains its position and will not be cowered by the mayor’s threats. RFC trusts the justice system, not because it can afford to, but because it has to. RFC can only hope that Vico will also offer it the same courtesy, as is required by the basic rules of fairness.
As recent events would however reveal, the Mayor’s mind is already made up on an unjust quid pro quo. This, RFC cannot allow. Moving forward, RFC may simply accept its fate that the Pasig City administration will unjustly make life hard for it and its 400-strong work force, and contemplate by simply bringing its business elsewhere—a truly painful outcome for a corporation that has considered Pasig City its home for a total of three decades now.
(This column invites any response of the Office of Mayor Vico Sotto, Defend Job Philippines Workers, and our readers).