(Editor’s note: If labor unions in government are legalized, they can play a noble role in preventing graft as noted by the author.)
IT’S like a collective bargaining agreement signed between a pre-martial law government corporation labor union and the management.
For days, the union at the Department of Education headed by its president Domingo Alidon threatened to give a stormy welcome for the new incoming secretary, Jesli Lapus.
Peace pipe and terms
Last Friday, Lapus and Alidon smoked the proverbial peace pipe after the five terms of "endearment" were accepted by Lapus. Among the terms now in "full force and effect" at DepEd are (1) transparency on program implementation (2) continuation of programs of secretaries before Lapus (3) concede the needs and rights of employees (4) that Lapus will not run in the 2007 elections, and (5) spare DepEd from "evil" politics.
Guarantee of compliance
The only guarantee that the contract will continue to be valid is the acceptance of terms by Lapus and the union’s threat to hold daily rallies.
We admire the union leadership at DepEd and the employees’ boldness to hold a department secretary to a binding contract.
The more commendable term is: The union will withdraw its support if Lapus "shows insincerity."
Averting a huge loss
If the likes of Alidon’s union and the general membership were in place at the Department of Agriculture in 2003 there would be no need for the Senate to investigate the R728 M fertilizer fund.
And the Rotarians would not find themselves holding tightly to their fourway test. And the Filipino man now detained by the US Immigration and Naturalization Service would feel free to whistle a good song — "Whispering Hope."
Collective bargaining
I once wrote a paper on collective bargaining in government corporations and how unions prevented corruption from rearing its ugly head.
Between Dec. 30, 1953 and March, 1957, President Magsaysay appointed labor leaders to sit in various boards of government corporations. Labor unions freely bargained for terms and conditions of employment, especially wages and working conditions.
Quick action against graft
Magsaysay instructed Secretary of Labor Terry Adevoso to meet with union leaders at least once a month. Adevoso took note of the union leaders’ report on management corruption, especially dishonest acts committed by individual members of the board of directors.
The board members and management knew the president’s first preference: Reports of any misdeeds coming from the rank and file coursed through their unions. There’s no way to keep a secret or official papers from employees who typed them in board rooms.
Unions abolished
Then martial law abolished unionism in all government corporations, especially in financial institutions which the various labor unions guarded like an Eagle Scout.
In a few months coffee shop regulars and guests started to coin a new channel of public funds — behest loans. The loans covered all commercial purposes, such as 50 percent was spent for a project and 50 percent lined the pockets of borrowers and expediters.
No jail for grafters
Without a militant labor union nosing around for loans hastily given by the hundreds of millions, the governing boards found themselves totally immune from public accountability. None of them ever went to jail for the foulest crime committed against the taxpayers.
If labor unions in government firms had been active in the late 1970s and early 1980s losses by the billions would have been prevented.
The government simply neglected to play the role of protecting the taxpayers. (Comments are welcome at rvp@fastmail.ph.inter.net)
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