The Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR) expresses its solidarity with the Ateneo Employee and Workers Union (AEWU) in opposing the Ateneo de Manila University administration’s retaliatory attacks and in seeking to exercise the right to strike. We condemn the Labor Secretary for assuming jurisdiction over the labor dispute in the university last December 1, which takes the administration’s side to the detriment of workers’ rights.

The bone of contention in the labor dispute is the university administration’s Work Rotation Program (WRP), which was formally implemented in early September. Despite the university administration’s positive claims about the WRP and its claims about holding consultations with the AEWU, it is clear that the union is not fully resolved with, if not opposed to, the WRP.

The Ateneo university administration should have recognized the union’s opposition, which the union registered by saying that it will comply with the WRP “under protest” and that it accepts the program “with reservation” and by its subsequent actions. The university administration should have stopped the WRP’s implementation and engaged in new dialogues and discussions with the AEWU in earnest rather than retaliate against its employees.

Instead of reopening consultations and dialogues, the Ateneo university administration ruthlessly filed various cases against employees and union officials, conducted investigations and handed down suspensions. It justifies its actions as “lawful, transparent, and grounded in due process” and thus engages in double-speak in claiming that it “remains open to dialogue and cooperation with the AEWU in the spirit of shared accountability, mutual respect, and service to the community and industrial peace.”

The university administration should also sufficiently address the AEWU claims that it relied heavily on CCTV footage, not substantial evidence, in handing down suspensions; that it gave different lengths of suspension despite similarities in alleged infractions, suggesting arbitrariness and even ill motives; and that union officers had to provide advice to the union rank-and-file in relation to the WRP’s implementation and did not disrupt operations.

The Labor Secretary’s assumption of jurisdiction over labor disputes is a long-standing and notorious instrument for violating workers’ rights. It orders workers to go back to work lest they are retrenched from work, the police or the military or both are brought to the workplace, or they face criminal charges. The International Labour Organization’s Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations has observed that said power is overly broad and goes against workers’ rights to freedom of association, collectively bargain and strike.

Universities should be places where the best principles developed by humanity, including Christian compassion and workers’ rights, are upheld. University administrations should live up to these principles rather than being experts in anti-worker management in the guise of enforcing rules. University employees’ working conditions are professors’ working conditions and students’ learning conditions. The Ateneo university administration should see to it that its employees’ welfare and rights are upheld even as it seeks to build employees’ capacity.