This case study focuses on the 1999 Cebu port conflict involving shipping companies, port workers, and unions. It covers five shipping companies and six Cargo Handling Service Providers located in the Cebu International Port and Piers 1, 2, and 3. It describes the labor relations existing between the ships’ management and their workers’ unions.

The paper paints a general picture of the shipping industry in Cebu by probing the predicament of unions within each shipping company. One of the problems that workers face is the management’s deliberate effort to quell legitimate unions by establishing or recognizing unions that it can easily control. In the case of Cargo Handling Operators (CHO) on the other hand, most of their organized unions are not even recognized by management, especially those that are composed of workers recruited informally by a cabo (foreman).

The research stresses that current labor laws, which are framed with the assumption of a factory/office-based employer-employee setting are not applicable at the port setting. The development of appropriate policies covering port workers is, therefore, recommended. The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE-7) and its Labor Standards Division should swiftly act upon labor standards violations filed with their offices. The paper advises DOLE-7 to upgrade its services by setting up a pool of lawyers to assist DOLE staff in handling harassment cases of workers, and to extend the powers of the Secretary to enable him/her to revoke registrations or licenses, or to impose heavier fines on companies that violate the labor law.

The study recommends the privatization of the port as this may prove to be more beneficial to government and to the public than the modernization program envisioned in Executive Order 59. The collection of Post-workers Social Amelioration Fund may also be assigned to a specially designated office along the lines of the Social Security System, which can efficiently manage the funds rather than assign the task to the unions or to one overarching union to prevent paralysis of the whole shipping industry in the event of a workers’ strike.

The establishment of only one Cargo Handling Operator may be considered to encourage healthy competition. Employers, on the other hand, should allow freedom of organization and association in their firms, provide the right wages and benefits mandated by the law, and observe the provisions of their contracts.