Passing by the sugarfields of Bais

Passing by the town of Bais last Tuesday, we saw quite a lot of cargo trucks over-loaded with sugarcane harvested from the nearby fields. We saw men, mostly middle-aged and some in their late 50s and 60s -- quite old, in short -- chopping sugarcanes under the heat of the noon sun. Some of them were resting under the shade of trees along the highway, having lunch from plastic containers and cellophanes. They looked so tired and exhausted. We wondered how much they were earning and if it were enough. We thought some if not most of these men might've spent their whole life harvesting sugarcanes and their lives never improved.

I read in the Metro Post, a Dumaguete paper, yesterday that the workers in Central Azucarera de Bais went on strike because their union and the management were not able to settle certain issues in their Collective Bargaining Agreement. The workers were asking for a raise in their pay while managment is not willing to give in to the demand citing as their reason their plan to cut on costs in order to adjust to the demands of their US market which is weakening. The management also retrenched several workers. How are they going to settle the issue? And can we blame the workers for damanding a higher wage?