A cooperative works hard to make its members’ dreams come true.
Jay Capuyan remembers what it was like to stock his home with household needs just a few years ago. A worker at the Dole Stanfilco plantation in Kapalong, Davao del Norte, he would have to travel to the town proper three kilometers away just to purchase groceries. It was a regular chore that he did not look forward to doing.
Today Jay needs only to walk to the store right inside the Dole Stanfilco compound to purchase goods at a discount and on credit, to be deducted from his salary. This was made possible when he and 24 other members of the Stanfilco Kapalong Labor Union (SKLU) formally created a consumers cooperative.
“The cooperative formally opened on July 10, 2010,” Jay, who is the cooperative’s chairman, remembers. “This was an initiative of some members of the SKLU who knew that grouping together would have many benefits.”
To help the burgeoning cooperative, Dole Stanfilco provided startup capital of P100,000 as well as free use of a building for its store. “We don’t pay any rent for this building,” Jay says. “Even the electricity and water bills are paid for by Dole Stanfilco. That’s how good the company is to us.”
The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) also gave assistance by providing P400,000, which the cooperative used to purchase the store’s initial stock. This was then made available to the members at lower-than-market prices.
In 2013, Dole Stanfilco gave the cooperative a further push by tapping Kasilak to improve its management system. Kasilak also helped conceptualize proposals that would be submitted to funding agencies, one of which was for a rice trading business that was submitted to DOLE-XI through its Provincial Office in Davao del Norte under the Workers Income Augmentation Program or WIN-AP. The Department responded positively and provided 145 sacks of rice to be sold at the cooperative store.
From the initial 25 members, the cooperative has now grown to 370 members. Jay says he is looking forward to the time when all 460 members of the union would sign up so they could all benefit from having a larger base. “We can give more incentives if there are more of us,” he says.
Rhoderick Cajes, the human resources head of Dote Stanfilco Luna Zone, shares the same goal. “Hopefuily 100% of the work force will become members in the near future,” he says. Having more members also means the cooperative can expand from just providing consumer goods to making various products.
“The cooperative can make PPE (personal protective equipment) like caps, masks, and aprons for our workers,” Rhoderick says. “The market is already there. We just have to tap funding agencies to provide training, sewing machines, and startup capital. The workers’ dependents can sew the PPE to augment their families’ income.”
As for Jay, the next step is for the group to convert into a multipurpose cooperative. “That way we can give loans to our members. We can also go into food processing, baking, and other livelihood projects.”
He acknowledges that the cooperative needs a lot of help to complete the transition, but he is confident that with constant support from Dole Stanfilco and Kasilak, these dreams will become reality soon enough. “Cooperation is our key to success,” he says.
