Salcon workers eye strike if management refuses to negotiate

Employees of Salcon Power Corporation in Naga City have warned of strike if the management still refuses to negotiate with them on their proposed collective bargaining agreement.

Both parties yesterday met for the third with the National Conciliation and Mediation Board but they were still not able to come up with a settlement on the labor dispute.

To note, the Salcon Power Independent Union has filed a notice of strike on March 14 at the NCMB because Salcon allegedly refused to recognize its union despite an order from Department of Labor and Employment naming SPIU as the official bargaining agent of the company

Despite that, union president Gaudioso Iso Jr. said the management still refuses to sit with them and discuss their proposed CBA even if the DOLE-Bureau of Labor Relations in Manila has already issued a decision recently affirming the legitimacy of their union.

Antonio Corpuz, SPC senior vice president and chief operations officer, earlier assured the union that they will look into their CBA proposal after the management’s query on its legality at the DOLE.

But during their meeting at the NCMB yesterday, representatives of Salcon Power said they will question the recent decision of DOLE-BLR at the Court of Appeals.

With this, union members hit the management for resorting to delaying tactics and suspected that SPC is “hiding something that they do not want to be divulged.”

Iso said they would be meeting again on April 15 and warned it would be their last chance to meet and if the management still refuses to negotiate, they would proceed with the strike.

“We are just asking them to respect our Constitutional right as a union. We have decided that next week would be our last meeting with them. If di gyud sila makig-negotiate sa amo CBA and if the NCMB cannot reconcile us, we will proceed with the strike vote. We will follow the legal means,” he said.

Iso explained that what the management has to do is sit down with the union and discuss their proposed CBA. “Our CBA is not yet final, they can question it or they can come up with their own counter-proposal to it.”

If the union goes on strike, he said Cebu’s power supply surely get paralyzed because Salcon provides more than 200 megawatts of power to the Visayan Electric Company, the firm that distributes electricity to Metro Cebu.

Iso said as much as possible, they do not want to go on strike because they do not want the public to sacrifice. However, he said they have to do it to force the management to recognize their rights as union members and sit down with them to discuss their proposed CBA. — Wenna A. Berondo/LPM