Meeting between Salcon, union yields positive twist

There was a positive twist in yesterday’s meeting between Salcon Power Corporation management and the Salcon Power Independent Union at the National Conciliation and Mediation Board-7.

NCMB director Edmundo Mirasol yesterday said there is a “welcome development between management and members of the union as the issue of a strike was no longer discussed.”

Mirasol said management and union both agreed to go back to a plant level discussion on April 25 which is a “friendlier environment.”

Several of the gray areas mentioned by SPIU, Mirasol said, were threshed out in yesterday’s meeting.

Edith Bayoneta, human resource consultant of SPC, said all of them are going back to the plant to start “building fences together.”

This developed as the National Power Corporation, owner of Salcon plant, assured that should the strike pushes through, their power plants shall remain operational.

Napocor spokesperson Dennis Gana in an interview with The FREEMAN yesterday said that even if Salcon is the one operating the plant, they will make sure that power interruption won’t occur.

“The workers are Salcon employees, but we are willing to step in if they need us,” Gana said.

Naga Mayor Valdemar Chiong in a separate interview is optimistic that the looming strike would be finally averted.

“Hopefully, it won’t happen,” Chiong said.

Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia has already assured that she is willing to mediate between the management and the union in the interest of the Cebuanos.

Bayoneta also assured she will bring the concern of the union members to the management and submit a counter-proposal on the Collective Bargaining Agreement.

Bayoneta said they would still want to “kindly insist that SPIU provide a copy of the roster of their members, as they want a list of validated rank-and-file employees, not mixed with those under the supervisory positions.”

“We just want to make things clear and will recognize those that are validly considered as rank-and-file employees,” Bayoneta said.

On the other hand, Gaudioso Iso, SPIU president, maintained that giving them a list of the members is a “preemption of the union recognition case pending at the Bureau of Labor Relations.”

Although the idea of a strike is for now set aside to give way to the plant level dialogues, Iso said they will not hesitate to mount one should undesirable conditions prevail.

“But I am hoping it will not end up with a strike,” Iso said. – Ferliza C. Contratista and Mitchelle L. Palaubsanon/MEEV