Salcon management, union continue hitting each other

The recent agreement between the management and the labor union of Salcon Power Corporation to settle their dispute at the plant level on April 25 has not stopped both parties from assailing each other’s stand on the issue.

Last Tuesday, National Conciliation and Mediation Board director Edmundo Mirasol was able to get an agreement between the two parties to sit down and settle the matter between themselves.

It was a positive twist on the labor dispute, Mirasol was even quoted as saying after the meeting.

Shortly after the NCMB meeting however, Gaudioso Iso Jr, president of Salcon Power Independent Union (SPIU), issued a press release questioning the willingness of Salcon management to sit down and settle the dispute without conditions.

“Management is again diverting the issue that they will negotiate only “if,”... , such unwillingness is a trademark of Salcon since 1995,” according to the press release.

Edith Bayoneta, human resources consultant of Salcon, earlier said that they are going to the plant level and will try to convince the management to submit a counterproposal on the collective bargaining agreement.

In a press release sent the next day, however, Bayoneta said Salcon is still firm in its demand for a list of SPIU members based on the latter’s claim of being a rank-and-file union.

The statement accused SPIU of wanting to insist its fiction as a purely rank-and-file union even if there are members who are company supervisors, receiving about P50,000 monthly under salary grade 13.

Bayoneta said the Salcon management has been transparent in its position and it is the SPIU that has been consistently misrepresenting itself.

SPIU’s currently has a petition at the Bureau of Labor Relations for union recognition, which is being question by Salcon at the Court of Appeals. — Ferliza C. Contratista/RAE