Salcon Power recognizes union; strike withdrawn

Salcon Power Corporation yesterday finally recognized the Salcon Power Independent Union, which in turn decided to withdraw its notice of strike against the management.

In a press statement sent by Antonio Corpuz, SPC’s senior vice president and chief operation officer, both management and union, in their first meeting at the plant level yesterday, agreed on a “win-win” solution.

“SPC management sees this as a victory for sobriety and the path of dialogs in resolving labor concerns,” Corpuz said, citing the commitment of the company to uphold its primary responsibility of providing power supply to Cebu and the rest of the Visayas.

Both sides have no lawyers with them and only Edmundo Mirasol, director of the National Conciliation and Mediation Board, was present to mediate the talks between the two disputing parties.

Corpuz said the SPC management had agreed to recognize SPIU as the exclusive bargaining agent of all rank and file employees with the bargaining unit, and to set aside as a separate issue the question of mixed membership of the union, which will be sent to the authorities later on for resolution.

With the recognition of the union, negotiations of the collective bargaining agreement between management and union could start soon over an agreed timetable and ground rules, said Corpuz.

The union also agreed to work harmoniously and progressively with management to attain industrial peace, and it has been set next month the start of the discussion of the ground rules of the CBA, he said.

Corpuz said that, while waiting for the resolution of the mixed membership issue, the management will submit a counterproposal of the CBA based on what the union had proposed earlier. The mixed membership issue will entail a review of the composition of union members, based on the 14-year history of the SPC, he said.

As this developed, Naga City Mayor Valdemar Chiong, in a phone interview, said he was happy that everything went well and that “industrial peace is now in place.”

Chiong said that the planned strike earlier had saddened him because it could paralyze the operations of the company and the supply of power supply to the province. —Ferliza C. Contratista and Liv G. Campo/RAE