Salcon mgt laments strike notice

The management of Salcon Power Corporation has hit the decision of the rank-and-file union, who filed the notice of strike before the National Conciliation and Mediation Board of the Department of Labor and Employment-7 yesterday.

While it prepares to mitigate the possible impact of the strike on their operations in the event it pushes through, the SPC management urged the leaders of the Salcon Power Independent Union to “be reasonable gentlemen and return to the negotiating table.”

Frowning over the alleged non-acknowledgement by the management of the union, the declared a deadlock of negotiation on their proposed Collective Bargaining Agreement and threatened to go on strike if SPC will not finish their negotiation for CBA as soon as possible.

But the management said it is now pursuing a two-pronged policy and has prepared for the continued operations of the plant in case the union makes goods its threat.

“We hope the union will rise beyond the mindset of a mob and consider the higher public interest. Let us return to the negotiating table,” Alfredo Ballesteros, chairman of the management panel, said in a press statement sent to The Freeman.

Ballesteros believed that the present SPC Independent Union threat on Cebu’s power supply is but a ploy to unduly pressure the SPC management into accepting an agreement without negotiation whatsoever.

The Union wants blanket authority approval of all their CBA proposals through pressure, instead of dialogue, he added.

Gaudioso Iso, Jr, president of SPIU alleged that the management has not been recognizing the union because of the following grounds: arguing the union’s sole and exclusive bargaining and not acknowledging the non-negotiability of their proposal under the CBA.

Until now, Iso said that the political aspect of CBA proposal they submitted to the management has not yet been resolved despite 15 talks that were held between the union and the management.

Ballesteros added that the SPC, being engaged in the critical business of generating power, is expecting that both the management and workers should rise above petty labor issues, which should be resolved on the negotiating table and not through exchanges at picket lines.

He emphasized that the union-instigated deadlock stemmed from the workers’ demand for the blanket approval of their proposals under their CBA even if the management wants to discuss the proposals one by one.

Iso alleged that over and over again, same results are achieved after every dialogue the reason why they could not proceed with the discussion on the economic aspect of the CBA proposal.

This slow pace of the negotiation angered the union, prompting it to declare a deadlock on their CBA negotiation.

Iso said that the proposed CBA is already long overdue because the union submitted it in September 2007 but the management has passed a counter proposal only on June this year.

Had the management followed the policy, Iso said the CBA should have been implemented April this year. – Mitchelle L. Palaubsanon and Jessica Ann Pareja/WAB