Bad for precarious power supply: Salcon gripped by new strike threat

CEBU, Philippines - From a peaceful picket last week, restive workers of Salcon Power’s independent union yesterday threatened more drastic action by filing a notice of strike anytime soon unless a deadlock over “equal work, equal pay” is broken.

If a strike materializes, it could upset Cebu’s already precarious power situation and send severe repercussions across an economy starting to reel from the effects of the global economic crisis.

Following the picket, union representatives sat down with management for two days of negotiations beginning last Thursday, but union president Gaudioso Iso said only one of their economic demands was granted.

According to Iso, the talks failed to break the more substantial demand of equal work for equal pay but Salcon senior vice president Alfredo Ballesteros explained that the issue is not as easy as the union makes it appear and needs more time to be threshed out.

Ballesteros said “equal work, equal pay” as espoused by the union involves benefits enjoyed by employees who used to be with the National Power Corporation and those hired by Salcon after it took over from Napocor the Naga Power Complex in the early 1990s.

Reacting to accusations by the union that Salcon was being hard on the “equal work, equal pay” demand, Ballesteros fired off a barrage of questions: “Would giving equal benefits to Salcon-hired people be fair to those who came from Napocor? Would they agree to this adjustment of the seniority status they enjoy? And could management afford to grant the kind of benefits for new hires that Napocor used to give its people? How would this impact on the Napocor-Salcon agreement?”

But Iso countered that management is being discriminatory on equal work for equal pay, a kind of productivity incentive policy. “We will not allow that,” he said.

This is not the first time the threat of a strike has gripped Salcon. On March 14 last year, the union filed a notice of strike with the National Conciliation and Mediation Board over the company’s alleged refusal to recognize it.

With the intervention of the NCMB, the company recognized the union as well as the security of tenure of its members and a strike was averted.

This time, however, Iso threatened that the strike may push through.

Ballesteros is worried that a strike will only worsen the effects of the crisis, and regrets the planned drastic action by the union, especially over something which he said has a chance of being resolved over the negotiating table.

The process may be long and tedious, he admitted, but with openness and sincerity he believes real progress can be made.

Salcon Power is owned by a consortium that entered into a deal with Napocor in 1994 to rehabilitate, operate, maintain and manage its 203.8 megawatt power plant in Naga.

Under the deal, Salcon will receive fees from Napocor, which shall be its sole customer, for converting into electricity the fuel to be supplied by the latter at no cost to the company throughout the co-operation period.

A strike in the power sector is something Cebu can ill afford at this time, with power shortages already being forewarned by industry players. (/JST)(THE FREEMAN)