Salcon union: We'll withdraw strike notice if...

CEBU, Philippines – The Salcon Power Independent Union said they will only withdraw their notice of strike if the management observes the principles of their Collective Bargaining Agreement, which according to them, is continuously being ignored by the latter.

In a letter to Governor Gwendolyn Garcia, SPIU president Gaudioso Iso said like in their past negotiations, “the management of SPC Power is still hesitant to observe good faith when dealing with us.”

Iso said the demands of the union are anchored on the faithful implementation of the ROMM Contract and respect on the fundamental law on equality, specifically on the wage issue. He added the equal pay for equal work is even a policy in the government salary standardization law.

“The union insists on respecting these because SPC has been earning very big profit margin due to the ROMM Contract being generally favorable to SPC. SPC has clearly only wanted to reduce their labor costs by only partially implementing the warranties on compensation, unequal and discriminatory wage administration,” the union’s letter reads.

Iso said this is contrary to Section 11 of the ROMM Contract even though as per the IAC report as mandated by the EPIRA Law, the ROMM Contract is generally favorable to SPC as SPC’s base rate increase in the third year of operation by 75 percent and by the fifth year to 150 percent which resulted in corresponding high increase in revenues throughout the contract duration.

He explained that the notice of strike that they filed was not a decision made by a single person or was done overnight but underwent a process of educating more than a hundred union members and including their families.

“As such, your suggestion to withdraw the said notice will depend primarily on the attitude of the management in dealing with us in the table and how such dealing will be appreciated by the entire membership,” the union stated.

The management of SPC Power Corp., on the other hand, laments the confused arguments the rank-and-file union has presented in a letter to Garcia to justify its continued intransigence in the stalled negotiations of the CBA and insistence on threatening Cebu with brownouts to force the granting of excessive CBA demands.

Alfredo S. Ballesteros, senior vice president for administration and finance and chairman of the management panel said the union claims that management “is hesitant to observe good faith” for the past year and cites events that allegedly transpired in 2006 or four years ago as proof.

“The truth is: the union one-sidedly pulled out of the talks several months ago and management had consistently and patiently appealed to them to return to the negotiating table,” Ballesteros said.

He said the union also conveniently did not mention of the successful CBA negotiations between management and the supervisors’ union. In contrast to the rank-and-file union, the supervisors’ union persisted with the negotiations and achieved a win-win agreement.

Moreover, Ballesteros said that the union misleadingly and unreasonably hammers on its version of the “equal pay for equal work” without consideration of crucial factors like seniority and productivity as the union allegedly stay dishonestly silent on their excessive other demands.

“Lest management be accused of union busting, we instead urge members of the media to confront the union leaders, for example, on their excessive and absurd demands for wage increases and leave credits in their official CBA proposal,” he added. — Mitchelle L. Palaubsanon/WAB (THE FREEMAN)