Management assures stable power supply

CEBU, Philippines - Majority of the members of the SPC Independent Union are in favor of the plan to stage a strike, as revealed by the results of the union’s strike voting yesterday.

But the top officials of Salcon Power Corporation and the National Power Corporation continue to assure the electricity consumers that there will be no power supply shortage in Cebu.

“Reliable supply of electricity is our mandate. The SPC Power Corp. and the National Power Corporation (NPC) are going the extra mile to ensure continued operations,” assured SPC Corporation president Dennis Villareal and National Power Corporation president Froilan A. Tampinco.

SPIU union president Gaudioso Iso said that during their strike voting yesterday, 91 of their 109 union members voted yes to strike, five voted no and one ballot was declared spoiled.

Iso said the results show that the workers are now ready to go on a strike. The results of the strike voting will be submitted to the National Conciliation and Mediation Board, where the management and the union will have another round of mediation on August 28.

After the submission of the strike vote, the union has still to wait for a seven-day cooling-off period before they will be allowed to go on strike.

“But there is a possibility that we will not pursue with the strike if we can have a win-win solution,” Iso said.

Villareal and Tampinco added that “we need to keep the five power plants inside the Naga complex up and running. This is our commitment to the people of Cebu and the Visayas.” They asked union officials to be reasonable and refrain from plunging the whole Visayas into darkness.

The personnel from the NPC will augment SPC employees who are expected to be true to their commitment to serve first and foremost along with members of the SPC supervisors’ union.

Meanwhile, Alfredo S. Ballesteros, Senior VP for administration and finance and chief of the management-negotiating panel, assured that the rights and welfare even of protesting employees shall be respected.

“While management laments the current stand of our rank and file union leadership in pushing for a strike to achieve their demands, we still consider them our employees who continue to enjoy rights and privileges as long as they do not violate the law,” he said.

Ballesteros added that the longer the rank-and-file union refuses to go back to the negotiating table for their demands, the shorter the period that members would enjoy the benefits that management is willing to grant considering that their contract with the NPC is only until March 2012. — Mitchelle L. Palaubsanon/WAB (THE FREEMAN)