Country Club workers vote "yes" to strike

CEBU, Philippines – The Cebu Country Club Inc. Employees Union, an affiliate of the Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines, voted yes to hold a strike against the management for alleged unfair labor practice.

The employees union held a strike voting yesterday wherein 117 out of the 140 members voted in favor of holding a strike.

Ferdinand Jumapao, ALU-TUCP director for membership and services department, said no one voted against the strike. The 23 members who were not able to cast their votes were either late or had important matters to attend to.

Jumapao said the union filed a notice of strike last Friday after 47 of the employees, 45 are union members, were retrenched by the management.

Lawyer Julius Neri, Country Club's legal counsel, denied the allegations of the union members. He said these were all lies and without basis.

"If they will go on strike that is illegal. They have no basis," Neri said.

Jumapao said they suspect that the management is planning to resort to contractualization. He said, if they will not act on it more employees will suffer the same fate in the days to come.

Jumapao said that the union will submit today the result of the strike voting before the National Conciliation and Mediation Board. They are also scheduled for mediation today. (FREEMAN)