Veco employees' union files notice of strike

CEBU, Philippines - The Visayan Electric Company Employees Union, now an independent union, filed a Notice of Strike against its management before the National Conciliation and Mediation Board-7 yesterday.

VECEU President Casmero Mahilum said that the union filed the notice on grounds of union busting after the company revoked the voluntary recognition of the independent union issued by management itself on Dec. 20, 2011.

VECO spokeswoman Ethel Natera said that they will issue a statement in the proper time.

Mahilum said in a press statement that the revocation of the voluntary recognition of the union was formalized in a letter dated last Apr. 4 and signed by Mia Carmela Cuenco, VECO assistant vice president for Human Resources.

Cited as grounds for the revocation was fraud allegedly committed by the union officers and alleged intra-union dispute when the Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines sued VECO before the Department of Labor and Employment over ALU-TUCP’s dues.

On December 1, 2011, VECEU disaffiliated from ALU-TUCP and established as an independent union in VECO.

In that letter, the management stressed that VECEU officers committed fraud by leading management to believe that Renato Gregorio Gimenez, the duly elected vice president of VECEU, was now union president.

Mahilum said that they replied that there was no fraud because from the start, the management knew there was no change in the official list of officers of VECEU.

The union also clarified that Gimenez really acted as the president of VECEU within the company in the absence of Mahilum.

They also said the management placed all union officers and at least 10 union members under administrative investigation for joining the Labor Day protest last May 1, wearing company uniforms.

“The union believes that this is another form of harassing the union and is closely related to the brewing labor dispute inside the company,” the statement read.

It added that the union will step up protest actions in the coming days before it will conduct a strike voting.

It can be recalled that the same union, still then affiliated with ALU-TUCP, filed a notice of strike in Oct. 28, 2010 on the ground of union busting after Mahilum was terminated from work.

But the planned strike was called off after former DOLE Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz assumed jurisdiction over the labor dispute on Nov. 10, 2010. (FREEMAN)