DOLE: Only 3 strikes in first nine months

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said yesterday that the country’s industrial front was peaceful during the first nine months of the year since only three strikes were recorded.

DOLE Secretary Arturo Brion noted that during the same period in 2006, the National Conciliation and Mediation Board received 26 notices of strikes and lockouts but only three materialized.

Brion added that one of the strikes happened in Metro Manila while the other two occurred in Calabarzon.

The three strikes were much lower than the nine cases declared during the same period last year. Workers involved in these strikes likewise decreased to 292, compared with 949 a year ago. – Sheila Crisostomo