More labor strikes last year — DOLE

Economic crisis in the year 2000 seriously affected operations of many establishments and forced more workers to go on strike compared to the previous year.

Records from the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) showed a number of recorded strikes reached 60 or three percent higher than the recorded figure in 1999.

Labor Secretary Bienvenido Laguesma said the slight increase in the number of strikes was acceptable, considering the economic crisis affecting the country.

Laguesma added that the strike rate in year 2000 was kept within manageable levels because of government’s efforts to immediately resolve on-going labor disputes.

The labor chief said that labor-management relations had not only remained stable but also saved a lot of jobs in the face of a persistent economic crunch and continuing increase in oil prices.

Buenaventura Magsalin, head of the DOLE-National Conciliation and Mediation Board (NCMB), said workers involved in the strikes also increased from 15,467 in 1999 to 21,442 last year.

But Magsalin said that like in 1999, NCMB was also able to resolve 93 percent of the total strikes recorded last year. — Mayen Jaymalin