Salcon workers union to conduct strike vote

CEBU, Philippines - The Salcon Power Corporation employees union will submit today at the National Conciliation and Mediation Board its letter of request for a strike vote.

SPC union president Gaudioso Iso told The FREEMAN yesterday that the management still refused to heed their demands.

      The management of SPC Power Corp. however laments the decision of the rank-and-file union leadership to stick to its “unreasonable demands as basis for deciding to call for a strike vote.”

During the recent conciliation meeting between the management and union representatives presided by the NCMB, the negotiation was on the verge of an agreement on the salary increase demand in the proposed Collective Bargaining Agreement.

Management presented its counter proposal and was optimistic of a breakthrough.

Unfortunately, a labor organizer arrived and the union leadership shelved the fruitful results of the dialog and declared a deadlock.

The SPC senior vice president for administration and finance said that the incident seemed to demonstrate an aversion by the union leadership to a genuine dialog with the view of achieving a mutually beneficial agreement that their stakeholders expect from them, who are in the business of supplying power to Cebu and the whole of the Visayas.

“While management is prepared for whatever the union leadership has planned to stage all along, we continue to urge them to be reasonable with the public interest as our foremost concern and thus return to the negotiating table,” said Alfredo Ballesteros, who is also the chief of the management negotiating panel.

Iso on the other hand is optimistic that the “Yes to Strike” votes will prevail.

He claimed that the union has a total of 115 members.

“Dili na madala. That’s why we came up with a decision to submit a letter request for a strike vote which is already a prelude to a strike,” Iso said. — Mitchelle L. Palaubsanon/MEEV   (THE FREEMAN)