Wild cat strike at PNR fizzles out

The wild-cat strike by members of the Philippine National Railways (PNR) Employees Association who called themselves the Bagong Kapisanan ng Manggagawa sa PNR-ITE, fizzled out yesterday as the leaders failed to muster enough support from their members.

Only about 40 people picketed the PNR complex in Tayuman, Manila since Tuesday, and some of them were even identified as outsiders.

PNR general manager Jose Ma. Sarasola II said while the Civil Service Commission has ruled that the strike was illegal, he nevertheless agreed to wait for results of conciliation efforts by CSC representatives before ordering a resumption of train service to defuse the tension in the company.

Sarasola also asserted that the real motive for the protest action was to try to reinstate Edgar Balayon as president of the employees’ group Balayon was dismissed by the PNR board last year for dishonesty.

PNR employees who refused to join the strike confirmed this, saying they believed that Balayon and his colleagues were harboring a personal grudge against Sarasola who has been struggling to keep the cash-strapped state-owned firm afloat.

Sarasola was even able to update payments of salaries of employees of the 110-year-old company, as well as settle long standing retirement benefits due since 1992. He was also credited for implementing the Salary Standardization Law last year, raising his employees’ pay to the level being enjoined by their counterparts in other government agencies and instrumentalities.

It was estimated that the accrued salary differentials reached the P200 million mark.

Estelito Nierva, PNR operations manager who himself was a former leader of the employees union, said their workers have been able to enjoy these benefits under Sarasola’s watch, unlike in previous administrations where salary payments were delayed by as much as two months.

Balayon and other union leaders were also tagged as the intigators in the filing of various cases before the Ombudsman and the Presidential Anti Graft Commission against Sarasola, who shrugged off the charges as mere harassment even as he submitted documentary evidence to prove his innocence.