Naga union holds off strike; Labor secretary joins talks

Normal operations continue in   Kepco-SPC  power plant;   workers and management representatives return to negotiating table

No work stoppage took place yesterday in the power complex of  Kepco-SPC yesterday as union members aborted their plan to strike on the same day President Aquino visited Naga city, Cebu.

Aquino inaugurated a new cement mill of   Cemex Philippines less than five kilometers away.

“Hopefully, this can be resolved  peacefully because power is vital to economic growth, especially in Cebu,” he told reporters after the inauguration.

Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz sat down with union and management representatives for a conciliation meeting past 5 p.m .at JCentre Mall in Mandaue City.

A compromise agreement was reportedly reached last night, but was still subject to approval by the top management of Kepco.

Details of the draft agreement were not divulged to the media.

Aquino earlier expressed confidence  that  Secretary Baldoz would be able to prevent the strike.

“Sigurado ako na with Secretary  Baldoz, he said.

“She is like a mother to both the workers and management sector.”

As of 10:30 p.m. Baldoz was still moderating the closed-door negotiations between the workers’ representatives and Kepco-SPC head of external affairs Guillermo Dabbay Jr.

At least  55 workers belonging to the rank-and-file and supervisory unions of Kepco-SPC,  voted to go on strike over alleged unfair labor practices and union busting by management after a strike notice ended on April 30.  They comprise about 40 percent of the 140 Filipino employees of Kepco.

NO SIGN OF PROTEST

But yesterday morning, it was business as usual at the 200-megawatt coal plant complex  of Kepco SPC in Naga City.

There were no picket lines,  placards or streamers. Only two police women from the Naga Police Station guarded the company’s gates.

The guards closed the gates when news reporters arrived and wouldn’t allow their entry.

At 10 a.m. yesterday, Partido ng Manggagawa spokesman Dennis Derige arrived at the Kepco plant on board a motorcycle.

“We really wanted to mount the strike this morning, but we were told to wait because the Labor Secretary would  personally negotiate with the management,” Derige told reporters. When he left, more police  and patrol cars arrived.

Derige and labor leader Jose Tumongha, along with terminated supervisor Lowell Sanchez, represented the Kepco workers at the negotiations with Baldoz and the management last night.

The union wants  Sanchez  reinstated with back wages and his dismissal case to be reinvestigated.  Sanchez was fired on March 31 for   using company time to organize  rank-and-file workers.

The management formally asked Baldoz on Monday to assume jurisdiction over the dispute but in an interview at the JobStart Philippines forum yesterday morning, Baldoz said she was not  inclined to do so since conciliation talks were still going on.

The company has hired seven new engineers to ensure that plant operations are not disrupted in case of a strike.

Kepco SPC’s 200-MW plant accounts for about a third of Cebu’s generating capacity and supplies electricity to utilities and electric cooperatives in the Visayas.

In his speech at the Cemex gym, Aquino said he knocked on wood that there would be  no  labor strike this year.

“The resolution of disputes used to take one year. Now, these are resolved faster,” he said.

Cebu and the rest of Central Visayas have enjoyed a zero-strike record for over a decade.