DAVAO CITY – Majority of the workers on Monday voted to strike over a dispute in their collective bargaining agreement negotiations with the management of the LBC Davao.
In a press release on Tuesday, Kilusang Mayo Uno, an organization where the workers’ union of the LBC Davao is affiliated, said couriers and sales personnel have voted to strike since the management refused to grant salary increase and benefits improvement.
“In a strike balloting held yesterday by the LBC Davao Employees Union (LBCDEU-ADLO-KMU) with a 92 percent voter turnout, majority of the union members backed strike action to end the impasse,” the groups said.
The union is required under Article 263 of the Labor Code to conduct vote balloting among their members for a strike.
Butch Gajudo, union president, and other officers of the union submitted the official strike vote results at the National Conciliation and Mediation Board Region 11 on Tuesday.
Under the Labor Code, a 7-day strike ban is mandatory after the strike vote result is submitted. Thereafter, the union can hold a strike at any time.
Gajudo said the LBC management’s problem is that “it has not been sincere when it conducted negotiations with the union.”
The union, he said, has provided realistic and fair demands in wage and benefits increases for all 93 members.
“We have all the financial data, reports, and official pronouncements from LBC executives on mainstream media as bases for our collective bargaining demands. LBC continues to deny that it is more than able to give union members P2.8 million within two years, so that workers can take care of their families better,” Gajudo said.
The union said that it has engaged the management in prolonged negotiations “but the management continues to cleave to its greed for profits and has remained adamant on not giving the workers their just share,” said Gajudo.
Gajudo said the turnout of the votes shows that union members have concluded that the table battles are “headed nowhere”.
“The only way to resolve the deadlock is to strike, which is the effective weapon of the workers to claim their legitimate right to wage increases and benefits,” he said.(davaotoday.com)
