Davao City – The station manager of Radio Mindanao Network (RMN) Davao stressed Friday that their continued broadcasting amidst the strike launched by union workers is a way of fulfilling their responsibility to their listeners.
Appearing before a press conference with other management staff, Leo Daugdaug said that “we tried hard to be back on-air because we feel that we are duty-bound to do our social responsibility to bring news, information and entertainment.”
The RMN Davao Employees Union (RDEU) went on strike since October 2. The union has simultaneously seized control of the networks’s AM and FM antenna stations and padlocked the main company office.
The management, however, was able to sent out broadcast through their AM station since October 3.
RDEU sought for a “cease and desist order” for the alleged illegal broadcast while the strike is ongoing.
(Read related story: RMN management still airing broadcast despite strike)
“We don’t know where they are broadcasting from but definitely it is not from the main office,” said Hitgano.
Hitgano said the management might be using a Studio to Transmitter Link (STL) “not registered with the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC).”
Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU), wherein RDEU is a member, said that the broadcast of RMN DXDC AM station while the strike is ongoing is called a ‘runaway shop’ in labor parlance.
“It is when a company management transfers operation to another area in a strike to continue production,” said Romualdo Basilio, KMU- Southern Mindanao chairperson.
Daugdaug also raised the issue of the vacant positions in RMN Davao which the RDEU wanted to fill-in.
“I would like to clarify that the vacated positions are due to resignations of employees and not because they were removed,” he said.
Among the complaints of the union were “violation of job security clauses and contractualization of workers.”
“The management hired three AM radio and four FM radio workers under a talent contract which they only renew every five months instead of regularizing them,” Hitgano said.
Basilio said that contractual media workers are at risk of labor violations because they are not unionized.
According to Chapter 2, Article 248 of the Labor Code of the Philippines “to contract out services or functions being performed by union members when such will interfere with, restrain or coerce employees in the exercise of their rights self-organization” is deemed unlawful for an employer. (davaotoday.com)
