Alcohol firm workers to stage strike

By Dolly Yasa

BACOLOD City – Labor leader Wennie Sancho said workers of an alcohol firm are set to stage a strike early next month after the Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiations between the workers and the management failed.

In a press conference Tuesday, Sancho, the authorized representative of the Philippine Agricultural Commercial Workers Union (PACIWU), said they are still hoping that issues between labor and management of KOOLL Company Inc. can still be resolved before the scheduled strike.

He also clarified that the press conference was an initiative of the PACIWU United KCI Labor Union Chapter.

They decided to hold the media event after the declaration of deadlock followed by the filing of a notice of strike on Oct 1, 2021.

“The bone of contention was the salary structure of the management which was not consulted with the labor union,” Sancho said.

Sancho also clarified that the purpose of the press conference is to give an update on the current labor dispute between labor and management of KOOLL company located at Barangay Bubog, Talisay so that the public will know the chronology of events that resulted in the present predicament.

“It is not our intention to use this presscon as a platform to attack or malign any party, particularly the management of KOOLL company, but rather an opportunity for discussing issues that might lead to probable solutions in the light of the National Conciliation Mediation Board’s effort to continue the mediation-conciliation proceedings during the cooling-off period,” he said.

Sancho also said that “more than anybody else, the labor union and its officers, including the leadership of PACIWU, wanted this labor dispute to be resolved in as much as the exercise of a strike while guaranteed by law, may also bring disastrous effect to both parties and could lead to animosities and wounded feelings.”

He said that three notices of strike (NOS) were filed by the United KCI Labor Union led by Ricky Langrio, PACIWU chapter president.

The first was on March 15, 2021, due to interference on the rights of the workers to self- organization.

The second was on July 5, 2021 on the ground of malicious refusal to bargain with the union.

The third NOS was filed on Oct 1, 2021 due to the deadlock on the economic provisions of the proposed CBA.

Sancho emphasized that “the PACIWU United KCI Labor Union does not intend to kill the goose that lays the golden egg, the union only wanted to assert that it is entitled to a just and equal share of the fruits of its labor.”

“If the management will give what is due for the workers and treat them as partners in progress, then there will be peace,” he added.