A bargaining deadlock continues between Silliman University and its SU Faculty Union (SUFA) after marathon talks in the presence of the National Conciliation & Mediation Board of the Department of Labor and Employment-Negros Island Region failed to reach a consensus.
SUFA President Jan Antoni Credo said the Union will “continue to exercise its rights protected and guaranteed by the Constitution and by the Labor Code”.
The conciliation-mediation meetings, which started early this year after SUFA filed in January a Notice of Strike, were held April 19 and 20.
The decision to go on strike was reached after the SU administration “failed to present improved counter-offers to the reduced demands of SUFA”.
The Union, however, withdrew in March the Notice of Strike “so as not to disrupt the graduation exercises”.
Professor Credo said the lifting of the Notice of Strike was also the Union’s way of giving the Administration another chance to go back to the drawing board for two weeks, and reconsider its position in relation to the teachers’ reduced demands.
The Union’s reduced demands include: improvement in the retirement pay of 1.5 or 45 days; bonuses of P5,000 for Founders Day and P3,000 for Christmas; class size of 20 pupils per section only in Kinder 1 and 2, and 35 pupils only in 1st and 2nd grades; K+12 faculty scholarship subsidies of P20,000 without conditions; across-the-board increases of P1,500 for 2017 and P2,500 in 2018; a one-time bonus of P40,000; and an acceptance of the Administration’s offer of a Productivity Enhancement Incentive but without conditions.
“To say the very least, Administration ignored the kindness of the Union, and failed to esteem the withdrawal of the faculty’s Notice of Strike,” Credo said.
He said in their press statement the audited financial reports of the University for the last five years have “consistently indicated surpluses or excess of revenues over expenses”.
Credo said the Union believes that on that basis, the operation of the University will continue to be viable.
“The Union is perplexed at the stiffness of the heart of the University administration who continues to refuse to agree to the reduced and reasonable demands of the Union,” Credo added.
“What the Union finds more disturbing is the University Administration’s attitude of snubbing the Union’s appeal for equity, fairness, and justice. Equally disturbing is its rejection of SUFA’s claims for a just and fair share in the fruits of production — a right guaranteed to Labor by the Constitution,” the Union statement read. (Judy Flores Partlow/PNA)
