Power Watch Negros condemns in the strongest possible terms the intended labor strike initiated by the new president of the CENECO Union of Rational Employees (CURE), PW secretary general Wennie Sancho said Monday, March 11.
“CURE President Felix Gepilga Jr. hatched this insidious activity in a Notice of Strike filed recently without considering its disastrous consequences,” Sancho said in a press release.
The reasons were the same as stated in their previous notices of strike that were dismissed and assumed by the secretary of labor, he added.
This concerted action by the CURE is adverse to the interests and welfare of all electricity consumers in the franchise area of Central Negros Electric Cooperative (CENECO), Sancho said.
“It will wreak havoc on every household of all consumers. The majority of business operations will grind to a halt if there is no power supply. Construction and other business activities will stop, resulting in losses worth billions of pesos,” he said.
If the operation of CENECO as a distribution utility is paralyzed, it would result in economic devastation of unparalleled proportions, Sancho said.
“It shall cause irreparable damage to the lives of the people. Lives would be lost if hospitals could not attend to the sick and the dying. The function of the local government will be suspended, exacerbating the situation amid the water crisis in Bacolod City,” he added.
Despite the magnanimous and even bountiful offer by CENECO for their separation and or retirement pay and the preference for re-hiring by Negros Electric and Power Corp. the union refused the offer and pushed their illogical demand to be “absorbed” by NEPC as employees automatically, Sancho said.
“We, the consumers, shall assert our rights. We shall claim the fruits of our struggle. We shall mobilize a counter-strike,” Sancho added.*