University lawyer urges dismissed workers to voluntarily vacate strike area
Iloilo -- University of San Agustin (USA) legal counsel Atty. Sabino Padilla III urged the striking officers of the University of San Agustin Employees Union-FFW (USAEU-FFW) to voluntary clear the strike area in front of the campus in respect to the Supreme Court (SC) decision upholding the earlier ruling of the Court of Appeals.
Padilla said the SC, through its official website, posted its decision on G.R. No. 169632 entitled "University of San Agustin Employees Union-FFW vs. Court of Appeals and University of San Agustin" dated March 28, 2006 declaring that the Court of Appeals did not commit reversible error in (a) declaring illegal the USAAEU-FFW strike of September 19, 2003 and (b) directing the parties to submit to voluntary arbitration as provided in their Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).
Padilla said if the strikers continue with their illegal strike the university administration may use legal means to have them removed in the strike area.
The dismissed employees have been in the strike area for almost a year. They started camping out in front of the campus on April 25, 2005.
Theodore Neil Lasola, president of the USAEU-FFW, on the other hand, said their group will stay in the strike area until the Supreme Court or any higher authority tells them to vacate.
Lasola said their group was saddened by the SC decision on their case however they are not losing hope.
He said they will file a Motion for Reconsideration with the Supreme Court.
"The Supreme Court is our last hope. We can't believe that it handed such a decision. We all know deep in our hearts that we have done no wrong. We were only invoking our rights," lamented Lasola.
"By filing a Motion for Reconsideration we hope that the Supreme Court will be enlightened," Lasola added.
The SC ruling may mean another long battle for the group but Lasola remains hopeful.
"We have survived one year. We will survive more years to come," he said.
Padilla insisted that the dismissal of the USAEU-FFW officers was not an act of union busting.
He said the dismissal was pursuant to the decision of the Court of Appeals declaring the USAEU-FFW strike of September 19, 2003 illegal.
As a result of the said ruling the union officers were deemed to have lost their employment status, Padilla said.
The university counsel also pointed out that USA was always open to amicable settlement but the dismissed union officers kept on insisting about their reinstatement which was opposed by the university administrators as their September 19, 2003 strike was in violation of their CBA's "No Strike No Lockout" and voluntary arbitration clauses.
Padilla also cited that the SC ruling partly blamed National Conciliation and Mediation Board (NCMB) Director Adorico Dadivas and USAEU-FFW legal counsel Atty. Mae Gellecanao-Laserna for the worsening of the labor dispute.
Padilla said, according to the SC if Dadivas only did what he was supposed to do under the law, i.e., declare the USAEU-FFW "Notice of Strike" as "not duly filed," there would not have been a strike on September 19, 2003.
Padilla added the inaction of Dadivas on the USA's request to strike out said "Notice of Strike", according to the SC, were calculated measures to circumvent the CBA's "No Strike, No Lockout" and voluntary arbitration clauses.
On the part of Laserna, Padilla said the SC stressed that as a former DOLE Regional Director, she cannot feign ignorance of the procedure observed by DOLE sheriffs in serving assumption of jurisdiction orders and the devastating consequences if the union attempts to avoid service or refuses to immediately return to work upon service of the assumption jurisdiction order.
A total of twenty two union officers and members, who were all faculty members of the university's different colleges, were automatically dismissed by the university as a result of the September 19, 2003 strike. However, seven of them were given by the university administration the chance to be reinstated.
The remaining fifteen led by Lasola sustained their cause camping out outside of the campus.