CLARK FREEPORT – Operations at a prominent resort estate here were severely affected on Friday as its workers staged a strike, protesting their employers’ alleged failure to recognize the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) completed by the workers’ union last August.
Raymundo Vergara, president of the 350-strong Association of Fontana Resort Employees (AFRE), disclosed that at least three wedding events at the Fontana Leisure Park (FLP) and the operations of the FLP’s casino had been “severely affected” as most of them staged a protest action.
He assailed officials of the FLP for allegedly trying to prevent some 30 workers from leaving the premises after their duty early morning on December 18.
“Fontana doesn’t want them to leave so that they will have bodies to help them prepare for the events scheduled for today (Friday). This is not good,” said Vergara in an interview in front of the FLP administrative office where most of the AFRE members staged the strike. Some of them picketed the main entrances of the 302-hectare resort-park.
Vergara scored the FLP for its “deliberate neglect of the CBA” despite the recent entry of judgment penned by Rebecca Chato, Director IV of the Bureau of Labor Relations of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) in Manila.
“Wherefore, the protest filed by the Fontana Resort and Country Club, Fontana Development Corporation, Fontana Leisure Parks and Body Bliss Spa is hereby dismissed for lack of merit. Association of Fontana Resort Employees (AFRE) is hereby certified as the sole and exclusive bargaining agent of the regular rank-and-file employees of the Fontana Leisure Parks,” said Chato in her order dated September 25. It added that “accordingly the AFRE shall have the rights and privileges and obligations of a duly certified collective bargaining agent from the time this certification is issued.”
AFRE board director Jun Castro disclosed that their group represented by Atty. Gilbert Lorenzo and the FLP officials had met at least six times at the DOLE regional office in the City of San Fernando, Pampanga but “nothing significant was achieved.”
“The Fontana executives led by their lawyer were just making delaying tactics and runaround,” said Castro, who joined the strike with other AFRE officers, including vice president Joel Waje and board director Rommel Maninang.
Castro said “it should not have come to this (strike) if Fontana had an ear to listen and a heart to feel.”
In a letter to National Commission and Mediation Board (NCMB) Director Darrow Odsey dated December 7, the ARFE disclosed that of the 156 votes (272 are qualified voters) cast, 154 agreed to stage a strike in the minutes of the strike balloting election conducted on November 27.
In the CBA, the ARFE asked for an annual salary increase of some P5,000 beginning 2009 for FLP regular workers who have rendered at least six years of service. It added that workers having at least one year and five year of service will have some P3,000 and 4,000 annual salary increase, respectively.
Castro said they had also asked the FLP to “do something humane” for the casual workers, some of whom had been working with Fontana for at least eight years. The casual workers joined the regular workers in the strike that started just before dawn.
“There are so many casuals that should have been given regular status for rendering service for many years. What kind of treatment is this?,” said Castro.
FLP public relations officer Arlene De Guzman, in a statement, said “the different companies operating in the Fontana Leisure Parks Complex at the Clark Freeport were surprised by the strike of the AFRE.”
She added that “while the different companies recognize the right of employees to organize themselves, they likewise recognize the need to follow the rule of law.”
De Guzman said “that AFRE alleged in its notice of strike ‘refusal to bargain’ on the part of management.”
“What is clear is that AFRE cannot allocate unto itself to be the bargaining agent of the five separate and distinct employers. AFRE cannot lump five employers – FDC, FRCCI, Amazinglyclean Inc., New Hong Kong and Body Bliss Inc. – together and filed only one petition against a non-entity it called ‘Fontana Leisure Parks’,” said De Guzman.
“The management is more than willing to sit down with the employees. But there is a need to first establish if the AFRE can legally represent the employees of the 5 different employers in the FLP complex,” she added.
Raymundo Vergara, president of the 350-strong Association of Fontana Resort Employees (AFRE), disclosed that at least three wedding events at the Fontana Leisure Park (FLP) and the operations of the FLP’s casino had been “severely affected” as most of them staged a protest action.
He assailed officials of the FLP for allegedly trying to prevent some 30 workers from leaving the premises after their duty early morning on December 18.
“Fontana doesn’t want them to leave so that they will have bodies to help them prepare for the events scheduled for today (Friday). This is not good,” said Vergara in an interview in front of the FLP administrative office where most of the AFRE members staged the strike. Some of them picketed the main entrances of the 302-hectare resort-park.
Vergara scored the FLP for its “deliberate neglect of the CBA” despite the recent entry of judgment penned by Rebecca Chato, Director IV of the Bureau of Labor Relations of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) in Manila.
“Wherefore, the protest filed by the Fontana Resort and Country Club, Fontana Development Corporation, Fontana Leisure Parks and Body Bliss Spa is hereby dismissed for lack of merit. Association of Fontana Resort Employees (AFRE) is hereby certified as the sole and exclusive bargaining agent of the regular rank-and-file employees of the Fontana Leisure Parks,” said Chato in her order dated September 25. It added that “accordingly the AFRE shall have the rights and privileges and obligations of a duly certified collective bargaining agent from the time this certification is issued.”
AFRE board director Jun Castro disclosed that their group represented by Atty. Gilbert Lorenzo and the FLP officials had met at least six times at the DOLE regional office in the City of San Fernando, Pampanga but “nothing significant was achieved.”
“The Fontana executives led by their lawyer were just making delaying tactics and runaround,” said Castro, who joined the strike with other AFRE officers, including vice president Joel Waje and board director Rommel Maninang.
Castro said “it should not have come to this (strike) if Fontana had an ear to listen and a heart to feel.”
In a letter to National Commission and Mediation Board (NCMB) Director Darrow Odsey dated December 7, the ARFE disclosed that of the 156 votes (272 are qualified voters) cast, 154 agreed to stage a strike in the minutes of the strike balloting election conducted on November 27.
In the CBA, the ARFE asked for an annual salary increase of some P5,000 beginning 2009 for FLP regular workers who have rendered at least six years of service. It added that workers having at least one year and five year of service will have some P3,000 and 4,000 annual salary increase, respectively.
Castro said they had also asked the FLP to “do something humane” for the casual workers, some of whom had been working with Fontana for at least eight years. The casual workers joined the regular workers in the strike that started just before dawn.
“There are so many casuals that should have been given regular status for rendering service for many years. What kind of treatment is this?,” said Castro.
FLP public relations officer Arlene De Guzman, in a statement, said “the different companies operating in the Fontana Leisure Parks Complex at the Clark Freeport were surprised by the strike of the AFRE.”
She added that “while the different companies recognize the right of employees to organize themselves, they likewise recognize the need to follow the rule of law.”
De Guzman said “that AFRE alleged in its notice of strike ‘refusal to bargain’ on the part of management.”
“What is clear is that AFRE cannot allocate unto itself to be the bargaining agent of the five separate and distinct employers. AFRE cannot lump five employers – FDC, FRCCI, Amazinglyclean Inc., New Hong Kong and Body Bliss Inc. – together and filed only one petition against a non-entity it called ‘Fontana Leisure Parks’,” said De Guzman.
“The management is more than willing to sit down with the employees. But there is a need to first establish if the AFRE can legally represent the employees of the 5 different employers in the FLP complex,” she added.
