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WORK at
Dumaguete Port returned to normal operations after the
labor union reached an agreement with the government and
the winning bidder to absorb all workers, an official of
the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) said on Friday.
Raul
Santos, PPA assistant to the general manager and also
Visayas port district manager, said the deal is a
“win-win” and communication lines have been restored
between all parties.
“It’s
settled now. Dumaguete port is back into full commercial
operations. Hopefully, we will not encounter any more
hitches with the new agreement,” Santos said.
Based on
the agreement signed by all parties last week, the
winning contractor, Prudential Customs Brokerage
Services Inc., will absorb 119 workers through its union
Associated Labor Union-Trade Union Congress of the
Philippines.
The firm
also recognized the union as the collective negotiating
party to any agreement with the port,
Santos
said.
Since
mid-March, operations at Dumaguete Port, one of the main
gateways in the Visayas, has been chaotic after dock
workers took over the operations of the terminal and
prevented Prudential and the PPA from taking over.
Port
operation was virtually on a standstill except for some
passenger vessels that were allowed to use the terminal,
while cargo ships were diverted somewhere else.
As a
result of the dispute, losses piled up for both the PPA
and shipping lines, which had to divert their cargoes to
the private ports such as the Dumaguete Coconut Mill
port, PPA general manager Oscar Sevilla earlier said.
Shipping
lines reportedly are incurring losses of about P6
million a week since the start of the labor dispute.
According to estimates, Sulpicio Lines is losing some P2
million a week from payment of cargoes to be shipped out
of Dumaguete, while the Aboitiz-owned SuperFerry is
losing some P1.6 million.
Smaller
firms such as George and Peter Lines, Cokaliong and
Alesson Shipping Lines are losing anywhere between
P300,000 and P800,000 a week.
The PPA,
on the other hand, is also losing some P420,000 a week
from port charges like usage and wharfage fees, and its
10-percent share from the proceeds of cargo- handling
operations.
In
December 2006 Prudential won the cargo-handling contract
for the port after the PPA took over the services in
Dumaguete in September 2002.
Prudential has not absorbed hundreds of members of the
union, leading to the workers’ action. It also did not
acknowledge the collective bargaining agreement between
the workers and the former employer, Cipres Stevedoring
and Arrastre Inc., claiming the employment of porters is
a management prerogative.
The PPA
has allocated P395.7 million for the Dumaguete Port
expansion project, one of its biggest budget-line items
last year. The project involves privatization of
cargo-handling services for domestic and international
operations once the construction has been completed.
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