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A
PUBLICLY listed shipping company announced that it
finished negotiations with its labor union last June,
resulting in a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA)
covering workers’ “political, social and economic
benefits.”
Although
it did not divulge details, Lorenzo Shipping Corp. said
that the agreement also disallows work stoppages for the
next five years.
The
company said that the negotiations only lasted for more
than three months ever since Singapore-based Neptune
Orient Lines took majority control of Lorenzo Shipping
in 1996.
It said
that this is also the first time that both panels
reached an agreement without formal intervention from
top management and legal counsel from both parties.
Lorenzo
Shipping and its union reached the agreement on June 13,
and the CBA was endorsed on June 30.
The
company, now majority owned by the Magsaysay group, was
founded in 1972 by the Go family with their main
business of interisland cargo handling.
The
company operates a fleet of seven vessels, which can
carry anywhere from 200 to 400 20-foot metal containers
with speeds of 11 knots to 15 knots, deployed to key
ports in the Visayas and Mindanao.
Its
network is comprised of branches in
Cebu, Davao, General Santos, Cotabato,
Iloilo,
Cagayan de Oro and agencies in Zamboanga, Dumaguete and
Bacolod.
Lorenzo
Shipping’s net income for the first quarter of the year
ending March nose-dived by 80 percent, to P3.7 million
for the period from last year’s P18.33 million, after
the company had cut the number of its trips.
Its net
revenue from freight operations decreased by 14 percent,
to P278.36 million from the previous P324.62 million,
while its operating expenses, though lower by P10.42
million for the period, almost remained high at P276.11
million.
The
company is expected to report its second-quarter income
within the month. Its shares at the Philippine Stock
Exchange remained unchanged Friday at P1.18. |
