TACLOBAN CITY – The worker’s union at the Philippine Phosphate Fertilizer Corporation (Philphos) in Isabel, Leyte will stage a strike if the company would insist to implement its retrenchment program that is set to start anytime next month.

Atty. Lloyd Surigao, legal counsel of the worker’s union called Nagkahiusang Progreso ug Demokratikanhong Mamumuo sa Philphos (Naprodmaphil), told Leyte Samar Daily Express in a phone interview that the union would stick to its demand and stand “of a no retrenchment policy for this year.”

In an earlier interview, Juanito Geongzon, director of the National Conciliation and Medication Board (NCMB) in the region, said that during a conciliation meeting they conducted recently regarding this issue at Philphos, the workers were only demanding that three of their officers be excluded in the retrenchment program.

But Surigao said the exclusion of the union’s three officers in the retrenchment list was just used as their basis to file this concern before the NCMB office here.

“The union’s stand is really not to allow the management to retrench any employee at Philphos this time,” Surigao said.

According to him, they will push through with their plan to conduct a strike if ever the management would not heed to their demand.

He stressed that the management’s declaration of loss is “premature” for this time. It can be noted that Philphos presented about 1.7 billion losses from its position last year.

“The said losses are all estimates. There is no official financial statement yet that would support such claim and make it as basis to retrench workers to continue operating,” Surigao said.