Radio Mo Nationwide workers file notice of strike

DAVAO CITY, Philippines — Radio Mo Nationwide (RMN) workers filed a notice of strike, on Wednesday afternoon, with the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) here just days after negotiations for a collective bargaining agreement reached a deadlock last September 23.

The workers are asking for a P75-increase in their daily pay.

The RMN workers, who held a rally outside the station’s premises on Anda street, also burned an effigy depicting the company’s financial statement.  The management earlier presented to workers a financial statement claiming that the company has been losing by P7.9 million in the previous year.

“We’re burning that because that’s a lie,” said Rey Hernan Fabe, president of the RMN Employees’ Union, a media union affiliated with the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU).

“We know that the company is earning millions every month,” Fabe said.

Based on the number of advertisement spots the company has been accommodating every month, workers estimated the company’s combined income for its Davao AM and FM stations to easily reach P24 million monthly, Fabe said.

Fabe said their salary hike demand would cost the management only a small fraction of its monthly earnings. RMN workers said the management granted in the 1995 CBA with the previous union, a 15 per cent salary increase for workers every year.

“The P75 increase we are demanding is even less than one per cent but still the company refuses to grant,” said Fabe.

He also said the company harassed union members, taking away their daily radio programs at the station and assigning them to do field work.

The company also banned the use of Facebook and removed the meal allowances of union members, something workers friendly with the management continued to enjoy.