THE UST Faculty Union (USTFU) has formally elevated to government mediators the industrial dispute over a new salary and benefits deal with UST management, filing a notice of strike with the National Conciliation and Mediation Board (NCMB) on March 25.
Union officers, led by the president, Asst. Prof. Emerito Gonzales, trooped to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) in Intramuros on Tuesday to formalize the USTFU’s intent to stage a strike.
This is amid the deadlocked negotiations for the 2021-2026 collective bargaining agreement (CBA), which had been discussed for over a year but was stalled due to disagreements over hospitalization benefits and the fund source for a salary restructuring.
While the notice informs the NCMB of the union’s intention to hold a strike — where employees stage a temporary work stoppage — UST faculty won’t proceed with the strike at least until May 2, if the deadlock remains unresolved.
This is because the NCMB still has a 30-day “cooling off period” to attempt to resolve the dispute through conciliation efforts, mediating between union and management panels in discussing provisions that had been deadlocked.
Gonzales said the union was “optimistic” about reaching an agreement within this timeframe.
“In the next 30 days, we are optimistic and we believe that the administrators of UST are very reasonable people,” the union president told the Varsitarian after filing the strike notice with DOLE’s mediation agency.
In a press release, USTFU said the deadlock in negotiations was a result of UST’s refusal to release faculty’s share in tuition hikes amounting to over P220 million and collected from 2020 to 2023.
By law, 70% of tuition hikes must go to the salaries of faculty and support staff.
“While UST has publicly claimed to offer an 8.489% salary increase, this figure is inflated by aggregating three years’ worth of increases and fails to match the 23.9% cumulative inflation from 2021 to 2024,” USTFU said.
“Moreover, the offer disproportionately benefits a small fraction of the faculty—only about 17 professors are set to receive the highlighted back pay of nearly ₱500,000, while the vast majority of faculty members will receive substantially less,” it added.
Union and management negotiators had also been at odds over where to source a P26-million allocation for the “salary restructuring” and “rank upgrades” of faculty members, one of the deadlocked provisions.
Management insisted that rank upgrades should come from teachers’ tuition hike shares, saying this was what students were told during tuition increase consultations. But USTFU wanted the amount shouldered by the UST general budget, arguing that rank upgrades were promotions and fall under management prerogative.
Hospitalization benefits also remain unsolved. UST management offered to increase the medical benefits cap by P50,000 to P150,000 annually plus P300,000 for critical illness, but the latter is conditional upon the faculty’s acceptance of the salary restructuring offer.
USTFU wanted 100% coverage, similar to what UST Hospital workers are getting.
Gonzales said the other nine provisions originally outlined in the USTFU’s deadlock notice but contested by Vice Rector for Academic Affairs Cheryl Peralta will be revived in the renegotiation as both sides have yet to reach a “final agreement.”
READ: UST admin: Only 2 provisions unresolved in faculty salary, benefits deal
“That’s not an agreement because it’s a conditional one. That’s why mabubuhay ‘yon,” he said.
‘We’re not greedy’
Responding to UST’s statement published on the same day USTFU filed the notice of strike, Gonzales noted the disparity between how the union and administration viewed the deadlock.
He said UST management wanted to focus on the “forest” rather than the “trees,” as it laid out in a three-page statement the benefits and support that faculty members had acquired from UST in the past.
Gonzales said the USTFU would remain focused on having the teachers’ needs addressed.
“We’re not questioning the commitment of UST to excellence and the retention of talent. But in the way I see it, UST wants us, the public, to see the forest but not the trees — not even the sickly old tree,” the union president told the Varsitarian.
“It’s an argument of wants versus needs — we are on the side of our needs. We’re not greedy. We’re just asking for what is justly ours according to the law.”
If the NCMB fails to produce an agreement within 30 days, the USTFU may call for a strike vote on April 24. A request must be filed with the NCMB regional branch at least 24 hours before the scheduled vote.
If union members vote to strike, the Secretary of Labor will have seven days to assume jurisdiction and resolve the dispute through compulsory arbitration.
This makes May 2 the earliest possible date for a strike, according to USTFU. with reports from Carlo Jose H. Ruga and Rev E. Dela Cruz
