About 170 port workers in Dumaguete City, Oriental Negros. are poised to stage a strike if their demands stipulated in the Collective Bargaining Agreement with the Philippine Ports Authority are not met next week.

The porters belonging to the Dumaguete Port Workers Arrastre and Stevedoring Services carried placards and marched to the Capitol yesterday morning to dramatize their demand for a renewal of their agreement with PPA.

The group led by Libby Tambiga and Cipriano Sabanal was organized in 1999 under the Cipres Stevedoring and Arrastre Incorporated until 2002, when CISAI ceased to exist due to some problems.

The Special Takeover Unit of the Philippine Ports Authority which is presently headed by its new port manager Noeme Calderon, then absorbed the porters.

The porters criticized the PPA for the non-renewal of their CBA since 2004 that, they claimed has resulted in their worse economic situation. This year their bonus was only P200 each, they further claimed.

A notice to strike has been filed by the porters before the Department of Labor in Dumaguete, and a conciliation was scheduled on Jan. 18, with the National Conciliation and Mediation Board regional director Isidro Cepeda.*

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