Contractual workers of Tanduay Distillers Inc.-Bacolod Plant will appear before the National Conciliation and Mediation Board at 2 p.m. today after holding a strike vote Saturday on their complaints of union-busting and illegal termination against the management and their agency.

Von Lachica, president of Samahan ng Manggagawa sa TDI, said he was one of those previously terminated when his contract supposedly ended on Nov. 25.

We don't really have a contract, but a job order good for five months, he said.

The contractual workers, were all hired to work as machine operators through an agency, Ponce Engineering Services, which could not be reached for comment as of press time.

During the strike vote, 19 out of 20 union members participating voted in favor of the strike. There are presently 24 machine operators working at TDI-Bacolod as contractuals.

Teofilo Agravante, president of Labor Union of Tanduay Employees, said their group, together with the Labor Power Council- Negros , supports the contractual workers who are being harassed by their agency because they had formed a union.

Four of them were even re-assigned to pull out weeds when their duty is to man the machines, Agravante said.

This is not only a violation of labor rights, but also a violation of human rights, he added.*NLG

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