UST faculty strike looms due to deadlock in salary hike, medical benefits

SAN PABLO, Laguna – Faculty members from the University of Santo Tomas (UST) might stage a strike following a breakdown in Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) negotiations between their union and the school administration.

The UST Faculty Union declared on March 14 a deadlock in negotiations on eleven economic provisions, including hospitalization benefits, wage increases, and 11th and 12th month pay for tenured faculty.

“We, the union members, are not greedy. We claim only that which is lawfully ours,” USTFU President Emerito Gonzales said. According to Gonzales, they will file a notice of strike on March 24 if the administration does not provide a “reasonable offer.”

If a notice of strike is filed, the union said that the earliest possible date for a strike will be on May 2. The Labor Code stipulates a cooling-off period of 15 to 30 days to give time to “afford the parties the opportunity to amicably resolve the dispute with the assistance of the National Conciliation and Mediation Board,” and another seven days to give the Department of Labor and Employment the “opportunity to verify” if the strike is upheld by the majority of the union’s members.

Labor rights organization Center for Trade Union and Human Rights said that the demands deserve a “prompt and adequate response” from the administration.

“Without the UST administration’s immediate and adequate response, the USTFU has every right to exercise its right to strike, and we hope that the UST administration and the national government will respect this right,” CTUHR said in its statement. “Workers’ right to collectively bargain is almost meaningless without their right to strike when management refuses to heed their legitimate demands.”

USTFU is demanding salary increases amounting to P26 million, stressing that faculty members have not received a salary increase since 2021. However, the administration is only willing to allocate P17 million for salary increases. Similarly, the administration has denied the union’s demand of P25 million for medical assistance over five years and is only willing to provide P15 million.

UST has one of the largest faculties in the Philippines, employing between 2,000 to 2,300 academic staff in any given semester. It is also one of the most profitable based on documents obtained by USTFU. It has earned P800 to P900 million annually from 2020 to 2024. CTUHR also said that UST has collected P574 million in tuition payments from the same period.

Despite annual tuition hikes since 2021, USTFU said that faculty members have not received their share. Based on the Commission on Higher Education’s guidelines, 70% of the school’s tuition increases must go to salaries of teachers and workers. UST has insisted that any release of funds should be negotiated under a CBA.

Gonzales stressed that the faculty’s share from tuition fees is separate from their proposed salary increase to be sourced from “UST’s other income sources.” He said that UST’s unrestricted funds amounting to P11.5 billion in 2023, “can and should be used to improve faculty salaries.”

“Investing more in faculty welfare isn’t just fair [as] it boosts morale, keeps talented educators at UST, and helps maintain UST’s academic excellence,” Gonzales said. “It’s time UST truly invests in its people.”

CTUHR said that respecting the union’s demands goes hand-in-hand with UST’s motto of “Truth in Charity” and its core values of “Competence, Commitment, and Compassion.”

“Universities should prioritize improving the state of their faculty members’ labor rights, who in the first place make them universities,” the group said. “Respect for faculty members’ labor rights impacts positively on students’ right to quality education, which students are even paying for in the case of the country’s private universities.”

Unionization in the education sector remains low. According to ACT Teachers party-list nominee Dr. David Michael San Juan, majority of private schools only have faculty associations and not unions.

“If you compare data across tertiary institutions, there are more existing unions in [State Universities and Colleges] compared to private institutions,” he said. “Even in Metro Manila, in the U-Belt area, there are more associations than unions.”

San Juan said that compared to the public education sector, forming unions in private institutions is “relatively harder,” citing bureaucratic processes. San Juan was the president of the De La Salle University faculty association where they struggled to transform the faculty association into a faculty union.

He added that although teachers in universities are “relatively better off” than others, this does not invalidate the need for unionization. “Having a union is a concrete way of asserting the faculty’s rights in allowing them to negotiate with the administration.”

He said that faculty unions can better address the concerns of part-time and non-tenured faculty as part of their CBA negotiations. San Juan said that tenure in private institutions comes only after three years. “In other industries, you get regularized after 6 months,” he said. “Even in public universities, you get tenure upon hiring. These are the things that a strong union can negotiate.”

He stressed that the USTFU’s “collective decision” to fight for their rights “gives strength to other organizations and other unions in similar situations.”

“The decision [to reject the UST administration’s offer] was the result of a collective vote, and we’re taking it positively,” he said. “It means the union is committed to securing a good deal for everyone.” (DAA)

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