CHUAYUCO STEEL MANUFACTURING CORPORATION AND/OR EDWIN CHUA VS BUKLOD NG MANGGAGAWA SA CHUAYUCO STEEL MANUFACTURING CORPORATION

CHUAYUCO STEEL MANUFACTURING CORPORATION AND/OR EDWIN CHUA

VS

BUKLOD NG MANGGAGAWA SA CHUAYUCO
STEEL MANUFACTURING CORPORATION
513 SCRA 621 (2007)

A union officer who knowingly participates in an illegal strike and a worker who knowingly participates in the commission of an illegal strike are deemed to have lost their employment status.

Buklod ng Manggagawa sa Chuayuco Steel Manufacturing Corporation (the union), a legitimate labor organization, is the recognized bargaining agent of Chuayuco Steel Manufacturing Corporation (the corporation) of which its co-petitioner Edwin Chua is the President.

In the election of the union officers, Camilo Lenizo (Lenizo) emerged as President. The corporation however refused to recognize the newly elected officers for the reason that there is an intra-union conflict between the factions of Lenizo and Romeo Ibanez, the former acting union president.
The union staged a strike which causes illegal acts that intimidated and harassed the corporation and non-striking employees. The strikers use physical violence and harass those employees who are not on their side by shouting and threatening them not to go to work anymore. The Labor Arbiter declared the strike illegal and thus, some of the members who participated in the mass action lost their employment status.

ISSUE:
Whether or not some of the employees who participated in the strike should be reinstated without loss of seniority rights

HELD:
Article 264 (a) of the Labor Code states that any union officer who knowingly participates in an illegal strike and any worker or union who knowingly participates in the commission of illegal acts during a strike may be declared to have lost his employment status.

Thus, a union officer may be declared to have lost his employment status if he knowingly participates in an illegal strike and in this case, the strike is declared illegal by the court because the means employed by the union are illegal.