Red-Letter Ruling in the Realm of Labor Relations

In another precedent-setting case, Sta. Rosa Coca-Cola Plant Employees Union v. Coca-Cola Bottlers Phils., Inc., GR No. 164302-03, January 27, 2007, 512 SCRA 437, the Supreme Court sustained the Firm’s petition for client Coca-Cola Bottlers Phils., Inc. when it expressly and unequivocally ruled  for the first time that shop stewards are considered officers of the union, and for knowingly participating in an illegal strike, shop stewards, along with the other union members, may be terminated from employment. The shop stewards in the case argued that even if the strike is illegal, they should not have been dismissed because they were simple members and not union officers. In upholding the Firm’s contention that they are officers of the union, the Supreme Court acknowledged that shop stewards occupy positions of trust laden with awesome responsibilities even as it lamented that, instead of playing the role of “peacemakers and grievances solvers”, they joined the strike, thereby deserving the penalty of dismissal.