CONSUMER group Power Watch Negros, along with the big labor groups, will push for the creation of the Power Advisory and Consultative Council (PACC) that will serve as an operating mechanism in every cities and municipalities in the province, an official said.
Its secretary general, Wennie Sancho, said the component-labor groups would include National Congress of Unions in the Sugar Industry of the Philippines (Nacusip), General Alliance of Workers Associations (Gawa), Congress of Independent Organizations (CIO), and Philippine Agricultural, Commercial and Industrial Workers Union (Paciwu).
Sancho said representatives of the PACC shall come from the workers and consumers sector, representatives from the management of electric cooperatives and local government.
Various issues and concerns shall be given priority by the PACC, he added.
These include the workers' security of tenure and economic status in the electric cooperatives amid the pandemic, and the capacity of the worker-consumers to pay their monthly electric bills due to the reduction of their income with the implementation of flexible working arrangement scheme.
The council, Sancho said, will also prioritize the perennial problem of escalating electricity rates and power outages, and the adverse effect of massive unemployment on the workers of the electric cooperatives.
"The PACC will also look into the policy-direction of electric cooperatives on the issue of monopoly and privatization of the power industry," he said, adding that the council is a coordinated effort of labor.