PAL buffeted by new strike threat from flight crew

PHILIPPINE Airlines’ flight attendants, rejecting the carrier’s P80-million pay package, said Monday they will strike within the next few days to protest its alleged unfair labor practices and to air their grievances against it.

The threat followed the collapse of the conciliation meeting between the airline’s management and the Flight Attendants and Stewards’ Association of the Philippines at the Labor Department Monday morning, and the turbulence whipped up by 25 pilots who left just recently for higher pay abroad.

“There is no stopping us now. We will file a notice of strike next week,” union vice president Andy Ortega said.

“We believe that nothing will happen in the next scheduled meeting with PAL on August 17 at the National Conciliation and Mediation Board.”

The airline’s management said it could only offer P80 million because the carrier was still in “dire fiscal condition,” and that it was up to the union’s 1,600 flight attendants and stewards to divide the money among themselves.

“We hope [the union’s] members will understand PAL’s predicament and accept the offer,” airline president Jaime Bautista said.

“While we recognize their desire for higher compensation, PAL’s current financial situation will not allow it to offer more.”

The airline said it lost more than $320 million in the past two fiscal years, which had resulted from the global economic crisis and the spike in fuel prices.

But Ortega said the airline’s “one-time” P80-million offer, to be distributed in three years, was not enough and did not address the union’s grievances over its policy of forcing attendants to retire at age 40. The package also did not address the airline’s alleged minimum-wage infractions and unfair subsidies.

“PAL only offered half of what we deserve,” Ortega said.

“They should have given us P160 million [to make it equal to the PAL Employees Association’s] salary increases and rice subsidies.”

Union president Roberto Anduiza said the airline failed to act on their demand for higher salaries and to extend the retirement age of flight attendants and stewards.

“The pilots’ compulsory retirement age is 60 years old, but for flight attendants, the compulsory retirement age is as young as 40 years old,” Anduiza said. –Vito Barcelo and Jeremiah F. de Guzman, Manila Standard Today