PALEA says at least 70% voted to strike

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine Airlines Employees Association (PALEA), the flag carrier’s ground crew union, said on Wednesday morning that a majority of its members voted to go on strike to protest the airline’s alleged union busting and individual bargaining negotiations with its members.

PALEA president Gerry Rivera said that based on initial reports, more than 70% of their members voted “yes” to go on strike.

“There are now initial reports coming from different areas. Total yes votes are overwhelming,” Rivera announced.

The PALEA said a total of 26 ballot boxes have already been delivered to its main office in Manila. The group said they will wait for 10 more election returns to be delivered by 3 p.m. on Wednesday before counting the votes.

The union said a total of 3,552 members cast their votes during Tuesday’s balloting.

PAL management and Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz have said that the strike vote may be illegal. Baldoz had warned that PALEA should instead filed a formal appeal instead of the balloting.

PALEA, however, insisted that what’s pending before the Office of the President is the airline’s outsourcing plan, while the strike vote stems from a separate case of union busting and individual–rather than collective–bargaining negotiations.

Rivera said several members have already agreed to the individual bargaining and have received P50,000 gratuity pay.

Rivera, however, said the PALEA will not immediately conduct a massive strike even if the initial reports of overwhelming “yes” votes are confirmed in the final result.

He said the group will give the government and the PAL management 7 days to act on their demands before holding a strike.

He said that they are asking President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III to reverse the government’s earlier ruling which favors PAL’s plan to shut down the airport service catering and call center.

“Pero kung hindi maresolba ang lahat ng isyung ito, malamang matutuloy ang welga,” Rivera said.

Positive action

In a radio dzMM interview, Baldoz said she met with President Aquino and Executive Secretary Jojo Ochoa on Tuesday night, and there was an assurance of positive action from Malacañang.

She said President Aquino personally assigned Ochoa to handle the PAL labor dispute.

She added that Malacañang will ask for another meeting with representatives from the union and the PAL management.

Baldoz said the President still has not decided on PALEA’s petition.

Aside from affirming or junking the petition, the President may ask both camps to agree on a middle ground in order end the dispute.

If the strike pushes through, the labor chief said the government is prepared to provide assistance to those who will be affected.

Background

The current row between PAL management and the ground crew started in 2009 when management decided to outsource non-core operations to cut costs amid stiff industry competition.

Last October, Baldoz decided that outsourcing is a management prerogative, but requried PAL to increase the separation package for the 2,600 employees who will lose their jobs to P2.5 billion from P2 billion.

PAL accepted the requirements but PALEA did not. Eventually, PALEA officers accused PAL management of harassing its members into accepting the generous separation package.

PAL denied this and explained that it was the PALEA members who asked the Human Resources unit to start computing how much their separation packages are worth since the some PALEA members stand to receive up to P1 million each.

Malacañang, which earlier vowed not to get involved in the management-labor row at PAL, said President Aquino and the airline management had a “cordial meeting” last November to discuss the legal and economic reasons for the outsourcing move.

PALEA then filed another a strike notice at the NCMB and resumed regular street protests, eventually leading to Tuesday’s strike vote.

PAL is controlled by tycoon Lucio Tan. It has been dislodged by Gokongwei-led budget carrier Cebu Pacific in the domestic airline market but it remains the largest Philippine airline operating overseas. – with reports from Dominic Almelor and Alex Santos, ABS-CBN News