172 PAL flights canceled as ground workers strike

PHILIPPINE Airlines canceled 172 flights into and out of its Manila hub on Tuesday after its ground workers refused to work to protest their impending layoff as a result of the company’s program to contract ground services from third-party providers.

PAL president and chief operating officer Jaime Bautista told reporters the work stoppage affected more than 14,000 passengers set to fly to and from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 2.

“This morning, about 300 PAL ground workers on duty at the airport suddenly refused to perform their official functions in the ramp, check-in counters and catering areas,” Bautista said.

He said the incident forced the flag carrier to cancel flights from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., affecting over 8,500 domestic and 5,500 international air travelers.

President Benigno Aquino III, who is in Japan, said the work stoppage showed “insensitivity to the riding public” and ordered Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. to coordinate with the Labor Department and airport officials to resolve the problem.

Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda, quoting Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz, said the airline management and ground workers were in a conciliation meeting, and said Mr. Aquino’s scheduled return on Wednesday would not be delayed by the strike.

The Philippine Airlines Employees Association said its members reported to work Tuesday, but stopped refueling planes, moving cargo or manning checkin counters at 7 a.m., leaving thousands of passengers stranded.

The union was protesting PAL’s plan to close down three departments—its call center, in-flight catering and airport services—by Sept. 30 and to subcontract those services.

About 2,600 workers will lose their jobs, but they have been offered new employment by the third-party providers Sky Kitchen and Sky Logistics owned by Cebu businessman Manny Osmeña and SPI Global Holdings owned by Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co.

“Palea has decided to act now instead of waiting for the onslaught of the outsourcing typhoon on Friday,” union president Gerry Rivera said.

“This is the mother of all protests against layoff and contractualization. Nobody will go home and we will not back down until our demand for job security is met.”

The PAL flights arriving from Seoul (PR 467) and Tokyo (PR 431) were transferred to NAIA Terminal 1 in coordination with the Manila International Airport Authority.

Bautista said the airline’s administrative staff were ready to take over, but management decided to defer their deployment to avoid a clash with ground workers.

Bautista said the airline was now coordinating with airport authorities, the Labor Department and the police to clear the counters and ramp areas of striking workers.

“We’re ready to resume operations anytime, so long as airport authorities and the police clear our work areas of illegal strikers,” he said.

Airport police gave striking workers until 4 p.m. to vacate their work areas, but not all of them had left two hours after the deadline passed.

Some were evicted after PAL declared their access passes invalid and a fistfight followed between union members and security personnel after some of them were forced out of the terminal. At the Terminal 2 check-in counters, security guards and airport police surrounded PAL employees, many of them women, who had linked arms.

PAL issued a memo declaring all ground employees affected by the spin-off that they were “off-duty” up to Sept. 30 with pay.

On Tuesday, PAL’s sister airline AirPhil Express said it accommodated some of the legacy carrier’s domestic passengers on its flights to and from NAIA 3.

“So far, we were able to comply [with our flights] while helping out in filling the needs of some affected PAL passengers,” AirPhil senior vice-president Alfredo Herrera said in a phone interview.

“But the volume of passengers we can accommodate [on Tuesday] depends on space availability because we also have our loads.”

Herrera said the budget carrier was ready to field extra flights to serve other PAL passengers. “If we have to, then we will field additional flights. We have available crew and aircraft.”

Bautista said they were now studying possible administrative and criminal charges against the the strikers.

“Our lawyers are preparing the appropriate charges to be filed against these workers,” he said. –Jeremiah F. de Guzman and Eric B. Apolonio with Joyce Pangco Pañares, Maricel Cruz, Vito Barcelo, Manila Standard Today