PAL abandons talks with union

MANILA, Philippines – The management of the country’s flag carrier Philippine Airlines is no longer interested in going back to the negotiating table to discuss ways to end the impasse with striking employees, PAL president Jaime Bautista said yesterday.

Bautista also defended the implementation of its spin-off/outsourcing program amid criticisms, saying PAL is well within its rights to restructure operations to ensure long-term survival and save the jobs of its 5,000 remaining employees.

“The DOLE (Department of Labor and Employment) and the President have spoken; PALEA (PAL Employees Association) has filed their appeal with the appellate court. Let’s just wait for the CA’s (Court of Appeals) action on this matter. We have nothing more to talk about. The time for diplomacy is long over, especially after the union’s wildcat strike,” Bautista said in a statement.

Bautista said detractors of the plan see the loss of jobs for 2,400 members of the PALEA but conveniently turn a blind eye on the 5,000 jobs of office personnel, cabin crew and pilots that PAL is trying to save.

“The law is on our side. We’re implementing the outsourcing program not on mere whim or caprice but on the basis of legal and valid orders from the Department of Labor and Employment and the Office of the President. We’re doing it to save the airline from financial ruin,” Bautista stressed.

Bautista also lashed out at critics of PAL’s outsourcing plan, saying that they offered nothing other than angry words and mere rhetoric to justify their opposition.

Bautista said PAL is determined to implement the spin-off/outsourcing program today.

“The time for negotiation has long passed. We invited PALEA to a dialogue after the Office of the President threw out their petition seeking to invalidate PAL’s outsourcing plan. PALEA members only have their intransigent leaders to blame for their current predicament,” he stressed.

Bautista said there is no doubt in everyone’s mind that the concerted refusal of PALEA members to perform their official duties in the early morning of Sept. 27 is considered a strike.

“They refused to check in passengers, load cargo and cater food – functions which they are paid to perform while on official duty – yet, they insist it is merely a form of ‘protest’ and not a ‘strike’. That’s the kind of ‘doublespeak’ PALEA leaders have been dishing out since Day One of the debate on the spin-off/outsourcing plan,” he said.

Bautista said the PALEA members’ refusal to work forced management to cancel flights for more than 16 hours last Tuesday that caused untold suffering to more than 14,000 PAL passengers.

“This doesn’t include the millions of dollars PAL lost as a result of PALEA’s illegal acts,” he added.

A failure

PALEA members, meanwhile, are still holding their protest rally and vigil near the PAL in-flight center under the watchful eye of the police anti-riot squad.

The union members are still hoping that PAL management would change its mind. Until the last day of their employment, PAL employees fought hard, but still failed to get their permanent jobs back.

Members of PALEA took to the streets and demanded that airline management reopen negotiations for a peaceful end to the work stoppage.

The call went unheeded, with the management of the country’s flag carrier opting to push through with the spin-off and retrenchment of 2,600 workers.

Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said the government is willing to mediate, but no one among the disputing parties made any request to reopen negotiations.

“It is as clear as day that the outsourcing plan is a failure and PAL does not have the manpower to normalize its operations. We call on PAL to end the lockout of its employees and halt the premature implementation of the outsourcing plan pending the final decision of the courts,” PALEA president Gerry Rivera said.

Rivera clarified that PALEA only agreed to coordinate street rallies in advance so that traffic can be managed and not to notify the government before mounting a strike.

“As to a protest at our workplaces, of course we will not coordinate it with them. If we did that, then PAL and the police will not even allow us to enter the airport and offices. Look at what they did during our protest, they forcibly evicted employees and hurt some in the process,” he pointed out.

According to Rivera, PALEA has repeatedly warned the public that they would hold a protest that will paralyze PAL’s operations.

“Apparently nobody believed our warning, especially since PAL kept on assuring passengers that no flight disruption will happen. So now who is to blame for the inconvenience?” Rivera asked.

He said PALEA and their supporters would continue to hold protest actions in different forms like campaigning in various schools nationwide to inform the people about the adverse effect of contractualization.

“The fight against layoff and contractualization will continue until PAL’s lockout is ended and PAL employees return to their regular jobs,” Rivera said.

Policemen, on the other hand, have been deployed at the airport to ensure the safety of passengers and airport facilities.

Chief Superintendent Carmelo Valmoria, deputy regional director for operations of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO), said police personnel would also help ensure smooth traffic around the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) during the mass protest of PAL employees.

“We have agreed to observe maximum tolerance, but it would be different if they would try to violate the law,” Valmoria said.

Valmoria said the rallyists promised to monitor their ranks to prevent instigators.

The Presidential Task Force on Transport Strike and Mass Action headed by Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) chairman Francis Tolentino met leaders of PALEA yesterday to discuss security preparations for the scheduled mass action.

Tolentino said PALEA has not secured a permit to hold a rally, but they would still allow them to hold their protest actions peacefully.

Rivera said they would just await the ruling of the CA on their motion for certiorari although they would be holding protest actions to dramatize their objection to the spin-off.

Rivera said PALEA members and their supporters are set to march from Our Lady of Airways Parish to the Manila International Airport (MIA) terminal 2.

‘Black Day’

Various trade unions led by the Flight Attendants and Stewards Association of the Philippines (FASAP) and the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) expressed sympathy for the PALEA members.

In a statement, FASAP said it was a “Black Day” for PAL and the entire Filipino workforce since regular workers would be retrenched, only to be rehired as contractuals.

“Throughout PAL’s long history, the (PALEA) members have always been the soul of the airline. Without the PALEA ground employees, PAL would not have made the billions of pesos in profit it made last year. Without them, PAL would have closed down permanently back in 1998,” FASAP said.

“This tragic episode in PAL, which will terminate and contractualize 2,600 loyal and hardworking PAL workers, will go down in Philippine history as yet another blow to the plight of the Filipino workingman. All in the name of profit,” FASAP added.

FASAP echoed PALEA’s call for the management to sit down with them again for honest-to-goodness negotiations and resolve the problem amicably for the sake of industrial peace and harmony.

For its part, TUCP said PAL’s decision to terminate regular rank-and-file employees is a blatant violation of the existing collective bargaining agreement (CBA).

TUCP said the airline’s present difficulties stem from a labor dispute caused by unfair labor practices committed by the PAL management – a deliberate attack on the workers’ fundamental rights and core labor standards using the veil of corporate sustainability and competitiveness.

TUCP also stressed the threat of Malacañang to file charges against PALEA would undermine the Constitution and create a chilling effect throughout the entire labor movement. –Rudy Santos and Mayen Jaymalin (The Philippine Star)