PAL union warns it’s ready to stage strike

By Michael Lim Ubac
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 02:29:00 11/11/2010

MANILA, Philippines—A labor union of Philippine Airlines Wednesday served notice that it was prepared to hold a strike as early as next week as it accused the labor secretary of issuing an invalid order legalizing the retrenchment of 2,600 airline employees.

At a public hearing of the House committee on labor and employment, PAL Employees’ Association (PALEA) president Gerry Rivera declared the readiness of the union to fight for its members’ security of tenure.

“(Labor) Secretary (Rosalinda) Baldoz’s decision forces us to choose between two false choices … termination from regular employment or strike. We will strike,” Rivera said, delivering his opening statement at the start of the inquiry called by Northern Samar Rep. Emil Ong, committee chair, to look into the twin issues bedeviling PAL—contractualization and outsourcing of services.

At the onset, Baldoz kept a tight lip, telling members of the committee that she was standing by the decision, while the PAL management led by PAL president and chief executive officer Jaime V. Bautista insisted that it was not engaged in contractualization.

Rivera said the soon-to-be-terminated PAL employees represented 70 percent of PALEA’s membership, including 62 percent of the union leadership.

First of series

This is union-busting, he said.

Rivera said the spin-off of PAL’s in-flight catering, airport services and call center reservation operations to third party service providers was just the “first of a series of outsourcing that PAL intends to implement” since it had announced the outsourcing of other services such as medical services and accounting.

“We assert that the outsourcing … is invalid and constituted unfair labor practice,” Rivera said, citing three reasons—outsourcing is banned by the existing collective bargaining agreement; this is not justified by the PAL’s financial situation; and it will ultimately dissolve PALEA.

Following Baldoz’s order, the PAL management has been meeting with employees to offer the separation package which, Rivera said, “aggravates the situation.”

“As a result of PAL management’s premature implementation of Secretary Baldoz’s Oct. 29, 2010 order, PALEA filed on Nov. 5, 2010, a notice of strike in the labor department,” he said.
While vowing to run to the courts and even going up to the Supreme Court to contest Baldoz’s ruling, Rivera said that as authorized by the PALEA board the “strike can happen as early as next week.”
“Before the end of the week we may conduct strike balloting, and by Friday next week we shall be ready with the strike,” he said, warning of a “national crisis” if the strike ensued.