PAL workers to Aquino: Junk labor chief’s OK of job outsourcing

Philip Tubeza
Philippine Daily Inquirer
November 16, 2010

MANILA, Philippines—Officials of Philippine Airlines (PAL) ground crew union on Monday trooped to Malacañang for a conciliation meeting with airline management as they urged President Aquino to stop the retrenchment of at least 2,600 of their colleagues.

Philippine Airlines Employees Association (Palea) officials attended the meeting at the office of Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. and insisted that the planned mass layoff would not solve PAL's financial problems.

“We also reiterated our call, as stated in our formal appeal to President Benigno Aquino last Friday, for him to suspend the implementation of the decision by Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz," said Gerry Rivera, Palea president and Partido ng Manggagawa (Worker’s Party) vice chairman.

Rivera said Aquino could use the powers under the Labor Code that allowed the President "to intervene at any time and assume jurisdiction over any labor dispute in order to settle it."

"That power has usually been used to stop workers from holding a strike. We are challenging P-Noy to employ it to stop management’s planned mass layoff,” Rivera said.

He also said that Palea would push through with its plan to hold a strike vote this week despite the ongoing talks between and PAL and the union at the National Conciliation and Mediation Board.
“The strike vote is part of the process provided for the law towards holding a strike. We are merely complying with the legal requirements," Rivera said.

"We are thus calling on Palea members to express their sentiments through the strike vote. We will invite the Department of Labor and Employment to observe the holding of the strike vote,” he added.
Rivera said that various labor groups that have come out in support of Palea would hold a National Day of Action on November 25. The theme they picked was “No to Contractual Employment! Fight for Regular Jobs!” he added.

Rivera said thousands of workers from the various labor groups were expected to participate in the main rally in Metro Manila and in other key cities.

A thousand "restive" workers of Fortune Tobacco, also owned by PAL owner Lucio Tan, might attend "since their job security is threatened by the merger with Philip Morris that created the joint venture company Philip Morris Fortune Tobacco Corporation (PMFTC) last February," Rivera said.
“PAL employees should not pay for PAL’s financial crisis since we did not cause it. Moreover, the retrenchment will reduce PAL’s losses by an insignificant 7 percent," he added.

Rivera said the real reason for the mass layoff was "not to save PAL but to bust the union and replace regular jobs with contractual workers.”

Palea also urged Malacañang to initiate efforts toward regulating the widespread practice of contractualization through both executive action and legislative measures, Rivera said.

“Despite the denial of Secretary Baldoz that her decision is not a go-signal for capitalists to outsource work, the ruling can and will be used by employers by similarly arguing that management prerogative and financial distress allows them to replace regular jobs with contractual employment," he added.