PAL operation ‘normal’ despite threat of strike from union

Darwin G. Amojelar
The Manila Times
March 26, 2011

PHILIPPINE Airlines (PAL) on Friday said that its operation is “normal” despite a threat from the airline’s union to hold a strike.

In a statement, the Lucio Tan-owned flag-carrier shrugged off a claim of the Philippine Airlines Employees Association (Palea) that majority of its members voted in favor of a work stoppage, as it assured passengers of continuing flights.

Palea said that 95 percent of its members voted yes in the strike poll conducted on Wednesday.

The group added that some 70 percent of its members turned out for the strike vote and a mere 4 percent voted no.

“The massive vote for a strike is an expression of protest at the 13-year long suspension of the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) and the planned contractualization amidst PAL’s $1.6 billion yearly profit. Our demand for new CBA negotiations has remained unheeded for the past five month, thus we are forced to go on strike,” Gerry Rivera, Palea president, said.

Rivera added that a strike can still be shelved if PAL stops breaking promises and instead opens negotiations without any preconditions.

Palea finished tallying the votes late on Thursday from all PAL offices and outlying stations and on Friday morning submitted the results to the Department of Labor and Employment in time for another conciliation meeting.

In the last strike vote conducted last December, some 86 percent voted yes.

Jose S.L. Uybarreta, PAL vice president for Human Resources, said that government-brokered conciliation meetings are ongoing.

He added that PAL management informed the National Conciliation and Mediation Board (NCMB) also on Friday that it will submit its collective bargaining agreement (CBA) counter-proposal on Monday as earlier committed.

With the ongoing talks, Uybarreta said, PAL sees “no rhyme nor reason” for the strike vote called by the union on Wednesday.

He described as “complete fabrication” accusations by Palea that PAL allegedly refuses to bargain with its union.

According to him, PAL is willing to open negotiations, name its panel of negotiators and submit its counter-proposal.

While PAL believes that the union’s planned strike has no legal basis, Uybarreta said, the flag-carrier is not leaving everything to chance.
“We are making the necessary preparations to prevent flight disruptions and passenger inconvenience,” he stressed.

“PAL respects and strictly adheres to the legal process. As we have repeatedly told Palea and the NCMB, PAL is open to negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement, but it cannot include the spin-off issue because the same is still pending before Malacañang,” Uybarreta said.

On Thursday, Palea said that majority of its members in Metro Manila voted for a strike.

During a telephone interview, Gerry Rivera, Palea president, reported that 96.4 percent of the total votes cast in Metro Manila area were in favor of a strike vote, while only 3 percent of its members voted against the move.

Rivera said that 1,996 members in Metro Manila participated out of some 2,987 total members.

Palea’s move to strike came after PAL management refused to negotiate with the union about their CBA that was suspended 13 years ago.

Rivera said that PAL has sat on its request for bargaining negotiations for five months now.

According to the Labor Code, before any legal strike can proceed, a notice of strike must be filed and then a strike vote is conducted in which a simple majority of members must agree.

“The Metro Manila votes of Palea members are a clear trend that we believe will be repeated in the outlying stations once the ballots have been counted. This [heralds] of the determination of PAL workers to fight for their regular jobs and right to bargain. We hope that PAL management will heed this call instead of dismissing it as baseless,” Rivera said.

Palea expected to finish counting the rest of the ballots from the outlying stations all over the country on Thursday night.

“The strike vote results will be submitted (Friday) to the Department of Labor and Employment in time for the conciliation meeting set at the Intramuros DOLE office,” he said.

After the submission, according to Rivera, the group needs to undergo a seven-day strike ban.

If there are no intervening events, he said, the actual strike is expected to happen seven days after Friday.

“Promises are unfortunately easy to make and break especially for PAL. Instead of promising to begin negotiations within two weeks, we suggest that PAL actually do so by submitting its counter-proposal to our CBA proposal that management has sat on for five months already.

PAL must start negotiations without any preconditions. How can PAL negotiate in good faith when it already wants to remove provisions in the coverage of the CBA even before it has opened the bargaining process?” he asked.