PAL says flight traffic back up to 70%

Manila Standard Today
by Eric Apolonio and Vito Barcelo

PHILIPPINE Airlines on Sunday said its operations were slowly returning to normal, and that there was no turning back on its outsourcing program that triggered a strike by its ground workers last week.

Airline president Jaime Bautista said the flights were 70 percent of normal and would be back to normal in the next few weeks.

The flight cancellations on Sunday were down to 46 flights, 28 of them international. Ninety-four flights were able to take off.

“PAL is slowly returning to normalcy,” Bautista said. He acknowledged the help of volunteers from the airline’s administrative staff and third-party service providers who took over the work of the striking ground workers.

He said there was no turning back on the airline’s outsourcing program as he rejected an offer from the company’s former employees to return to work in exchange for keeping their old jobs.

“As of midnight October 1, workers in our catering, ground handling and call center reservations units have ceased to be PAL employees,” Bautista said.

“Hence, they have no right to demand or tell the airline how to run its business.”

Bautista said union officials Gerry Rivera and Bong Palad had also ceased to be PAL employees, and were no longer being recognized by the PAL Employees Association.

“They have no authority to negotiate for and in behalf of PAL workers.” he said.

Bautista says the airline’s management will not recall its former ground workers because of the following reasons:

• The outsourcing is now in full swing. The service providers have taken over the functions of the three departments, and anyone wishing to render work must apply with those providers

• The airline will only take back its former workers if a court orders it to do so

• Some former employees damaged the airline’s equipment during their Sept. 27 wildcat strike, and there is no guarantee they won’t do it again

• Mixing the former PAL workers with the volunteers and service providers poses a grave risk to the the people who worked hard to keep the airline flying.

Bautista said the airline’s service providers were doing their best to hire skilled workers to fill part of the vacuum left by its laid off employees.

“We must understand that they were required by [the Labor Department] and Malacañang to absorb all former PAL employees,” Bautista said.

“Now that these workers have shown that they’re not interested, the service providers are working double-time to recruit the people they need.”

Striking workers continued to camp outside the airline’s In-Flight Center near Terminal 2.

On Sunday, union members in Cebu set up their own protest camp outside the Mactan International Airport in Lapu-Lapu City.

“Instead of going to the mall, eating out or just relaxing at home, [the union] members spent their first Sunday as officially jobless with their spouses and children at the protest camp,” Rivera said.

Family members were among the hundreds of protesters gathered at the protest camp since the strike started.

On Friday, the airline’s chief financial officer, Jose Olives, said PAL was set to draw up to $60 million more from Credit Suisse Bank to finance its working capital for its fiscal year ending March 2012.

“We have already drawn $50 million, the first tranche, in September. We will probably draw the next tranche of $50 million to $60 million in a month or two. There’s a balance of up to $150 million,” he said. With Jeremiah F. de Guzman