PAL Employees Stage Wildcat Strike

The Philippine Star

Thursday, October 31, 1996

By NIXON KUA and DAVE GOMEZ

Employees of the Philippine Airlines (PAL) staged a wildcat strike last night, resulting in the cancellation of at least eight incoming international flights and five domestic flights.

The work stoppage pushed through despite an order from the Department of Labor and Employment barring PAL employees from staging a strike to avoid disrupting the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit next month.

The strike started at around 6 p.m. when members of the PAL Employees' Association (PALEA) walked out from their stations at the Manila domestic airport, the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, the PAL Technical Center in Pasay City and in at least eight key local airports.

Workers were also reported picketing the highly sensitive PAL in-flight center and cargo warehouse.

Bong Peñas, PALEA spokesman, said they were demanding their long-delayed salary increase and protesting PAL management's plan to hire contractual workers under its modernization program.

There was still no word whether the Airline Pilots Association of the Philippines (APAP), to which some 450 PAL pilots belong, will join the strike.

The 2,500-strong Flight Attendants and Stewardess Association of the Philippines (FASAP) said it will not join the work stoppage.

The strike also crippled the ground services at the NAIA, delaying cargo-handling operations of five international airlines by at least an hour.

Even baggage handlers walked out in protest of what they perceived as their management's apathy to the workers.

This prompted airline officials to hire the services of at least three local firms to handle all domestic and international cargoes of PAL.

At Malacañang earlier, President Ramos said he will not intercede in the labor dispute at PAL despite threats from its union to strike in time for the opening of the fourth APEC summit here next month.

"The Department of Labor and Management (DOLE) has taken cognizance of these concerns, the issues and controversies," the President told reporters at his weekly press conference.

"This initial approach of the government through the DOLE is to let the employers and employees to settle their differences," Mr. Ramos added.—With AFP reports 

PAL strike may peril ind'I peace

Industrial peace and the momentum of economic growth in the country may get disrupted because of the refusal of the management of Philippine Airlines (PAL) to negotiate overdue collective bargaining agreements with its employees.

The grim prospect for the economy surfaced yesterday as the Association of PAL Labor Unions (APLU) continued its protest actions against PAL by picketing the Allied Bank building, headquarters of Lucio Tan's companies in Makati.

"Only a direct intercession by President Ramos could now stop us from going on strike," declared Andy Ortega, Director of the Flight Attendants and Stewards Association of the Philippines (FASAP), one of three PAL unions determined to go on strike over anti-labor and union-busting charges against the national flag carrier before the APEC conference next month.

Labor unrest at PAL may expand to other segments of the economy as the 14,500-strong Philippine Long Distance Company union and the 8,500-member Manila Electric Company union threw their support to the protesting PAL employees.

PALEA also expected support from its mother federation, the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), the country's largest labor federation.

TUCP sources could not, however, give the federation's official stand on the PAL labor controversy and its potential disruptive effects on the economy because its top leaders were attending a conference on the forthcoming APEC summit.