Bad Timing

Philippine Daily Inquirer

Friday, November 1, 1996

Editorials

WHO said the customer is always right? More often than not they are caught right in the middle of disputes between labor and management.

Thousands of passengers, who wanted to go home for All Saints' Day, found themselves going nowhere Wednesday night and all of yesterday when employees of Philippine Airlines walked out of their jobs. The wildcat strike grounded 28 domestic flights, aside from eight PAL international flights on Wednesday and 85 flights to and from the Manila Domestic Airport yesterday. The operations of other domestic and international flights out of the domestic airport and the Ninoy Aquino International Airport were also adversely affected since members of the striking union also handle their cargo services.

Officers of the 9,000-strong PAL Employees’ Association had earlier warned that they would be forced to go on strike if management refused to grant their demands for higher salaries and stop its practice of hiring contractual workers. Union officials charged that in carrying out the airline's $3.2-billion modernization program, the management has resorted to hiring foreign pilots, flight attendants, mechanics and maintenance crew, often paying them more than their regular employees. The management has also created sister companies to handle catering, cargo, maintenance and overhauling operations, the union said.

The management countered that PAL could not meet all the economic demands of the three unions, citing successive losses in past years. It offered instead a stock option plan for all its employees to cover part of their demands.

With the negotiations deadlocked, union officials asked President Ramos to intervene, warning that they might go on strike before the Apec summit this month. On Wednesday, Mr. Ramos ignored their threat and appeal and told the unions to accept the stock option plan. A few hours later the strike was on.

To the union, it must have seemed like perfect timing. The three-day weekend promised to be a profitable one with passengers rushing to the provinces for All Saints' Day. Union officers also probably figured that the show of force would force Malacañang and the labor department to settle the dispute speedily and in the union's favor lest it continue up to the Apec summit, to the government's great embarrassment.

If all the union wanted was to deny the airline some profits, flex its muscle and underscore the government's helplessness, it has succeeded immensely. But if it wanted the public to understand what the dispute is all about and bring it to its side, then it failed completely. Now all the public will think about is how thousands were denied the opportunity to be with their families on the one day next to Christmas when tradition dictates that they gather together to honor their dead. More than PAL management, more than the government, it's the passengers and their families who are victims in this dispute. Doesn't anybody care anymore what the public thinks or feels?