Column by Emil P. Jurado

Manila Standard

Monday, November 4, 1996

By EMIL P. JURADO

The Philippine Airlines wildcat and illegal strike ended yesterday. But not after it disrupted the Todos los Santos trips of so many people from the Visayas and Mindanao and other parts of Luzon.

Actually, the union leaders had no choice but to end the strike and lift their picket. They had to go back to the negotiating table not only because Labor Secretary Leo Quisumbing gave then an ultimatum to return to work or else they would be dismissed, but because about 50 percent of the PALEA (Philippine Airlines Employees' Association) have started trekking back to work as early as Saturday. The reason for this is that the majority of the PAL employees realized the union leaders were using the union in their vendetta against PAL management.

The wildcat strike was instigated by the "Group of 40," the PAL unionists who staged a wildcat strike in 1994. In that strike 181 were dismissed but 141 were reinstated, and the fate of the remaining 40 still hangs in the Supreme Court. This Group of 40 have nothing to lose when they instigated the recent strike.

The PAL employees realized that the illegal strike not only deprived them of their livelihood, but also resulted in public indignation and disgust at the PAL union. They found out that the dirty hand of leftist unionists manipulated the union to further their own hidden agenda.

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The Group of 40 and the left-leaning elements wanted to embarrass the government, hoping that the strike would be unresolved until the APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) summit later this month.

The strike served as some kind of experiment on how the government would react to similar situations. Note that even though the strike was illegal, there were no sanctions slapped on the unionists. In fact, Quisumbing bent over backward to accommodate them by having management sign a memorandum of understanding to have 3 collective bargaining agreement sewed up by Nov. 21.

To a certain extent, this was a moral victory on the part of the left-leaning organizations led by Renato Constantino of Sanlakas and the Filemon "Popoy" Lagman group. Lagman was former head of the dreaded New People's Army hit squad, the Alex Boncayao Brigade.

After getting away with the wildcat strike without penalties, the next step is to manipulate PLDT and Meralco unions to go on strike during the APEC summit. It would truly be a disaster, and the leftists can do it.