Nakakahiya

Isyu

Tuesday, November 5, 1996

Editorial

WHAT constitutes a "national embarrassment?"

The phrase cropped up in the course of the debate over the strike staged by the Philippine Airlines Employees’ Association (Palea) last week. True, this paper chided the "PAL-amunin" for pushing the struggling airline to the brink of financial ruin. That, however, is just about as far as we're willing to go.

We can never object to the right of workers to press for what they think is a better deal for themselves from their employers. A strike is the only way employees can gain leverage over their bosses.

That the rights of workers to organize themselves freely and conduct industrial action to defend and improve their livelihood are honored in this country should be regarded as a matter of pride, not shame.

Palea's wildcat strike, for the entire rancor it raked up, embarrassed no one save those who would misrepresent "industrial peace" as the silence of a graveyard. That it was staged on All Saints weekend and on the eve of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit merely indicated that the unionists knew how to exploit an opportunity when it presented itself.

We didn't—and won't—buy the theory that the Palea strike was part of a leftist conspiracy to discredit the government in the eyes of its Apec guests. The panderers of this notion have begun to leak to the media so-called intelligence reports that other unions in key industries are also planning to stage strikes to coincide with the Apec summit. Hotel workers as well as those in the MWSS and PLDT have been mentioned as "potential troublemakers."

What should instead cause worry is the all too obvious attempt by certain officials to turn the Apec meeting into an excuse to crack down on trade unionists in the belief that it would please the government's Apec guests. Now that will truly be a national embarrassment—just like the frenzy of slum demolitions and the ban on East Timorese freedom fighters.