PAL's Master Mechanics

Manila Standard

Monday, November 4, 1996

By LARRY V. SIPIN

BACK to the saltmines!

That is, if you made it out of the saltmines.

If you were among the thousands who never made it out of the saltmines because of the PAL strike, I can imagine that you must still be gnashing your teeth and cursing the strikers. Go ahead and curse them all you can — they deserve all the cuss words there are.

TAKE A BOW. I can imagine that this guy Alexander Barrientos, President of the Philippine Airlines Employees' Association (PALEA), must be wearing an ear-to-ear grin. You know — like the cat that swallowed the canary.

Barrientos has just succeeded in humbling, not just PAL, but the government. The flag carrier and the government whose flag the airline carries had to cry uncle to Barrientos. Otherwise, PAL will continue to suffer hundreds of millions more in losses. Otherwise, the islands of the archipelago would continue to be isolated from each other. Otherwise, the country would continue to be segregated from the rest of the world.

I tell you, Alexander Barrientos is a big man. Bigger than FVR. Bigger than Labor Secretary Leo Quisumbing. Bigger than Taipan Lucio Tan.

Alexander Barrientos can take a bow. A real low bow. The better for the irate public to give him a kick in the ass.

MECHANICS. Who is Alexander Barrientos anyway?

Barrientos is an aircraft mechanic detailed at PAL's Line Maintenance International Division. He is classified as a "master mechanic."

A PAL aircraft mechanic starts out as "Mechanic C." On the merits and as he gains experience and training, he is upgraded to "Mechanic B," and then, to Mechanic "A."

From "Mechanic A," the next step up the ladder is "Master Mechanic," which also has "C," "B" and "A' levels. I'm not quite sure which level Master Mechanic Alexander Barrientos belongs.

To be sure, Master Mechanic Barrientos must possess exemplary leadership qualities. Otherwise, he would not be elected president of such a big union as PALEA which has more or less 10,000 members.

Barrientos' predecessor as PALEA president, a certain Santos from the airline's Catering Services Division, was exempted from going to work during his tenure as head of the rank-and-file union. Santos enjoyed double compensation — he received full pay and benefits for official functions which he did not perform, even as the union paid him salaries and allowances, and granted him benefits in his capacity as president.

It is a tradition at PAL that if the rank-and-file union asks to be exempted from doing his regular work, management gives him that privilege in recognition of the fact that running a union as big as PALEA is a full time job.

Barrientos, too, enjoys double compensation, but unlike his predecessor, he did not demand to be exempted from performing his work as Master Mechanic.

Barrientos does not hold what you would call a regular job. To begin with, mechanics like him have revolving shifts, thus, he has no fixed working hours which would allow him to program his free time for union. Also, mechanics like him, given erratic arrival and departure schedules, are often asked to work overtime. Likewise, mechanics like him are often asked to fly out of town to service aircraft where the services are needed. And then, there's the fact that among Master Mechanic Alexander Barrientos' duties is to serve as "Flight mechanic maintenance," which means that he regularly flies as in-flight mechanic for international destinations.

Busy as he is and time consuming that his job is, one wonders how Master Mechanic Alexander Barrientos can administer the day-to-day affairs of PALEA, not to mention how he could have found time to plan and orchestrate the crippling strike recently staged by the rank-and-file union.

It can only be because Master Mechanic Barrientos has master mechanics working behind him. Like he's only the front man, with the master mechanics doing the work for him in smoke-filled backrooms.

That is not speculation. The master mechanics behind the PALEA strike emerged from the woodwork during the negotiations. The PALEA president sat back as left-leaning lawyers and labor and activist groups ran the show and held the country hostage.

WAGE HIKE ASSESSMENT. Let's focus on just one demand —the P5, 000 across-the-board increase retroactive since 1991.

Very good if management can afford that. Very, very good if all employers can give their employees a P5, 000 across-the-board salary increase.

But let's be realistic. Can PAL, can any company for that matter, afford to grant a P5,000 across-the-board wage increase?

Nope. Some companies may actually be able to afford giving such a hefty raise, but would any capitalist give that?

What would be a realistic wage hike?

Let's get an assessment from the government. Not that I agree, but let's hear the assessment anyway. The government's assessment of a realistic wage hike is...waiting till you hear this, and I warn you, you just might faint...is — P17.

Have you fainted already?

P100 BASKET. Socio-Economic Planning Secretary Cielito Habito said in a recent Cabinet meeting that in the face of the increased prices of basic commodities and services resulting from the oil price increase, the working man would need an additional PI7 monthly to make both ends meet.

According to Habito, per studies made by the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA), of which he is director general, the overall impact of the oil price increases on living expenses would amount to additional expenses reaching P17 a month.

Habito's assessment was interpreted by some media sectors as a proposal for a wage increase.

The President corrected that interpretation. "That was not a proposal for a wage increase," said FVR.

The President explained that the assessment was simply an adjustment of the consumer price index or CPI under which NEDA determines the purchasing power of the peso.

How is this figured out?

FVR explained that the NEDA has a "traditional basket of goods and services that is supposed to be worth P100." As sorted out by FVR, the items in the NEDA basket are "nandiyan ang rental, transportation, ilaw, clothing, recreation, communication, of course, three meals a day."

What used to be a basket worth P100 is now worth P117 as a result of the increases in the prices of the items in the basket spurred by the oil rice increase.

There. You and me, we need just an additional P17 per month to make ends meet. At least, that's what NEDA's basket calculations tells us. In sum, what they're telling us is that the prices of the items in the basket have very minimal, hardly noticeable increases. For instance, milk, which the President used as an example. The price of milk, according to FVR increased by less than one percent of a centavo, which certainly is hardly noticeable. That may be true. What FVR failed to notice is that there is no milk in the basket because a great majority of wage earners can't afford milk.

Anyway, on that basis, Finance Secretary Bobby de Ocampo said - "The price increases that are taking place are not that great."

A P17 monthly wage increase will do.

The PALEA hotheads want P5, 000 more monthly.

I agree that workers should be granted an increase of much, much more than P17, but to demand for P5,000 is, to be realistic, asking a bit too much.

Everybody now — let's be reasonable.