PALEA Strike

Manila's Daily Magazine

Tuesday, November 5 1996

The Other Side

By RC CONSTANTINO

THE labor strife at Philippine Airlines (PAL) has attracted a lot of comment and analysis. Some were well-intentioned, others were maliciously one-sided.

The picture became muddled due to lack of information as well as disinformation. We said in our previous column that there's more to the strike staged by the PAL Employees' Association (Palea) than meets the eye. The P.R. machine of PAL is decidedly efficient and, to a point, effective. But this does not make for the whole story.

To give the other side of the Palea strike, we feel Arno Sanidad and Edgardo Abaya, Palea's lawyers, are best situated. What follows is their story behind the unfolding saga.

Procedural break

WHAT started out as a labor dispute involving union-busting by PAL against Palea has assumed a more complex, intricate, and sinister color.

Unknown to the general public, the October 31, 1996 assumption order issued by Undersecretary Cresenciano Trajano—and, in an unprecedented break from the procedure, concurred in by all the other undersecretaries of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE)—represented the culmination of what appears to be a long and deep-seated power struggle between two separate factions within the DOLE, each with its own private agenda rooted in self-interest and gain.

To place these matters in perspective, a brief chronology of the events leading to the issuance of the assumption order is necessary.

On October 4, 1996 Palea filed a notice of strike to protest PAL'S refusal to bargain in good faith, citing PAL's refusal to submit their counter-proposals for over a year to date. The notice of strike was assumed by Secretary Leonardo Quisumbing on October 18, 1996, thereby enjoining a strike by Palea.

On October 24, 1996 Quisumbing unilaterally assumed jurisdiction again over the same notice of strike previously assumed on the speculative ground that Palea was about to strike at midnight of October 25, 1996; the second assumption order expressly prohibited both PAL and Palea from acting provocatively against each other. The information Quisumbing relied upon proved to be false because Palea was not intending to strike and did not strike on October 25, 1996.

On October 25, 1996 PAL president and chief operating officer Jose Antonio Garcia issued a memorandum to all PAL employees—disregarding all of PAL'S three employee unions Palea, Fasap and Alpap and offered a financial package for the first time in over one year.

On October 28, 1996 Palea protested Garcia's memorandum and moved that the labor secretary cite Garcia in contempt of the second assumption order on the ground that his memorandum constituted illegal "individual bargaining" and the provocation which was expressly prohibited by the DOLE secretary.

On October 28, 1996 also, after obtaining solid documentary evidence of PAL's illegal contractualization scheme, which amounted to union-busting, Palea filed a second strike notice to protest PAL'S contractualization.

On October 30, 1996 Palea went on strike, paralyzing almost completely PAL's Metro Manila domestic operations as well as those in other provinces and crippling its international operations.

On October 31, 1996 Undersecretary Buenaventura Magsalin, Jr. summoned the parties to a conciliation conference at 10:30 a.m. at the Office of the Secretary; both parties appeared through their respective representatives. A series of conferences took place between representatives of PAL and Palea, with representatives from DOLE and NCMB present.

All this time the principal DOLE officials involved in the conciliation efforts were: Magsalin, Undersecretary Jose Espaňol, Director Reynaldo Ubaldo, Conciliator Elliot Cojuangco, Conciliator Mario Santos and Attorney Hesiquio Malilin.

Return to work

AT an early stage of the conciliation, Magsalin proposed to Palea a "return to work agreement' to be signed under the auspices of the Executive Secretary Ruben Torres, widely known to be Magsalin's benefactor and political sponsor. Magsalin even assured that Torres would arrive, if Palea would agree. Palea rejected this proposal.

Sometime in the afternoon, during a lull in one of the conferences, Espaňol called to his side Alexander Barrientos, Palea president, and showed him what appeared to be an order already prepared and ready to be signed by Quisumbing. The order essentially granted Palea's motion to cite Garcia in contempt and would call for a hearing on November 7, 1996 on the various issues Palea presented.

Barrientos was later informed that the draft order was prepared and to be released upon Quisumbing's express instructions before he left for Japan but which, for one reason or another, was not issued, thereby directly resulting in provocation and Palea's defensive strike.

At about 5:30 p.m., while Magsalin and Cojuangco were conferring separately with PAL representatives, Malilin approached Sanidad, and asked if he would agree to meet with Espaňol privately. Sanidad turned to his principal, Barrientos, to ask for permission. Barrientos agreed for so long as he would also be part of the private meeting. Thus, Sanidad and Barrientos left with Malilin.