The Philippine Star
Friday, November 1, 1996
By NIXON KUA and MAYEN JAYMALIN
The Philippine Airlines (PAL) management warned its striking employees yesterday that they would lose their jobs if they don't return to work today.
The warning came hours before PAL management representatives and leaders of the PAL Employees' Association (PALEA) met at the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) in a last-ditch effort to strike a deal to end the work stoppage.
As of early last night, the management and the strikers were locked in a verbal tussle, justifying their respective acts.
In other developments yesterday:
• Senate President Ernesto Maceda offered to mediate in the PAL labor dispute after President Ramos refused to intervene as requested by the PAL employees.
• Three local airlines — Cebu Air, Grand Air and Air Philippines — assured Malacañang they are ready to ferry stranded passengers in time for All Saints' Day.
Several international airlines have also brought in their own crews to prevent delays in their flights.
Jose Antonio Garcia, President and Chief Operating Officer of PAL, said they have advised striking personnel to return to work not later than today or the employees will be deemed terminated from the company.
"The company shall consider any employee who fails to report to work as herein directed to have abandoned his position and lost his employment status, giving the company the right to validly hire his replacement," Garcia said.
But PALEA ignored the warning, saying that Garcia "is not the secretary of labor."
The union also cited a law which allows them to go on an immediate strike over a separate charge of union-busting against management.
PALEA said it is determined to fight to the end in the dispute over pay and conditions.
"Our jobs here are at stake, the future of our families. We are being pushed to the wall," said Jose Peñas, Union Secretary.
But lawyer Luis Ermitaño, PAL legal counsel, said the management is bent on enforcing sanctions against hundreds of employees who joined the strike.
"We are just implementing the law and they should be sanctioned for violating the order of the labor department," he said.
Labor Secretary Leonardo Quisumbing assumed jurisdiction earlier over the labor row, preventing PAL employees from staging a strike and the management from locking out workers.
Quisumbing cited national interest as a reason for the strike ban, which could disrupt preparations for this month's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit at Subic.
Workers want a salary adjustment, but Ermitaño said the strikers' demands are too much for the airline to absorb. He claimed that PAL is losing an average of P7 million a day even when the workers were not on strike.
But the union would not buy such a claim, adding that they would continue with their work stoppage until their demands are met.
Lawyer Arno Sanidad, counsel for PALEA, said the workers will not comply with Garcia's order.
"I did not know that there is a new secretary of labor. Only the secretary can issue such an order," he said.
PAL, on the other hand, said it is not ruling out administrative and civil actions against the strikers even after the picket has been lifted.
Airline officials said they have already canceled seven international flights and 27 domestic flights, affecting some 20,000 passengers since the wildcat strike last Wednesday.
PAL also said in a statement that thousands of arriving passengers were stranded at airline terminals because workers refuse to unload baggage.
It said workers also barricaded entrances and exits at company premises, blocked the transfer of food for departing planes and cut off power at the cargo office.
Noel Navarrosa, terminal operations assistant at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, said other foreign airlines also suffered delays in departures and arrivals because most of PAL ground crews went on strike.
A Cathay Pacific flight from Hong Kong had to wait for about 30 minutes on a taxiway before it could be parked at the terminal, he said.
He said PAL managers, supervisors and other non-striking staff were handling ground operations for PAL and other airlines, some of them operating airplane tow trucks.
Senate offers to mediate
The Senate offered to mediate the labor row at PAL as Senate President Emesto Maceda urged the upper chamber to resolve a five-year-old case involving the airline's flight attendants' union.
Maceda said he and Senators Emesto Herrera and Marcelo Fernan are willing to sit down with PAL management and the employees to resolve their differences as soon as possible.
At the same time, Maceda said President Ramos should intervene and attempt to
convince PAL management and union to come to an agreement to prevent further disruptions in its services.
Maceda chided the airline's management for failing to give their workers a salary increase for the past four years, saying that the airline has apparently used a case pending in the Supreme Court to prevent the conclusion of a new collective bargaining agreement with the union.
"For the employees not to have adjustments for the last four years is really something that I think is not only unfair but un-Christian like," he said.
Maceda said further stoppage in PAL services would affect the national interest as other airlines could not yet fill a void left by the strikers. — With reports from Bobby Capco, AP
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