By Jeannette Andrade
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 05:04:00 08/13/2010
MANILA, Philippines—“Like a thief in the night.”
That’s how Philippine Airlines employees would go on strike should the airline management go ahead and terminate over 2,600 regular staff of the company.
Gerardo Rivera, Philippine Airlines Employees Association (Palea) president, told reporters immediately after Thursday’s conciliation meeting at the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) between the union and PAL management: “We’ve had experiences before, we will do it again. We can paralyze flights. We have proven it before, we can paralyze operations.”
Asked when they might strike, Rivera responded: “If it comes, it comes. We will do it like a thief in the night.”
PAL management, however, doubted if Palea could legally go on strike immediately, saying such union action does not “happen overnight.”
At issue are the termination notices PAL gave its workers in keeping with its plan to spin off its catering, ground-handling and call center units to third parties.
For his part, PAL president and chief operating officer Jaime Bautista said it was within the employees’ right to strike.
“We are requesting the DOLE to resolve it and make its decision,” Bautista said.
In a separate statement, PAL assured the flying public that its employees would not strike anytime soon.
Bautista said labor strikes—especially in public utilities like PAL—did not happen overnight.
“There is a legal process involved which all parties must respect and adhere to, before any lockout or strike can materialize,” he said.
At Thursday’s meeting, PAL officials stressed the spin-off was crucial to the company’s survival.
They urged DOLE to uphold its earlier ruling recognizing the spin-off as “a valid exercise of a managerial prerogative.”
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