PAL union fears demise on 64th anniversary

By Jerome Aning
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 09/21/2010

MANILA, Philippines—The Philippine Airlines Employees’ Association, one of the country’s oldest unions, marked its 64th anniversary Tuesday amid threats to its existence due to reported plans by the national flag carrier to retrench two-thirds of the union’s 4,000 members and outsource their functions.
About 200 PALEA members gathered at the PAL offices at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 and then marched to the Our Lady of the Airways Parish church near NAIA Terminal 1 to appeal to the government to support their union and their job security.

“If Palea gets busted as a result of the planned job outsourcing and mass retrenchment of some 3,000 workers, then it will be the death of an institution,” Gerry Rivera, PALEA president and Partido ng Manggagawa vice chair, told reporters.

“For 64 long years, PAL employees enjoyed decent wages and good working conditions, thanks to the protection provided by the union. But with the advent of globalization, PAL’s new business model apparently demands that the company be without a union and full of contractuals,” added Rivera.
PALEA members and their supporters from other unions heard Mass at the Our Lady of the Airways Church, after which they held a program that lasted until noon.

PALEA, which groups about 4,000 PAL ground crew workers, has been opposing plans by the PAL management to lay off about 3,000 of them as the result of the planned spin-off of carrier’s airport services, in-flight catering and call center departments.

PALEA was founded on September 21, 1946. The theme this year of the union’s anniversary is “Job Security is Union Security.”

Last week PALEA submitted to Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz company documents it obtained such as PAL’s latest financial statement and its outsourcing agreements with Sky Kitchen Philippines, Inc. and ePLDT Ventus Inc.

PALEA argued that the documents proved that the financial situation of PAL did not warrant the mass retrenchment and that the contracting out of services was in violation of the collective bargaining agreement.

Since April 23, the labor dispute between PAL and PALEA has been assumed by the Department of Labor, so the union has been prevented from going on strike.

A “midnight decision” allowing PAL management to proceed with the layoffs was issued by then Acting Labor Secretary Romeo Lagman on June 15. The decision is under review by Baldoz on the basis of a motion for reconsideration filed by PALEA.