Aquino intervenes in PAL labor row

By Christine Avendaño
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 09:12:00 11/12/2010

TOKYO, Japan – President Benigno Aquino III admitted that he has intervened in the labor dispute at the Philippine Airlines and said there were "promising" signs that ground workers may not end up going on strike.

Shortly after arriving here for the 18th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Economic Leaders meeting in Yokohama, the President said he was brokering talks between PAL management and its employees.
The President said before coming here to attend the Apec summit that he met early this week with "several individuals to include representatives from the labor sector and PAL management trying to get them closer to a negotiated settlement and ease the fear of both parties."

"We're like the bridge. We're trying to be a bridge and so far there are so many promising signs and I have to wait as to how far they have gone and see what acceptance has been by both parties," he told reporters Thursday night.

Aquino said he expected to get "some word" on the matter today (Friday).

President Aquino said that Malacanang has been "preparing" to intervene into the dispute and said it decided to come in while it had "not yet received the appeal for review of the decision of Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz."

"So it's a preemptive meeting even before we got and had the notice and we are preparing," he added.
This development came as PAL management the other day said it had asked the labor department last November 5 to dismiss the strike notice of the PAL Employees Association (PALEA), which was filed before the National Conciliation and Mediation Board.

PALEA filed the notice of strike after Baldoz upheld PAL’s plan to spin off in-flight catering, ground services and call center reservation operations that would lead to the lay off of 2,600 workers.