By Philip Tubeza, Paolo Montecillo
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 03:09:00 11/07/2010
MANILA, Philippines—Citing unfair labor practices, the ground crew union of Philippine Airlines (PAL) on Friday filed a new notice of strike before the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) in Manila.
Gerry Rivera, president of the Philippine Airlines Employees’ Association (PALEA), accused PAL managers of talking to individual employees to convince them to accept a mass layoff due to the planned outsourcing of some services.
The outsourcing move was recently approved by Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz.
“We decided to file the notice of strike because of widespread and persistent attempts by management to convince union members, which by law is individual bargaining and constitutes interference in the right to self-organization,” Rivera said.
“These are issues separate although related to the question of the mass layoff recently decided by the labor secretary,” he added.
It is the second notice of strike by PALEA this year. In January, the union, representing more than half of the airline’s rank and file, threatened a strike after it learned of PAL management’s plan to outsource non-core services.
This would include in-flight catering operations, airport services and call center reservations, affecting 2,600 employees. Management argued that the plan will help the company cut costs and be more competitive.
The DOLE jurisdiction over the dispute in April, which prevented PALEA from pushing through with the first strike plan. In October, DOLE ruled that the outsourcing plan was “a legal exercise of management prerogative.”
In the new notice of strike, PALEA charged PAL management of bargaining directly with union members “which is tantamount to interference with, restraint, and coercion of employees in the exercise of their right to self-organization.” It also said the resulting mass termination of union officers due to outsourcing amounted to union busting.
The mass layoff will lead to the dismissal of 62 percent of the present union leadership and 70 percent of its leadership, Rivera said.
“The 1,000 union members who will remain then will be the subject of the next round of outsourcing which is already in management’s drawing boards and will be perfectly legal using the Baldoz decision as a precedent,” he said.
“The mass layoff is a teleserye that started with PAL’s maintenance and engineering department and in the end none will be left standing except the kontrabidas,” he added.
Baldoz echoed a management statement that said passengers need not worry about a strike disrupting the holiday travel season. She said the DOLE has scheduled a conciliation meeting on
Monday. There would also be a 30-day “cooling off” period to get the two sides talking again.
“We have already scheduled this and it will go through our regular process,” Baldoz said in an interview.
PAL management denied PALEA claim that it was engaged in unfair labor practices. It also said the new notice of strike was baseless and was “nothing but a union strategy to delay implementation of the flag carrier’s spin-off program.”
Message to passengers
“There is no reason for our passengers to be alarmed. A strike is not likely to happen anytime soon as the DOLE views PAL’s continued operations as imbued with national interest,” PAL spokesperson Cielo Villaluna said in a statement.
She added: “We categorically deny ‘directly negotiating’ with union members, as claimed by PALEA, inasmuch as management regularly conducts consultative talks only with PALEA officials and not with the members,” she added.
With this “delay” in the implementation of PAL’s outsourcing plan, Villaluna warned that the processing of the separation pay and other benefits “in time for the holidays may have to be discontinued.” With a report by DJ Yap
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