Union covers own backside

King of the hill
By the Staff
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 21:35:00 08/10/2010

THE CABIN crew union of beleaguered flag carrier Philippine Airlines has been dishing out sob stories in media about alleged gender and age discrimination in the workplace due to the company’s 40-year old retirement rule.

But Biz Buzz learned from some cabin crew members themselves that union leaders of the Flight Attendants and Stewards Association of the Philippines (Fasap) were partly to blame for agreeing to the early retirement provisions in exchange for higher pay and benefits. In fact, they said, claims that union officers were “under duress” when they signed the CBA containing these alleged
“discriminatory” provisions were all “baloney” (their words in quotes, not ours). If it were true that PAL management resorted to “arm-twisting” tactics to force the union to sign the CBA, then it should have been brought up before the labor department many years back, they claimed. But now, they said Fasap is moving heaven and earth to recall these provisions because members were questioning why the union leaders agreed to them in the first place.

One cabin crew member said it was ironic that Fasap leaders were crying foul over alleged management discrimination when in fact, older cabin crews were allegedly discriminating against their own kind. They claimed older flight crews monopolize international routes where per diems and allowances are bigger and in dollars, while the newer cabin attendants were relegated to domestic flights. When management proposed the “mixed crew” set up to allow younger crew to experience international flights, Fasap flatly rejected it. This leaves many young flight attendants wondering, who’s discriminating against whom? Daxim L. Lucas