Manila Standard Today
December 8, 2010
PHILIPPINE Airlines’ dispute with its ground crew had deteriorated as a result of “some miscommunication”—after the row was closer to resolution “a few couple of weeks ago”—but the government would take care of the problem, President Benigno Aquino III said Tuesday.
The row at the flag carrier got more serious even as Cathay Pacific Airways, Hong Kong’s flag carrier, could be facing troubled skies ahead of the holiday travel season.
Rejecting the airline’s offer of an average salary increase of 4 to 5 percent, the carrier’s pilots authorized their union to start a work slowdown if a new round of salary negotiations starting Dec. 13 went badly.
In Manila, Philippine Airlines welcomed Mr. Aquino’s decision to designate Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa to broker talks between the carrier and its ground crew.
The carrier’s ground crew labor union said its members were voting “overwhelmingly” to go on strike to protest what it says are illegal one-on-one talks with personnel whose jobs the carrier plans to outsource.
The voting started Tuesday morning and was to end at midnight. The results will be sent to the labor department on |Wednesday, Philippine Airlines Employees Association president Gerry Rivera said in a phone interview.
A strike could then be held as early as Dec. 15 following a one-week “cooling off” period mandated by law, he said.
The “individual bargaining” issue was separate from the controversy on whether the carrier could outsource 2,600 of 3,600 ground crew jobs, Rivera said. Bloomberg
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