PAL Strike Leaders Have Nothing to Lose

Manila Standard

Saturday, November 2, 1996

By EMIL P. JURADO

There's only one reason why the striking PALEA or Philippine Airlines Employees' Union defied two no-strike orders of the Department of Labor and Employment.

As I said in a previous column, the union was misled by a "Group of 40," which has nothing to lose. The 40 are among the 181 who were dismissed for leading another wildcat strike in 1994, and the case against them has been elevated to the Supreme Court. Management has since reinstated 141 of them, but their fate, together with the 40 still pends in the Tribunal. This leaves the "Group of 40" desperately fighting to be rehired by all means. In other words, they have nothing to lose, and since misery loves company, they are leading the defiant PALEA members to be their bedmates.

An analysis of the strike issues brought up by the union are non-strikable. Unfair labor practices like check-off shortage, delay in check-off remittances, threats of sanctions, ration delays and discrimination are mere grievances that can be resolved under the grievance machinery provisions of the Collective Bargaining Agreement. In short, these non-strikable issues are for CBA grievance machinery to resolve. I have sat in one of these committees myself when I was a vice president of the Loyola Group of Companies, and I know that some sort of compromise can be arrived at between management and labor.

To be sure, labor cannot expect management to submit to blackmail and extortion like the PAL strikers holding the public hostage to get its demand for a P3.2 billion economic package, which is almost as big as PAL's annual P4 billion payroll.

Read all those impossible demands of the PAL union and weep. Across-the-board increase of P5,000 in addition to all government mandated wage adjustments and allowance increases; Christmas bonus of 150 percent of basic salary; mid-year bonus equivalent to one month current basic salary; 13th month pay commuted from the employees annual income divided by 12; increase in overtime premium rates from 35.5 percent to 50 percent; and more perks and more benefits other companies haven't heard of.

For an airline that has been losing P3 million daily, and P9 million now as a result of the strike, it's like squeezing blood out of a turnip. Union members should consider themselves lucky since other airlines worldwide that have been losing money have cutbacks on wages and salaries and laid off people by the thousands.

One of the placards of the striking PAL union read: "PI05 billion para sa eroplano, singko wala para sa amin." The placard refers to the PAL modernization and refleeting program of $4 billion within a period of three to four years to enable the airlines to compete globally, and hope to put it in the black.

This complaint of the union strikes deep into the lack of understanding what Lucio Tan and PAL president Jose Antonio Garcia are doing for the airline and in effect for the entire PAL employees in the long run.

What is happening to PAL now is internal hemorrhage and the only way to keep the airline alive is to refleet and modernize it. But in the process it has to borrow money. Garcia put it very well when he said that to achieve the goals of PAL, it has to borrow. You don't go to a bank and borrow for next month's payroll. The banks will only lend if they are shown a feasible and viable plan to pay back the loans. And only the refleeting and modernization of PAL to enable it to compete globally can convince banks to lend it money.

As I said earlier, the "Group of 40" which has gained control of PALEA has another agenda. They are out to extort and blackmail management. In the process they destroy the airline and make management pay for what happened to them. In other words, they have nothing to lose and if PAL goes under, what do they care?

PALEA is holding the riding public hostage. If PAL really goes under, it's not only Lucio Tan nor Pepeton Garcia they are hurting. It's also the prestige and integrity of the country.