The Philippine Star
Saturday, November 2, 1996
By NIXON KUA
Striking employees of the Philippine Airlines (PAL) defied a government order yesterday to end their three-day work stoppage that has stranded some 20,000 passengers and canceled nine international and 47 domestic flights.
"We have no plans to return to work," said Abel Capili, a board member of the PAL Employees' Association (PALEA). "We will fight them to the bitter end."
But PAL management reminded the strikers to return to work before midnight last night or face sanctions.
The workers are asking for an economic package worth at least P3.2 billion, which airline officials have called "unrealistic."
The demands include a P5,000 monthly increase retroactive to 1991, a Christmas bonus amounting to 150 percent of their basic salary, a mid-year bonus amounting to their basic salary, and an increase in overtime rates from 35.5 to 50 percent.
PALEA also wants an increase in the number of their leaves to include menstrual, matrimonial, family, parental and union anniversary leaves. These would sum up to an average of two months leave annually, PAL management said.
The union also wants a retirement plan that would include a lifetime allocation of one sack of rice, eight free tickets a year, hospitalization and medical services, professional fees, medicine and a monthly pension of P4,000.
The workers also want an educational loan, a so-called attendance incentive, free shuttle bus, a month's vacation leave, a day care center, housing and a car loan.
PAL management said that such demands are too much, considering that the airline company has been losing at least P1 billion a year since 1986.
Management added that the workers are already getting most of what they have been asking for.
The strikers and PAL management were supposed to meet yesterday for another round of mediation with acting Labor Secretary Cresencio Trajano.
"But we did not attend this meeting since we were not notified," a PAL labor leader said.
However, Trajano said he left a copy of the order at the PALEA office, where the supposed meeting was to take place.
Trajano has been trying to reconcile PAL management and the strikers since last Wednesday, when the employees walked out from their stations.
Last Thursday night, however, "all-out efforts to effect a settlement proved to no avail. The conciliation meeting had to be adjourned after several hours when the parties remained irreconcilable," Trajano said in his return-to-work order.
Trajano gave the strikers until midnight last night to return to work. He also ordered management to accept the workers without punishing them for joining the strike.
"Our direct intervention in the present dispute is warranted by the fact that the work stoppage that will take place in the company will have an adverse effect on the air transportation in the country," he said.
Trajano added that the strike will put the country "in a bad light in the global community” as it prepares for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit this month.
Trajano said he has also sought the assistance of the Philippine National Police, the general manager of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport and the Bureau of Air Transportation to enforce the order.
Gerry Rivera, PALEA Vice President, said workers will not return to work until they have received an official copy of Trajano's order.
Theodore Te, one of the several PALEA lawyers, also criticized management for refusing to talk to the union until the workers lift the strike.
"Management is insistent that the workers should return to work before they agree to talk," Te said. "(But) talk about what, they wouldn't say."
Yesterday, the strike caused the cancellation of 47 domestic flights and nine international flights to Singapore, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Xiamen, Seoul, Taipei and Kaoshiung.
Foreign airlines also suffered delays in departures and arrivals because most use PAL ground crews, who joined the strike.
Workers barricaded entrances and exits at company premises, blocked the transfer of food for departing planes and cut off power at the cargo office.
The strike began as Filipinos prepared to travel to the province for a three-day holiday beginning on All Saints' Day yesterday. The airline said thousands of arriving passengers have been stranded because workers refused to unload baggage.
Last Oct. 4, PALEA filed a strike notice at the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE). Two other PAL unions representing pilots and flight attendants earlier filed strike notices.
The DOLE assumed jurisdiction over PALEA's strike notice last Oct. 18 and issued an order banning the workers from striking and the management from locking out workers.
However, union leaders said the law allows them an immediate strike over a separate charge of union-busting against management.
The workers said one of their grievances is the hiring of contractual workers to do union work, thus undermining the union.
They also claimed that PAL has tried to reduce its financial losses by creating spin-off companies to replace regular workers in catering, maintenance, cargo and engine overhaul operations.
Leftist groups behind strike
Police and military intelligence officials said yesterday local leftist groups were behind the strike at PAL, adding that the union has already been infiltrated by such groups.
Sources said PALEA is affiliated with the Buklurang Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP), an umbrella organization of trade unions organized by Felimon “Popoy” Lagman.
Lagman was allegedly the chief of the communist urban hit squad Alex Boncayao Brigade (ABB) which killed some 200 military and police officers in the 1980s.
A police source said the PAL strike was aimed at embarrassing the government before foreign leaders who will he attending the APEC summit this month.
An intelligence report said the PAL strike was allegedly hatched during a meeting between union leaders and Lagman at a resort in Los Baños, Laguna.
Others who also attended the meeting were Renato Constantino, president of Sanlakas, and Nilo de la Cruz, whom intelligence officers claimed is Sergio Romero — the chief of the ABB.
Constantino and Lagman could not be reached for comment.
Sanlakas, a cause-oriented group, and several people's organizations have announced plans to conduct a series of rallies during the APEC meeting starting on Nov. 21.
Sources at the APEC secretariat on security and intelligence said earlier that Lagman and his group are planning to disrupt the APEC summit.
But Lagman, through APEC National Organizing Committee Chairman Retired AFP Chief Gen. Lisandro Abadia, denied such a report. — With reports from Jaime Laude, AFP, AP
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