PAL Union Should Apologize

The Manila Chronicle

Monday, November 4, 1996

Editorial

THE PAL union agreed on Saturday to lift the strike after a three-day job action that left tens of thousands of travelers stranded in various places of the country and abroad. We feel its willingness to negotiate for a collective bargaining agreement within the month does not reduce its accountability to the public for the harm it has done.

The officers and men of PALEA should issue a statement apologizing to the nation and pledging to give a little more respect to the national flag carrier. That should atone for its leaders' misjudgment and callousness.

"In the first place, the timing was really cruel. In trying to improve its leverage against management, the union officers backed up by people with vested interests, declared a wild-cat strike when citizens were about to leave to visit their departed ones in the provinces. If the union thought it was hitting businessman Lucio Tan, they were wrong. It was traveller Juan de la Cruz who was harmed by their act.

We don't know if the union officers were indeed able to achieve their goal of improving their chances of getting more benefits from the losing company. What we are sure now is that they have to face angry citizens who consider the union as insensitive people who will violate sacred Philippine traditions to increase their already extraordinarily high wages and salaries.

The more fundamental point pertains to the validity of the core issues presented by the union. According to reports, PALEA is asking for a P3.2 billion in salary increases and benefits. That is not a small amount, considering that PAL has been losing money. What is the basis of that demand? It is based on thin air. For the usual principle in all collective bargaining agreements is: one bases his demand on the profits of the company.

That is why we think irrationality has dawned on the union leadership. There is one observation worth repeating here. The PAL union has been used to being pampered that it has been allowed to get away with high salaries since its formation as a state-subsidized company. In short, it has been getting the tax money of the Filipino people so that the employees could maintain their privileges.

The union leadership has not been able to justify the strike even to those who would like to sympathize with labor. It wants a share of the pie but that pie is small and is still being increased through an ambitious modernization program of the present management.

The best choice for the union is for it to work in partnership with PAL so that it could partake of the accompanying benefits once the modernization program takes off. This cannot be achieved by striking, and striking on the day one wants to go to the provinces on All Souls' Day.