PAL union vows ‘last hurrah’

Employees of Philippine Airlines (PAL) are set to hold one last big rally Friday, the day their employment officially ends and the eve of the company’s switch to an outsourcing scheme that would cost 2,600 jobs.

PAL Employees Association (Palea) members have set up a protest camp outside the PAL In-Flight Center along MIA Road in Pasay City near the airlines’ hub, the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 2.

Palea president Gerry Rivera said the union’s provincial units would be staging their own protests. Palea and other labor groups would also hold rallies near the airports of Davao and Bacolod cities, he said.

On October 1, a similar broad coalition of labor groups, including Palea, will march from Cebu City to the Mactan-Cebu International Airport in Lapu-Lapu City.

“We call on Palea members to report for duty at the protest camp since PAL has locked us out of our workplace at Terminal 2 and other offices,” said Rivera in a statement.

Palea members stopped processing outbound passengers at the Naia 2 on Tuesday as Typhoon “Pedring” lashed Luzon. This resulted in flight disruptions and PAL placing the protesting workers on official leave and asking aviation authorities to remove them from the airport premises.

Meeting on the eve

The airline and the Aquino administration have threatened to file suits for economic sabotage against the workers.

But the union members remain unfazed.

“We are confident Palea’s protest against contractualization last Tuesday was within the bounds of the constitutionally guaranteed right to seek redress of grievances. We consider these threats mere scare tactics that will not weaken the defiance of Palea against the layoff and contractualization scheme of PAL. PAL employees are not stupid. We know the law,” Rivera said.

But Transportation Secretary Manuel “Mar” Roxas II, a senior member of the administration’s economic team, said that the night before the strike, the PAL employees had pledged not to hold any protest actions that might cripple operations as Pedring neared Luzon.

Still, the following day Tuesday, members of Palea went ahead and struck the airline as the volume of passengers swelled and Pedring swirled outside Naia 2.

Roxas said the talks between PAL’s management and union were brokered by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) on Monday night.

“From what I understand, there was an agreement the night before that no labor actions would be carried out as the storm approached,” Roxas told reporters yesterday.

The Palea action resulted in the cancellation of 172 flights and inconvenience to 14,000 passengers.

PAL then placed the union members on terminal leave with pay until the end of their employment contracts which is today, September 30.

Other protest actions

Palea vice president Alnem Pretencio confirmed the meeting with management on Monday night, but denied the union had agreed not to hold any protests.

“What we agreed on was that we would not hold any big rallies in the airport area, but we never discussed other possible protest actions,” he said in an interview.

“Our backs were pushed against the wall and we had no choice but to act to protect our jobs,” he added.

Rivera stressed that what Palea conducted was merely a protest and not a strike, adding: “Good luck to PAL if it can argue its illegal strike case. But we know it is just a threat intended to frighten PAL employees, similar to its repeated warning of administrative cases against protesting workers.”

He said that whoever advised President Benigno Aquino III on the economic sabotage case against Palea “should be outsourced,” adding: “The facts are clear that it was PAL that shut down the company’s computer systems and other communication facilities immediately after the start of the protest, and then cancelled the flights that stranded the passengers.”