DOLE asked to act on aviation sector mass layoffs

 

The labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) called on the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) for a pro-active response to the continued hemorrhage of jobs as Lufthansa Technik Philippines (LTP) announced that 300 workers will be laid off in April. PM is asking the government to implement a massive public employment program to provide decent jobs to the newly unemployed. The DOLE announced recently that half of the 400,000 workers reported as retrenched last year were fired in the last quarter of 2020.

 

“The layoffs at the aviation sector, such as in LTP, Philippine Airlines, Cebu Pacific and Air Asia are a wakeup call to the government that the economic crisis is still worsening and that urgent action is needed to assist millions of unemployed. Workers are suffering from the double whammy of high unemployment and high prices,” stated Rene Magtubo PM national chair.

 

PM is reiterating the Nagkaisa labor coalition’s proposed Unemployment Support and Work Assistance Guarantee (USWAG). USWAG calls for a state-led creation of jobs, including green jobs, ranging from 100 days to 9 months, and to provide a P10,000 income guarantee to the unemployed, including OFWs, to enhance aggregate demands that the economy badly needs for recovery. The USWAG proposal was officially submitted by Nagkaisa to DOLE last year. A wealth tax on the richest Filipinos is likewise being proposed to fund the costs of economic recovery.

 

PM is also demanding a P100 across-the-board salary increase together with a new round of ayuda in the form of a universal basic income guarantee amounting to P10,000 for the working poor in the informal economy.

 

Magtubo insisted that “The DOLE cannot just be a passive collector of statistics of dismissed workers. It should also be regulating the series of mass firings since it may involve contractualization and union busting. Employers are weaponizing covid-19 to bust unions, shift to endo and deny workers their benefits and rights.”

 

PM pointed to the 300 workers laid-off in the garment factory First Glory in the Mactan Economic Zone and the 200 employees rendered jobless by the shutdown of the Arcya Glass Corp. in Calamba, Laguna. Among the fired First Glory workers were union officers and members. Some 76 First Glory union officers and members plan to file cases for union busting and illegal dismissal.

 

Meanwhile the union at Arcya Glass already has a pending case for union busting and illegal closure. The union alleges that the shutdown of the glass factory a few months ago was motivated by the company’s desire to avoid negotiating their collective bargaining agreement. Further, the union is calling on the DOLE to investigate since the factory is operating on a skeletal workforce despite filing for permanent shutdown. The workers maintain a picketline outside the factory in protest at the alleged illegal closure.

February 13, 2021

PAL layoffs meant to bust unions

 

The labor group Partido Manggagawa slammed the massive layoff of 2,300 employees in Philippine Airlines (PAL) as meant to weaken if not bust the two remaining unions at the national flag carrier.

 

“Every economic crisis has been exploited by PAL management to reduce its regular employees and increase its outsourced and endo workforce. The 1997 Asian crisis led to the 1998 mass layoffs, the 2008 Great Recession led to the 2011 outsourcing and now the covid-19 pandemic is the alibi for another round of retrenchments. While PAL’s regular employees are cut to the bare minimum, outsourced endo workers have ballooned,” said Rene Magtubo, PM national chair.

 

PM stated that the PAL layoffs are a wake up call to the government that the economic crisis is still worsening and that urgent action is needed to assist millions of unemployed workers. The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) announced recently that half of the 400,000 workers reported as retrenched last year were fired in the last quarter of 2020.

 

“The DOLE cannot just be a passive collector of statistics of dismissed workers. It should be pro-active. In the first place, it should be regulating the series of mass firings since it may involve contractualization and union busting. Employers are weaponizing covid-19 to bust unions, shift to endo and deny workers their benefits and rights,” Magtubo asserted.

 

PM pointed to the 300 workers laid-off in the garment factory First Glory in the Mactan Economic Zone and the 200 employees rendered jobless by shutdown of the Arcya Glass Corp. in Calamba, Laguna. Among the fired First Glory workers were union officers and members. Some 76 First Glory union officers and members plan to file cases for union busting and illegal dismissal.

 

Meanwhile the union at Arcya Glass already has a pending case for union busting and illegal closure. The union alleges that the shutdown of the glass factory a few months ago was motivated by the company’s desire to avoid negotiating their collective bargaining agreement. Further, the union is calling on the DOLE to investigate since the factory is operating on a skeletal workforce despite filing for permanent shutdown. The workers maintain a picketline outside the factory in protest at the alleged illegal closure.

 

PM is supporting the labor coalition Nagkaisa’s call for an emergency jobs creation program called unemployment support and work assistance guarantee or USWAG. The group is also demanding a P100 across-the-board salary increase together with a new round of ayuda amounting to P10,000 for the informal sector and the unemployed. 

February 3, 2021

Subsidy to airlines must have pro-labor conditionalities

Photo from Asian Nikkei

The labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) asserted that any subsidy for the airline industry must be tied to conditionalities. “Public aid to private corporations, especially big business like airlines, should enhance social justice and workers’ rights. We demand that taxpayer bailout of the three local airlines must be conditional,” declared Rene Magtubo, PM national chair.

He added that “Specifically, these conditions should include no layoffs, reinstatement of those already retrenched this year and institution of worker representation in the corporate boards of the airline companies. The airlines’ demand for P8.6 billion per month would easily surpass in two months the P3 billion spent for DOLE’s CAMP and P10 billion for SBWS that benefited workers. Withholding taxes levied on workers constitute the biggest portion of the tax revenues and thus labor is a stakeholder in any disbursement of people’s money.”

Last February 28, Philippine Airlines (PAL) announced a mass layoff of 300 regular employees allegedly due to the impact of covid. Then in March 19, Cebu Pacific let go of 150 cabin crew on probationary status because of covid travel bans. Finally on April 3, the 1Aviation Groundhandling Services Corp. retrenched 400 workers who were due to be regularized. The company services Cebu Pacific and is a joint venture of the Gokongwei-owned Cebu Air Inc. and another ground handling corporation.

“These 850 fellow airline workers deserve to have their jobs back as part of the recovery of the airline industry. No one must be left behind as the airline industry gets back on its feet with the help of taxpayer’s money,” insisted Eugene Soriano, former treasurer of the union PAL Employees Association (PALEA).

He demanded that PAL, before it receives any government subsidy, must implement the 2013 settlement agreement forged between the airline and PALEA to reinstate 600 employees retrenched in 2011 due to a controversial outsourcing program.

Magtubo argued that if the airlines would reject conditionalities on state aid for the airlines, the industry might as well be nationalized. “If the three airlines can only survive on taxpayer support, then nationalization is another option. Three private airlines competing for reduced passenger demand is an inefficient utilization of capital,” he averred.

PM’s demand for pro-labor conditionalities on government support is part of its call for “workers first in the new normal.” Part of its workers first platform are calls for ayudang sapat para sa lahat, balik trabahong ligtas, ayuda lagpas sa ECQ and makataong tugon hindi militarisasyon.

12 May 2020

DOLE asked: Take PAL’s assertions with a grain of salt

The labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) asked the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to be more critical of the statements of Philippine Airlines (PAL) management regarding the mass layoff of 300 regular employees. This was the group’s reaction to the pronouncement of DOLE Assistant Secretary Benjo Benavidez that there is nothing illegal in the latest round of separation at the flag carrier.

“The DOLE is cognizant of the outsourcing dispute at PAL and that historically the company has laid off regular employees so that the work is subcontracted to endo workers in service providers. Thus DOLE must be more critical of the basis and purpose of the recent retrenchment of 300 employees,” asserted Rene Magtubo, PM national chair.

Alnem Pretencio of the Philippine Airlines Employees Association (PALEA) also called on DOLE to immediately decide pending labor cases of the flag carrier. He explained that “Given this most recent mass layoff, it is incumbent upon the Office of the Labor Secretary to decide on two unresolved cases. One is the illegal dismissal in 2015 of 117 workers in the provincial airports. And second, the results of the SAVE inspection of PAL which found that the flag carrier illegally practiced labor-only contracting in the use of contract workers in the service providers. The cases have languished at the DOLE for the past several years.”

Magtubo averred that “The findings of the SAVE inspection shows rampant contractualization at PAL. This despite the DOLE’s legal imprimatur to the 2011 outsourcing of the airport services, catering and reservations departments that led to the loss of jobs of 2,600 regular workers. DOLE should not repeat the same mistake in prematurely declaring that the latest mass layoff is above board and legal.”

“In fact, on its face, there is an obvious disparity in numbers. In his declaration that the layoff is legal, ASec Benavidez cites that 182 employees have voluntarily accepted separation. But PAL states that 300 are affected and that workers will be retrenched aside from voluntarily separated. This begs the question, what is the status of the rest of the 300 workers to be dismissed?,” inquired Magtubo. 

March 2, 2020

PAL layoff is continuation of 2009 outsourcing plan---labor group

The labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) today asserted that the latest retrenchment in Philippines Airlines (PAL) affecting 300 employees is a continuation of the massive outsourcing plan of 2009.

“Since 2011 PAL has been laying off regular employees and outsourcing the work to contractors who hire endo workers. PAL is just using the covid-19 travel ban and alleged financial losses as alibi for the latest round of contractualization at the flag carrier,” stated Rene Magtubo, PM chair. PM was the main supporter of the PAL union Philippine Airlines Employees Association (PALEA) in the outsourcing dispute from 2009 to 2013.

“In a labor-management consultative council meeting on August, 26, 2009, a controversial outsourcing plan to closed down the departments of information technology, human resources, benefits, legal, medical, revenue accounting, ticket offices, airport services, catering and reservations was unveiled. Despite opposition by PALEA, on September 30, 2011, PAL laid off 2,600 workers in airport services, catering and reservations and then subcontracted the work to three service providers. This means that the recent separation of 300 employees has been in the works for the last 11 years. Management was just waiting for an expedient time to outsource once more,” explained Alnem Pretencio, PALEA vice president and outsourced worker in 2011.

Pretencio added that “In 2015, PAL also fired 117 employees assigned in the provincial airports. A notice of strike is still pending due to that illegal dismissal. And much earlier in 2001, PAL laid off 1,400 union members and outsourced the whole maintenance and engineering department to the Lucio Tan-Lufthansa venture Lufthansa Technik Philippines.”

Magtubo averred that “PAL’s modus operandi of dismissing workers and replacing them with contractual workers in service providers is pretty well established. At the very least, PAL’s allegations of losses as basis for retrenchment should be taken with a grain of salt.”

“In fact, the epidemic of endo is a worse plague on Filipino workers than the threat of the covid-19 virus. PAL’s recent mass layoff exposes that the problem of contractualization is as bad as ever. With President Duterte’s veto of the Security of Tenure bill last year, he definitely reneged on his promise of ending endo. Thus capitalists are emboldened anew to engage in contractualization,” Magtubo insisted.

March 1, 2020

Workers vow to fight chacha at counter-SONA rally

At the top of issues to be raised by workers at the counter-SONA rally today is the opposition to charter change. “Chicha hindi chacha. The government must attend to the problem of hunger and poverty instead of term extension and foreign ownership which are the agenda of charter change,” declared Rene Magtubo, chair of the group Partido Manggagawa (PM).

PM is participating in the coalition United Workers SONA which will mobilize this afternoon. The United Workers SONA coalition will then join up with other broad networks for the United People’s SONA.

The group is also joining the rally by human rights group at the Quezon City Hall by 10:30 am to cry justice for the victims of extra-judicial killings and also demand action on the death of Cavite labor organizer Dennis Sequena.

In Cebu, PM is joining a broad coalition of groups Sentro, Kalipunan and Bayan for a rally that will echo the demands of the United People’s SONA at Commonwealth. The counter-SONA in Cebu City will be at Colon St. by 9:00 am.

Magtubo averred that that “Duterte may repeat in the SONA the unsubstantiated claim by the Labor Department that 500,000 workers have been regularized. Where is the evidence and particulars? The truth is that companies such as PLDT and Philippine Airlines have appealed in the courts the orders to regularize thousands of agency workers. The Philippines is still a Republic of Endo, a Province of China and a puppet of the US.”

He added that “Up to now, President Duterte has not signed the SOT bill due to the powerful lobby of employers for a veto. Should President Duterte surrender to the demand to veto the bill, then he reveals where he stands on the class war between the workers and capitalists on contractualization. A presidential veto will just be another betrayal of his promise to workers. But even if the Security of Tenure bill is signed or lapses into law, endo will persist since the legislation is a watered-down version.” Thus the group averred that among workers demands for the SONA mobilization is a stronger law to stamp out contractualization.

In the counter-SONA rally, aside from pushing for an end to endo, workers are also clamoring for a reform of the wage-setting mechanism.

“We welcome the announcement by the Department of Labor and Employment that it will undertake a study on the current wage system in response to the calls to abolish the regional wage boards. Although we fear that powerful lobby by employers will once more scuttle any real reform,” asserted Magtubo.

PM is batting for the abolition of the regional wage boards and its replacement by a National Wage Commission which will fix a national minimum wage based on the cost of living. The group is also calling for the provision of a minimum basic income for workers in the SME sector which is unregulated and exempted from the minimum wage setting.

July 22, 2019

PAL asked to pay debts to outsourced workers

After arrears settled to gov’t:

PAL asked to pay debts to outsourced workers

With Philippine Airlines (PAL) settling yesterday its arrears to the government amounting to some P6 billion, the the union Philippine Airlines Employees Association (PALEA) called on the national flag carrier to likewise pay its debt to its outsourced workers. PALEA is demanding that PAL implement the settlement agreement forged in 2013 to end the long-running dispute and reinstate some 600 outsourced workers.

Gerry Rivera, PALEA president and vice chair of the militant Partido Manggagawa, said that “PALEA is calling on President Duterte to ask Lucio Tan and PAL to likewise fulfill their obligation to some 600 retrenched PAL workers who have yet to be reinstated as regular workers according to the terms of a settlement agreement forged in 2013 to resolve the outsourcing dispute. President Duterte is aware of this as it was brought to his attention in a dialogue with labor groups at Malacanang last February 27.”

President Rodrigo Duterte had assailed Lucio Tan-owned PAL for failing to pay CAAP for its debts on the use of airport facilities. Last October 4, PALEA held a picket at office of the Civil Aviation Administration of the Philippines (CAAP) to ask Philippine Airlines (PAL) to pay its debts to the government and its workers. In the picket, PALEA members held placards that read “PAL singilin sa utang sa gobyerno. Panagutin din sa pagkakasala sa obrero,” “Bayaran ang utang. Ibalik sa trabaho ang manggagawang tinanggal” and “Reinstate the PALEA 600.”

PALEA is also calling on the Department of Labor and Employment to release the findings of its inspection of PAL, its sister company PAL Express and the 27 agencies contracted in their operations. A similar inspection of telecom company PLDT led to an order to regularize nearly 9,000 agency workers.

“We are confident that simlar to PLDT, PAL and PAL Express will also be found gulity of illegal labor-only contracting and thus be ordered to regularize its thousands of agency workers and reinstate the PALEA 600,” Rivera argued.

Yesterday, various labor and church groups, including PALEA and PM, met at the Arzobispado de Manila in Intramuros to assess the ongoing campaign against contractualization and vowed to push the administration of President Duterte to make good on its promise to end endo. Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo reiterated the support of the Catholic Church to the fight of workers for regular jobs, including the reinstatement of the PALEA 600.

PALEA

November 4, 2017

Workers slam PAL labor violations in Ayala rally

Members of labor groups marched in Ayala Ave. today in a preview of the big workers rally for Labor Day and to slam Philippine Airlines (PAL) for labor violations in the agencies it has contracted. Workers from the Philippine Airlines Employees Association (PALEA) and Partido Manggagawa (PM) marched this afternoon from the Makati fire station to the PNB headquarters which also houses PAL offices.

“The inspections conducted by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) with the participation of PALEA members have uncovered breaches of general labor and occupational safety standards. Also exposed by the inspection is the fact that agency workers are doing the work of formerly regular workers. That means PAL is guilty of breaking the law and rules on contractualization,” explained Gerry Rivera, PALEA president and PM vice-chair.

Last week, DOLE announced in a press conference that inspections conducted through the Special Assessment or Visit of Establishments (SAVE) found PAL and telecom company PLDT guilty of violating labor and safety rules, including on subcontracting. DOLE Secretary Silvestre Bello even proclaimed that he will order the regularization of some 10,000 PLDT agency workers as a consequence.

Rivera insisted that “PAL must remediate the transgressions of its controversial outsourcing scheme by reinstating the 600 PALEA members as per the provisions of a settlement agreement and terminate the use of service providers that have displaced the jobs of regular employees.”

“The protest march today at the country’s central business district on the eve of ASEAN is also a condemnation of the anti-labor and pro-business agenda of the meetings. Labor rights are being sacrificed at the altar of trade liberalization through ASEAN and other multilateral institutions like the WTO and APEC,” insisted Rene Magtubo, PM chair.

SAVE inspections conducted by DOLE and PALEA at PAL and PAL Express are still ongoing as only operations in provinvial airports have been assessed and offices in Metro Manila are yet to be visited. Rivera also blasted PAL for sabotaging the inspections by questioning PALEA’s participation and delaying the conduct of SAVE in its Metro Manila operations.

PALEA and PM are participating in the nationwide Labor Day rallies led by the coalition Nagkaisa. On May 1, Nagkaisa members will assemble at Welcome Rotonda at 7:30 am and then march to Mendiola for a program to call for a scrapping of the newly released DO 174, an end to all forms of contractualization and the protection of labor and human rights.

Also PM-Kabataan, the youth wing of PM, is also a holding a mass action at Welcome Rotonda at 4:00 pm on April 30 to highlight the pressing concerns of young workers like unemployment, contractualization and decent wages and benefits.

April 26, 2017

PALEA appeal for presidential action on 5-year endo dispute with PAL

Members of the Philippine Airlines Employees Association (PALEA) went back to Malacanang Monday to seek presidential intervention to their 5-year old dispute with the Philippine Airlines on the issue of contractualization.

 

This is the second time PALEA is seeking the intervention of the President on the issue of PAL’s outsourcing program.  The first was in 2011 when PALEA asked former President Benigno S. Aquino III to reverse the decision made by his labor secretary Rosalinda Baldoz allowing the implementation of PAL’s outsourcing program that affected some 2,600 workers.  Unfortunately, President Aquino took the side of Lucio Tan by denying the petition of PALEA twice. 

 

PALEA members stood their ground in opposing the outsourcing program by establishing an extensive protest camp at PAL’s In-Flight Services until a Settlement Agreement was reached with the management in 2013. The Settlement Agreement provided for the compensation for the remaining number of workers and their re-employment to PAL as regular employees.   

 

PALEA President Gerry Rivera said PAL has deliberately reneged on their commitment especially on re-employment which is the most important provision of the Settlement Agreement.

 

“Kaya po kami bumabalik sa Tanggapan ng Pangulo ay dahil baka po may tsansa pa na maituwid niya ang baluktot na nagawa ng nagdaang administrasyon at maitawid kami sa tulay ng hustisya na limang taon na naming inaasam,” appealed Rivera.

 

PALEA made this appeal in a march to Malacanang where a dialogue was supposed to happen between the President and labor groups on the issue of endo.  The meeting unfortunately was moved to another date later this month.

 

Nevertheless, PALEA members and their supporters decided to push through with their march to voice out their urgent concern to the President.  Rivera also hoped that the scheduled dialogue materializes the soonest time possible so that measures on how to effectively end endo is finally threshed out. 

 

“Kami po ang naging poster boy ng problemang endo dito sa bansa.  Kaya’t kung sakali, baka ang resolusyon sa aming kaso ay maging kaparehong paraan sa ganap na pagtigil sa kontraktwalisasyon na siyang pangako ng Pangulo.  Dahil pareho sa aming lahat ang problema – ito ang pagtatalaga ng aming mga buhay at kinabukasan sa  mga  kontraktor o middleman, ” said Rivera.

 

PALEA is a member of Nagkaisa, a labor coalition that is campaigning for the prohibition of all forms of contractualization and fixed-term employment.

Philippine Airlines Employees Association

February 13, 2017

 

Church-Labor Conference urges new labor officials to walk the endo talk

On the first day of the Duterte administration, the Church-Labor Conference (CLC) is urging it to start the work on implementing the campaign promise of ending endo.

The CLC, an aggrupation of labor and church groups in the country, is pressing the new set of labor officials to begin the process of stamping out ‘endo’ practices in many industries in close coordination with the trade union movement as well as with other labor dignity advocacy groups around the country. 

The call was made during the #EndEndo #WalkTheEndoTalk action initiated by the CLC at DOLE offices in Intramuros this morning where newly-appointed labor officials render their first day in office.

Established during the height of the global financial crisis in 2009, CLC has become an active member of the Technical Executive Committee (TEC) of the National Tripartite Industrial Peace Council (NTIPC).  CLC is co-chaired by Partido Manggagawa (PM) Chair Renato Magtubo and Manila Auxillary Bishop Broderick Pabillo.

In a statement the CLC expressed its full support to President Rodrigo Duterte’s commitment to stop labor contractualization in the country.  It also welcomes the appointments of Sec. Silvestre Bello III and Joel Maglungsod to head the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).

“Contractualization of labor, specifically the practices of unscrupulous employers that directly violate or circumvent labor laws and regulations pertaining to labor contracting and regularization of employment are arguably the gravest threat to our workers’ right to security of tenure,” said CLC.

Contractualization, the group added, is a problem that renders futile the exercise of workers’ other constitutional rights to freedom of association, bargain collectively, concerted action, and living wage. 

“Like the menace of illegal drugs and criminality in the country, it must be stopped! Otherwise, we will become a nation of endos where workers are deprived of their constitutional rights to gainful and productive employment,” stressed the group.

The CLC, however, concedes that addressing contractualization of labor is not that simple as it requires complex and sustainable solutions.  But the group believes that cooperation and the strong resolve of like-minded stakeholders is very important in getting rid of the endo menace.

As a starter the CLC has submitted its 10-Point recommendations for the new DOLE leadership:

(1) Conduct a nationwide labor consultation of workers in the private and public sector aimed at (a) threshing out employment schemes workers have encountered during employment that violates and/or circumvents labor laws and regulations pertaining to labor contracting and regularization of employment; (b) generating proposals to address violation and circumvention of labor laws and regulations; and (c) establishing mechanisms to encourage workers’ participation to President Duterte’s campaign to end contractualization of labor.

(2) Work for the certification by President Duterte of anti-endo bills that are going to be filed in Congress that will strengthen workers’ security of tenure in the private and public sector.

(3) Launch a massive and sustained information and education campaign to workers and employers on the present labor laws and regulations pertaining to labor contracting and regularization of employment.

(4) Conduct a nationwide and sustained inspection of all labor contractors and service providers registered with the DOLE and other government agencies aimed at (a) finding out whether they are compliant with the existing labor laws and regulations pertaining to labor contracting and regularization of employment; and (b) filing cases to violators.

(5) Conduct a nationwide and sustained inspection of all factories and establishments inside and outside of the private and public industrial estates and/or zones aimed at (a) finding out whether they are employing contractual workers and as such compliant with existing labor laws and regulations pertaining to labor contracting and regular employment; and (b) filing cases to violators.

(6) Formulate policies and guidelines to speed-up resolution of cases under the DOLE quasi-judicial bodies on violations of labor laws and regulations pertaining to labor contracting and regularization of employment.

(7) Urgently resolve pending cases and labor disputes related to contractualization.

(8) Establish a separate mechanism comprised of among others representative of unions, the DOLE and the Civil Service Commission (CSC) that will assess and address rampant use of contractual or other forms of non-regular employment in the public sector.

(9) Train and deputize labor leaders to become part of the DOLE pool of inspectors who are mandated to conduct inspections and provide reports and/or recommendations on violations of labor laws and regulations.

(10) Institutionalize the role of tripartite formations in the country as partner of the DOLE in accomplishing President Duterte’s campaign promise to end contractualization of labor.

Church-Labor Conference

July 1, 2016

PALEA calls on Duterte to keep “end endo” promise in a rally near NAIA Terminal 2

To jumpstart the campaign against endo or contractualization at the Philippines Airlines (PAL), the union Philippine Airlines Employees’ Association (PALEA) picketed the company’s Inflight Center (IFC) near the NAIA Terminal 2. The renewed actions are spurred on by the promise of incoming President Rodrigo Duterte to end endo.

Last year, just before Duterte run for president, he met leaders of PALEA in Davao and expressed his opposition to contractualization. PALEA and the militant group Partido Manggagawa (PM) are now asking the President elect to make good on his promise to stop contractualization.

Some 100 PALEA members held a rally on the road leading to the Terminal 2 for about one hour and then marched on to the PAL Nichols office to continue the protest until noon. Later in the afternoon, PALEA officers attended at mediation hearing at the National Conciliation and Mediation Board regarding the pending labor dispute with PAL.

Bong Palad, PALEA national secretary said that “PALEA is calling on PAL to comply with the settlement agreement they offered to PALEA and forged by the two parties in 2013. Specifically PALEA demands the implementation of the re-employment provision in the agreement.”

In September 2011, some 2,600 PAL regular workers were terminated and outsourced to become agency workers. After a two-year fight, PALEA and PAL forged a deal to settle the labor dispute of 2011 yet some 600 retrenched members have not been re-employed as provided for in the agreement.

PM also challenged on Duterte to prove that “change is coming” by rectifying the injustice committed by outgoing president Benigno Aquino who approved the PAL outsourcing scheme   and later threatened an economic sabotage case against PALEA for launching a protest that paralyzed flights.

PM chair Rene Magtubo argued that “A clear and determined path to end endo will be set if the contractualization scheme and scam at PAL is reversed.  by implementation of the settlement agreement with PALEA.”

Photos of the rally can be accessed at https://www.facebook.com/jerry.bagsic/posts/1133381940025534

May 26, 2016

Advisory: PALEA to picket PAL Inflight Center tom

MEDIA ADVISORY

May 25, 2016

Contact Bong Palad @ 09165740596

       Start of renewed campaign to end endo:

PALEA to picket PAL Inflight Center tom

WHAT: In the picket, PALEA will demand the reinstatement of regular workers and implementation of settlement agreement

WHEN:  Tomorrow, May 26 (Thursday), 10:00 a.m.

WHERE: PAL Inflight Center, near NAIA Terminal 2

DETAILS: To jumpstart the campaign against endo or contractualization at the Philippines Airlines (PAL), the union Philippine Airlines Employees’ Association (PALEA) will picket PAL’s Inflight Center. The renewed actions are spurred on by the promise of incoming President Rodrigo Duterte to end endo.

Last year, just before Duterte run for president, he met leaders of PALEA in Davao and expressed his opposition to contractualization. PALEA and the militant group Partido Manggagawa are now asking the president elect to make good on his promise to stop contractualization at PAL and other companies.

PALEA is calling on PAL to implement the settlement agreement forged in 2013 and re-employ some 600 workers terminated in 2011. In September 2011, some 2,600 PAL regular workers were terminated and outsourced to become agency workers. After a two-year fight, PALEA and PAL forged a deal to settle the labor dispute of 2011 yet some 600 retrenched members have not been re-employed as provided for in the agreement.

Workers most affected but the richest 1% got all of APEC gains

People walk to Baclaran from NAIA Road (MB Photo by Ali Vicoy)

Lost income, travel ban, road closures and clamp down on protests are all that workers will get this week while APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) VIPs and delegates travel in comfort, ensured of total security, and their agenda heard and advanced during high level meetings.

 

According to the partylist group Partido Manggagaw (PM), this contrast is a mere continuity of the sharp divide that characterizes APEC history – “workers doing the great sacrifice while APEC leaders and the capitalist class take control of enormous wealth and appropriating it among themselves and the region’s 1%.”

 

Members of Partido Manggagawa and the Philippine Airlines Employees Association (PALEA) have a scheduled protest against the scourge of contractualization along the Airport Road and Roxas boulevard tomorrow but the total shutdown of the area is preventing many participants, including those coming from Cavite, from linking in.

 

“APEC will neither pay for workers’s lost wages nor care about their lost hours in traffic.  APEC also won’t bother curtailing workers’ rights to protest. These are all because APEC is all for business, its agenda is all about free trade and free market,” stated PM chair Renato Magtubo.

 

Magtubo said that for almost three decades, APEC was nothing but an exclusive gathering of business leaders whose agenda for trade and investments are guaranteed by aligning governments’ legal frameworks on economic policies. 

 

“Workers who created APEC’s USD 31 trillion GDP and facilitated 47% of world trade have never been made part of this Summit.  All of APEC’s agenda come from the top CEOs under the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC),” said Magtubo.

 

According to PM, part of APEC policies that have been pushed by business is labor flexibilization that takes a major form in outsourcing/contractualization programs.  “PAL’s outsourcing program is hailed by its bosses, as well as the Philippine President, as ‘global best practice’, indicating a major shift in the country’s industrial relation,” added Magtubo.

 

“Worldwide labor contractualization has become a plague – a policy that killed trade unionism, destroyed workers’ security of tenure, depressed wages, killed small and medium businesses, and driven millions of workers to unemployment and precarious working conditions in the informal economy,” explained Magtubo.

 

With a population of 2.8 billion people, the APEC economies are also home to the most number of billionaires, while some 750 million poor people live on less than USD 1.25 a day.

 

The Asian Development Bank has in fact noted that Asia’s rising inequality has denied the benefits of growth to many millions of its citizens “as the regions rich get richer much faster than the poor.”

16 November 2015

Advisory: PALEA to mobilize for trial of mulcting DOJ fiscal

MEDIA ADVISORY

PALEA

November 8, 2015

Contact Gerry Rivera @ 09165047751

  

PALEA to mobilize for trial of mulcting DOJ fiscal Solidum

WHAT: PALEA members to mobilize for the first hearing in the trial of Diosdado Solidum, DOJ assistant fiscal charged by the union for mulcting

WHEN:  Tomorrow, November 9 (Monday), 8:30 a.m.

WHERE: Sandiganbayan, QC

DETAILS: Solidum was previously suspended on the basis of a complaint by 241 PALEA members for extorting P2.5 million in exchange for the dismissal of a criminal case filed by Philippine Airlines. Former DOJ Secretary Leila de Lima had also cited the entrapment of Solidum as among the accomplishments of her office.

At congressional inquiry yesterday: PALEA demands recall of mass layoff

At congressional inquiry yesterday: PALEA demands recall of mass layoff

At a congressional inquiry by the House of Representatives Labor Committee yesterday, the Philippine Airlines Employees Association (PALEA) demanded that Philippine Airlines (PAL) recall the latest mass layoff and reinstatement the 117 fired employees. PAL responded by announcing that the termination of the affected workers is being delayed from November 9 to November 30, giving them three more weeks of work.

“Since PAL has not conceded to our demand for the recall of the illegal dismissals, PALEA’s notice of strike stays. So the work stoppage that will impact PAL flights and operations may happen later this month,” stated Gerry Rivera, PALEA president and a Partido Manggagawa bet for the party-list elections.

PALEA did not push through with the planned strike during the undas holidays in deference to conciliation proceedings called by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE). Another conciliation meeting is scheduled on November 10.

The congressional hearing was held in Davao City and presided by Rep. Karlo Nogrles. In response to queries on the status of the duly elected PALEA officers led by Rivera, DOLE Undersecretary Rebecca Chato testified in the hearing that pending final resolution of the intra-union cases, the status quo remains and thus current union officials are the legitimate representatives and bargaining agents of PAL ground employees.

“USec Chato’s clarification of labor law and jurisprudence should be a wakeup call to management to stop its unfair labor practice of disregarding PALEA and talking directly to union members, such as what happened in the termination of the 117 employees,” Rivera explained.

Representatives of factions that contested the leadership of PALEA also attended the hearing. Leaders of these factions lost in the PALEA union elections last February that was won by the slate of led by Rivera. Two petitions were filed at the DOLE by the losing candidates after the elections. Last month, some of the petitioners filed another case asking the DOLE to disregard the pending notice of strike by PALEA.

Rivera averred that “All these PAL employees who are noisily attacking PALEA’s fight against contractualization but who are suspiciously silent on the mass firings by PAL are being exposed as lackeys of management.”

“Since 1998, more than 8,000 PAL regular employees and union members have been fired and replaced by contractual workers who labor for longer hours but are paid less in wages and benefits, and work without a voice in the workplace. Thus even during times when PAL says that it is losing money, airline service providers owned by Lucio Tan and his family remain extremely profitable,” Rivera revealed.

Aside from the propriety of the latest round of retrenchments at the national flag carrier, the congressional inquiry also discussed PAL’s refusal to open collective bargaining negotiations for the last 17 years and to implement the terms of the settlement agreement to end the outsourcing dispute of 2011. PALEA had repeatedly asked PAL to start CBA talks and fulfill the re-employment provision of the settlement deal to no avail.

November 5, 2015

PALEA

Smear job targets bet—party-list group

Smear job targets bet—party-list group

The workers party-list group Partido Manggagawa (PM) today claimed that one of its nominees for the coming elections is the target of a “smear job” by Philippine Airlines (PAL) due to a pending labor dispute over the layoff of 117 employees. Gerry Rivera, president of the union Philippine Airlines Employees Association (PALEA), vice chair of PM and one of its party-list bets, has been charged with estafa as reported in the Inquirer today (http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/736662/party-list-bet-faces-estafa-raps).

“Since PAL is unable to justify the latest retrenchment, the non-implementation of the terms of a Settlement Agreement and the lack of collective bargaining negotiations for the last 17 years, it is instead discrediting the leaders of PALEA and PM, which are steadfastly fighting contractualization at the national flag carrier,” argued Rene Magtubo, PM chair and another of its party-list nominees.

He added that “The estafa case against our nominee will not hinder PM in its party-list bid. PM fights for the welfare of workers thus we make enemies of capitalists and their minions.”

“The estafa complainant is barking at the wrong tree because he is in fact an attack dog of PAL. Unlike the complainant, the rest of the 600 PALEA members who are subject to the Settlement Agreement are protesting and demanding that PAL implement the re-employment provision of the deal,” Magtubo averred.

The labor row over the new round of firings at PAL is now the subject of a notice of strike filed by PALEA. A planned strike by PALEA over the undas holidays was deferred due to the ongoing conciliation meetings called by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).

Today a congressional inquiry by the House of Representatives Labor Committee headed by Rep. Karlo Nograles is being held in Davao City. Rivera and other PALEA officers are attending the hearing this afternoon together with PAL employees in the Davao airport who were affected by the mass layoff.

PALEA is demanding the recall of the latest retrenchment and the reinstatement of the 117 employees fired. Absent a resolution to the dispute over the mass layoff, PALEA is planning a strike later this month.

Magtubo recalled that the estafa complaint was preceded by the filing of a petition at the DOLE by six PAL employees to dismiss the PALEA notice of strike. “Those who filed the DOLE petition were sore losers in the union elections early this year that was handily won by Rivera and the current PALEA officers. Further, they are scabs willing to do management’s bidding. All of these intra-union cases are upon the orders of management. PAL through a board resolution appointed an attorney-in-fact to represent the company in the intra-union disputes well before these cases were actually filed,” he explained.

He insisted that “All these PAL employees who are attacking PALEA are mere pawns and their puppet master is management. PAL want to muddle the issue and divide the union in order to sabotage fight against mass layoff and labor contractualization.”

November 4, 2015

La Tondena workers commemorate 40th anniversary of historic strike

La Tondena workers commemorate 40^th anniversary of historic strike

Amidst concerns from some quarters that the vice presidential candidacy of Sen. Ferdinand “Bong Bong” Marcos, Jr. would pave the way for the return to Malacanang of the former dictator’s family, retired workers of La Tondena Inc., commemorated the 40^th anniversary of the historic first strike under martial law. About a hundred participants to the strike gathered in a basketball court in Tondo, Manila last October 24 to keep up the legacy of the famous workers struggle.

“Beyond renewing the bonds of friendship and camaraderie among La Tondena strikers, we believe the lessons of the first strike under the Marcos dictatorship should be passed on to the new generation. We are dual citizens now, senior citizens aside from being Filipino citizens, but we have to impart to the younger workers the ideals, hopes and traditions of the workers’ movement,” explained Benjie Roxas Jr., a participant to the 1975 strike and present leader of the Tondo chapter of the party-list Partido Manggagawa (PM).

In October 24, 1975, some 800 workers of La Tondena stopped work and held a sit-down strike to demand the regularization of contractuals and the reinstatement of retrenched temporary workers. With the support of the workers’ community around the factory and the solidarity of nuns, priests and seminarians, the strike lasted for 44 hours before being suppressed by the wholesale arrests of hundreds of strikers. But the strike did not end in defeat, as the then owners, the Palancas, conceded to some of the workers’ demands, including the regularization of 300 contractuals.

“But the lasting legacy of the La Tondena strike was to break the terror of martial law and defy the protest ban of the Marcos dictatorship. In the aftermath of the pioneering and victorious La Tondena struggle, a strike wave swept Metro Manila and the militant workers movement was reborn despite massive repression. The EDSA uprising of 1986 built upon mass struggles like the La Tondena strike,” argued Rene Magtubo, PM chair and former president of Fortune Tobacco labor union, which like the La Tondena union was politicized by fighting for workers’ rights under the dictatorship.

La Tondena was eventually bought by the San Miguel conglomerate and the union did not survive the closure of the Tondo factory in 1994. The company was renamed Ginebra San Miguel Inc. in 1987 and today two factories in Cabuyao, Laguna and Sta. Barbara, Pangasinan make most of its products.

In last year’s remembrance of the La Tondena strike, Gerry Rivera, president of the union Philippine Airlines Employees’ Association (PALEA) and PM vice chair, spoke before the retired workers. He recalled that “As I paid my deep respects to the brave La Tondena strikers, I emphasized how strikingly similar their demands and struggles were to the present fight of workers, including ours in PALEA, under the conditions of trapo democracy instead of martial law.”

Arguably the biggest labor dispute for the past several years, PALEA has been opposing contractualization at Philippine Airlines and has garnered the support of the Catholic Church among others. “Protesting PALEA members were forcibly evicted and bodily carried too by armed guards and police from the airport in 2011, just like how La Tondena workers were hauled in Metrocom buses in 1975. We dare to win too like the La Tondena strikers and defeat contractualization eventually,” Rivera ended.

November 3, 2015