PALEA welcomes promulgation of decision vs. DOJ prosecutor

The union Philippine Airlines Employees Association (PALEA) welcomed the promulgation today of a decision by the Sandiganbayan regarding the mulcting case it filed against a prosecutor of the Department of Justice (DOJ). A delegation from PALEA came to the Sandiganbayan this morning to witness the promulgation.

Senior assistant state prosecutor Diosdado Solidum is charged with extorting some P2.5 million in 2013 in exchange for dropping a case against 250 PALEA members for alleged violation of the Civil Aviation Authority Act (CAAP) of 2008 because of its airport protest against outsourcing in September 2011.The protest ended with the forcible eviction by police and guards of PALEA members.

“We welcome the handing down of a decision today and we hope that the Sandiganbayan delivers a conviction on Solidum as there is incontrovertible proof of his guilt. A conviction will render justice for PALEA members whose protest against contractualization in Philippine Airlines (PAL) is not just legal but just. We hope that this small win will ultimately lead to a bigger victory in our fight against endo at PAL,” stated Gerry Rivera, PALEA president and also vice chair of the militant Partido Manggagawa.

PALEA held a protest at the airport in September 27, 2011 in a bid to stop the implementation of a massive outsourcing program that led to the mass termination of some 2,600 employees and their transfer as contractual workers in agencies. PAL charged some 250 PALEA members with violating the CAAP law and a Pasay City prosecutor subsequently affirmed the complaint. Solidum then approached PALEA with the offer of dismissing the case on appeal in return for P10,000 from each of the respondents. Solidum was caught in an entrapment operation in QC authorized by then DOJ head Leila de Lima.

Rivera added that “Our fight for justice has been long and winding. But we are glad that after four years, the Sandiganbayan will now render a decision on Solidum. We will be even more happy if our struggle for reinstatement as regular workers in PAL will finally be concluded.”

“A few days ago President Rodrigo Duterte assailed Lucio Tan-owned PAL for failing to pay CAAP for its debts on the use of airport facilities. As a result PAL has offered to settle the issue by paying P4 billion. We call on President Duterte to ask Lucio Tan and PAL to likewise fulfill their obligation to some 600 PALEA members have yet to be reinstated as regular workers according to the terms of a settlement agreement forged in 2013 to resolve the outsourcing dispute. The President is aware of this as it was brought to his attention in a dialogue with labor groups at Malacanang last February 27,” Rivera insisted.

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. This will mean that justice has been served PALEA’s fight, just like a conviction for Solidum today,” Rivera argued.

September 29, 2017

PALEA calls for release of detained member

Press Release

October 18, 2012

PALEA

The Philippine Airlines Employees’ Association (PALEA) called for the release of Romeo Sayas, its member arrested in Malvar, Batangas and detained since Tuesday. “Free Romeo Sayas,” chanted hundreds of PALEA members as they marched this afternoon for the second straight day in front of the Philippine Airlines (PAL) In-Flight Center near the Terminal 2 of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

Gerry Rivera, PALEA president and vice chair of Partido ng Manggagawa, said that “The arrest of Romeo is a travesty of justice and we demand his immediate release.” He explained that Sayas should not have been arrested in the first place and the charges should have been dismissed outright. Rivera quoted the Department of Justice Ministry Circular No. 15 (Series of 1982) and the Department of Labor and Employment Order No. 40-G-03 (Series of 2010) that no criminal information can be filed against workers without the required clearance from the DOLE.

Sayas and another 38 PALEA members, including two women, were issued warrants of arrest by the Pasay City Municipal Trial Court branch 44 after finding probable cause to a grave coercion case filed by Philippine Airlines against workers who defended the protest camp when it was attacked by hired goons on October 29, 2011.

Meanwhile Renato Magtubo, national chair, announced that they are coordinating with other labor groups to raise funds for Sayas’ PhP 12,000 bail bond. “I appeal to workers organizations and labor advocates to chip in for a ‘Piso para sa paglaya ni Romeo Sayas’ drive as his incarceration may complicate his diabetes and gout, and also to alleviate his family’s agony who have suffered enough from his one year of joblessness.”

With the air travel peak season approaching, Magtubo renewed the call of labor and church groups for the public to boycott PAL until the labor dispute is resolved and charges against PALEA members are dropped. “We ask OFW’s, balikbayans, students, workers and other travellers to book airlines other than PAL and Air Philippines as labor rights are being violated at the flag carrier,” he reiterated.

Rivera extolled Sayas as a “working class martyr.” “Sayas worked for 20 years as ramp equipment operator in the airport, at first as a contractual, and then he became a regular PAL employee but was finally retrenched for refusing to be outsourced. He has two children, and hails from a working class family—his brother is also a fighting PALEAn and their father formerly worked at PAL,” he stated.

PALEA lawyers are preparing to file a motion to quash or recall the warrants of arrest while protests at the DOLE and DOJ are also being planned. Aside from the case against the PALEA 39, there are is another criminal suit and a separate civil suit pending against union members, all arising out of the labor row concerning outsourcing at PAL.

Labor cries foul over Pasay judge ruling against PALEA

Nagkaisa!

PRESS RELEASE

11 September 2012

The country’s biggest coalition of trade unions and labor organizations, NAGKAISA! described as ‘sadistically anti-labor’ a Pasay judge who adversely ruled against the protesting officers and members of the Philippine Airlines Employees Association (PALEA).

On September 3, 2012, when PALEA photocopied the entire court record of a pending case of grave coercion filed by the Philippine Airlines against a number of union officers and members, it accidentally discovered from among the documents an order dated August 15, 2012 already signed by Judge Bibiano Colasito of Pasay City’s Metropolitan Trial Court Branch 44 for the issuance of a warrant of arrest against 39 officers and members of PALEA.

“What a farce! On July 25, a Pasay court under Judge Mupas freed Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on bail citing weak evidence against the former President.  It granted the same to former Comelec Chair Benjamin Abalos on August 18.  Nobody noticed that during this same period, August 15, there was another Pasay judge in the name of Bibiano Colasito who ordered the arrest of 39 PALEA officers and members from a clearly non-criminal but dispute related action by workers,” bewailed NAGKAISA! leaders during a press conference held  yesterday at the TUCP headquarters in Quezon City.

NAGKAISA! said Colasito’s ruling was unfair and unjust. In particular, it cried foul on the judge’s decision to blindly entertain the information filed by the prosecutor against the accused PALEA officers and members without the required clearance from the labor department as provided under DOJ Ministry Circular No. 15 (Series of 1982) and Department of Labor and Employment Department Order No. 40-G-03 (Series of 2010).   

Labor leaders pointed out that the PAL-PALEA dispute on outsourcing/contractualization was the biggest labor dispute in the country that hugged the news during the last three years thus any action by PALEA members clearly arose from this long running dispute completely ignored by the Office of City Prosecutor and then by Judge Colasito.

“Worse, Colasito sided with the fallacious claim by PAL that PALEA members ‘coerced’ the company on October 29, 2011 when on the contrary it was the PALEA protest camp that was attacked on the same time and date by dozens of hired goons resulting in fact to the arrest of one goon, physical injuries to several PALEA members, and the destruction of half of the camp,” said NAGKAISA!. 

The labor coalition said, it will join PALEA in taking Colasito’s action to higher authorities for remedy and will not hesitate to file administrative charges against the judge if necessary. 

The group is alarmed that once Colasito’s action takes precedence, courts can anytime be utilized by employers as a tool to supress labor rights by criminalizing cases arising out of purely labor-related disputes – rights that were respected even during the martial law period.   

NAGKAISA! also called on the new PAL management to commence negotiations with PALEA rather than pursue a protracted legal battle that will never arrive at a just resolution to the lingering labor dispute in the flag carrier.

Apart from the grave coercion rap, 234 PALEA members including the top leaders are facing another case for violation of RA 9497 or the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) Law in relation to their September 27, 2011 protest against outsourcing that disrupted airport operations.

NAGKAISA! is joining PALEA in its planned one year commemoration of the September 27, 2011 event which highlight this year is a Global Day of Action against outsourcing in the aviation industry organized by the International Transport Federation (ITF).

PALEA calls on PAL stockholders to reinstate regular workers

Press Release

August 29, 2012

PALEA

On the eve of its annual meeting, the Philippine Airlines Employees’ Association (PALEA) today called on the stockholders of Philippine Airlines (PAL) to reinstate the regular workers who were retrenched in the controversial outsourcing scheme. “There will be no industrial peace at PAL without justice for workers. PALEA is part of the solution to the problems of the flag carrier,” insisted Gerry Rivera, PALEA president and vice chair of Partido ng Manggagawa.

PALEA vowed to press on with its fight against outsourcing at PAL as it commemorated the other day the 11^th month of its picketline with an assembly of several hundred workers at the protest camp outside the PAL In-Flight Center. The union is busy preparing for the anniversary of its protest with a planned global day of action on September 27 which will be marked by rallies and activities in Metro Manila, Metro Cebu, Sydney and Melbourne in Australia, Ankara in Turkey, San Francisco in the USA, Lahore in Pakistan and in several other countries.

The PAL stockholders meeting will be held 10 a.m. tomorrow at the Century Park Sheraton Hotel in Manila. While Lucio Tan and his group retain a majority of the stocks, management control has been ceded to Ramon Ang and the San Miguel group. Rivera said that ”Let us fly the flag proud with regular workers not just with new planes,” in response to news yesterday that PAL is acquiring Airbus jets in addition to earlier announced Boeing aircraft.

Rivera clarified that “Even as PALEA calls on the new management of PAL and its stockholders to end the dispute in order to revive the flag carrier, we remain vigilant in the face of continuing attacks on our members such as the criminal charges against the PALEA 300.” Last July 27 and August 3 respectively PALEA filed at the Municipal Trial Court and the Department of Justice motions to review the finding of “probable cause” against 234 of its members for alleged violation of RA 9497 or the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) Law, specifically Section 81 (b) (5) which sanctions “any person who destroys or seriously damages the facilities of an airport or disrupts the services of an airport.”

In a resolution dated June 20, 2012, the city prosecutor recommended the filing of information against respondents to the case which means that warrants of arrest may be issued anytime them. Rivera avers that “PALEA’s protest at the airport last September 27, 2011 was an exercise of the constitutionally guaranteed right of workers to concerted action and thus not illegal nor criminal.”

PALEA asserts that despite PAL’s use of contractual employees to replace its regular workforce, the lack of skilled workers and a boycott campaign has cut the airline’s passenger and cargo load factor. After almost a year of protest, a majority of the 2,400 PALEA members who were retrenched still refuse to accept their retrenchment and are determined to fight for regular jobs. Even among those who availed of separation, many nonetheless rejected working for the service providers.

The call for a global day of action by PALEA and has been endorsed by International Transport Workers Federation aviation section in the Asia Pacific, Qantas unions, the Australia-Asia Workers Links and the Turkish airline union Hava-is among others. “If airline workers take industrial action, on the same day, in a coordinated way, all over the world, we will be stronger and more effective,” declared participants to the global day of action (https://www.facebook.com/events/399444630110706/).

PALEA holds protest as 234 members threatened with arrest

Press Release

July 27, 2012

PALEA

Some 100 members of the Philippine Airlines Employee Association (PALEA) picketed the Pasay Hall of Justice this morning as union lawyers filed a petition for the Municipal Trial Court to review the finding of “probable cause” by a fiscal. In a resolution dated June 20, 2012, the city prosecutor recommended the filing of information against 234 respondents to the case.

“Ex-President Gloria Arroyo is freed on bail by a Pasay fiscal despite arguably strong evidence of electoral sabotage while a colleague threatens 234 workers with arrest for alleged ‘economic sabotage’ on dubious grounds. PALEA’s protest at the airport last September 27, 2011 was an exercise of the constitutionally guaranteed right of workers to concerted action and thus not illegal nor criminal,” asserted Gerry Rivera, PALEA president.

Warrants of arrest may be issued against the accused even as the resolution provides for bail of Php 6,000 each or a total of Php 1,404,000. Philippine Airlines (PAL) filed the case for alleged violation of RA 9497 or the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) Law, specifically Section 81 (b) (5) which sanctions “any person who destroys or seriously damages the facilities of an airport or disrupts the services of an airport”. PAL initially announced that some 300 PALEA members joined the protest action thus the respondents have been called the PALEA 300.

Rivera added that the decision has a chilling effect on labor relations and is a clear and present danger to workers rights. “Labor protests will then be banned in the aviation industry with workers penalized by both imprisonment and fine in violation of constitutionally guaranteed rights. This will be a grave precedent and new special laws can then be enacted to deny workers the freedoms of assembly, expression, self-organization and strike. But PALEA will not be cowed as our fight enters it 10^th month,” he explained.

“Early next week, we will also file a similar petition to the Department of Justice, which has jurisdiction over prosecutors, for a review of the resolution. We expect that these motions would stay the issuance of warrants of arrest,” Rivera added.

He explained that “The decision is void of any legal basis as no damages were committed to airport facilities. Moreover the case is a labor issue and thus prior authority from the Department of Labor and Employment and the Department of Justice should have been secured prior to the filing of the complaint. The CAAP Law is also explicit in providing that ‘only the Director General’ can file the appropriate charges and not the PAL Vice-President of the Airport Services as in this case.”

Rivera further asserted that PAL services deteriorated sharply after September not because of damaged equipments but due to lack of skilled and experienced manpower after PALEA members, in opposition to outsourcing, refused to transfer to assigned service providers. PALEA insists that PAL can only “fly the flag proud” by getting its regular workers back. Supporters of PALEA are calling for a boycott of PAL and its sister company Air Philippines until the laid off workers are reinstated to their regular jobs.

ADVISORY: PALEA 300 under threat of arrest as Pasay fiscal finds probable cause in case

MEDIA ADVISORY

PALEA

WHAT: PALEA to hold picket as petition to review is filed

WHEN:  Today, July 27, 11:00 am

WHERE: Pasay Hall of Justice (near City Hall)

DETAILS: Some 100 PALEA members to join the picket as the union’s lawyers file a petition for the Municipal Trial Court to review the finding of “probable cause” by a fiscal. In a resolution dated June 20, 2012, the city prosecutor has recommended the filing of information against 234 respondents to the case.

“GMA is freed on bail by a Pasay fiscal despite arguably strong evidence of electoral sabotage while a colleague threatens 234 workers with arrest for exercising the constitutionally guaranteed right to concerted action,” asserted Gerry Rivera, PALEA president.

Philippine Airlines filed the case against PALEA members for alleged violation of RA 9497 or the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines Law, specifically Section 81 (b) (5) which sanctions “any person who destroys or seriously damages the facilities of an airport or disrupts the services of an airport”. PAL initially announced that some 300 PALEA members joined the protest action last September 27, 2011 at the airport thus the respondents have been called the PALEA 300.

Rivera added that the decision has a chilling effect on labor relations and imperils workers rights. “Any labor protest and action will then be banned in the aviation industry with workers to be penalized by both imprisonment and fine in violation of constitutionally guaranteed rights. But PALEA will not be cowed as our fight enters it 10^th month,” he explained. ###

PALEA 300 moves for the dismissal of PAL harassment case

Press Release

February 2, 2012

PALEA

The Philippine Airlines Employees Association (PALEA) will move today for the dismissal of the case filed by the management of Philippine Airlines (PAL) for alleged violation of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines law arising from the September 27 protest at the Manila International Airport.

Hundreds of PALEA members also held a rally this afternoon at the Pasay Hall of Justice to coincide with the court hearing on what the union describes as a “harassment case” by PAL regarding supposed destruction of equipment during the airport protest.

“It behooves the court to dismiss this apparent harassment case because of a fatal flaw. PAL’s lawyers do not have any clearance from the Department of Labor and Employment in filing the case. Any complaint arising from a labor dispute requires such a clearance before civil courts can take jurisdiction,” asserted Gerry Rivera, PALEA president.

Last January 11, the 258 PALEA members who are respondents to the case, appeared at the Pasay regional trial court for the first hearing. The respondents are called PALEA 300 since PAL in previous press releases has claimed that some 300 PALEA members joined the September 27 protest. The next hearing is scheduled for February 9. In an allusion to the mythical Spartans, Rivera declared that “The respondents to the case, the PALEA 300 are brave men and women who will die fighting instead of surrendering to tyranny by PAL.”

He claimed that “PAL is blindly shooting nuisance cases at PALEA members in a desperate bid to force them to accept the separation package and sign up for the illegal labor contractors Sky Logistics and Sky Kitchen.”

Rivera asserts further that PAL services deteriorated sharply after September not because of damaged equipments but due to lack of skilled and experienced manpower after PALEA members, in opposition to outsourcing, refused to transfer to assigned service providers.

PALEA insists that PAL’s waning reputation and deteriorating quality service can only be saved by getting its regular workers back. Supporters of PALEA are calling for a boycott of PAL and its sister company Air Philippines until the laid off workers are reinstated to their regular jobs.

On Monday, hundreds of PALEA members will join retrenched flights attendants of PAL in a rally at the impeachment trial since the president of the Flight Attendants and Stewards Association is expected to testify for the prosecution.