Big labor and church groups reiterate support for PALEA as major battle looms

Press Release

September 8, 2011

PALEA

Big labor groups and key church institutions declared their continuing solidarity for the Philippine Airlines Employees Association (PALEA) in a press conference today in Manila. Led by Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo, the labor and church organizations committed to support PALEA should a major battle occur due to the plan of Philippine Airlines (PAL) to terminate some 2,600 by October 1.

“Management has pushed PAL workers to the wall and there is no other way but to fight back with all the weapons at our disposal. Thus we ask for the understanding of the riding public. Any inconvenience to the passengers and clients of PAL will be short-term but the benefits will be long-term,” declared Gerry Rivera, PALEA president and vice chair of Partido ng Manggagawa (PM).

PALEA is asserting that the maintenance of regular jobs at PAL will ensure the safe operation of the flag carrier. Meanwhile the labor and church groups stated that the fight against contractualization is a struggle for the dignity and future of all workers. In a statement the groups said that “The decision of the Office of the President and PAL’s outsourcing plan is a blatant attempt to revise labor relations in the country and rollback workers rights to the Commonwealth era.”

Meanwhile PALEA decried the harassment by airport authorities in yesterday’s mass at the Terminal 2 chapel. Terminal manager Atty. Cecilio Bobila tried to block the use of the chapel but eventually acceded in the face of a crowd of PAL employees participating in the mass. Still the airport authorities shutdown the air conditioning and sound system in the chapel as the mass was being officiated by Fr. Joel Guinto, PALEA revealed.

“Despite harassment by wang-wangs in the airport authority, the active participation by PAL employees at yesterday’s prayer protest at the Terminal 2 chapel and noise barrage at the corner of MIA and Sucat Roads has revealed that the outsourcing plan will fail,” Rivera exclaimed.

Renato Magtubo, PM national chair, claimed that “A victory for PALEA will mean a big time rollback of contractualization. A victory for PALEA will be a major gain in the campaign to secure regular jobs for all workers and a decent future for all Filipinos.”

On Saturday afternoon at the Baclaran Church, PALEA will hold a “family day” where spouses and children of PAL employees can express and voice their sentiments on the planned layoff and outsourcing.

The need for church-labor solidarity in PALEA’s fight for workers rights

April 5, 2011

Gerry Rivera

PALEA President

We ask today for the fullest support that the Catholic Church can provide the workers of Philippine Airlines (PAL). Our worse expectations are coming to pass. The Office of the President has allowed the outsourcing at PAL that will lead to the layoff of 2,600 workers, their transfer as contractuals to service providers and the virtual busting of our union, Philippine Airline Employees’ Association (PALEA), one the oldest unions in the country.

It seems that PAL had prior notice of the decision and that is the reason it was adamantly refusing to open negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) without preconditions. The Office of the President closed its eyes to the fact that PAL will retrench despite a $1.6 billion projected annual profit, a bountiful harvest of the fruits of production which the company does not want to share with its loyal and hardworking employees via a CBA. PAL’s not so hidden agenda is extend forever the suspension of the CBA that in the last 12 years has lead to the stagnation of the wages, benefits and protection on the one hand but on the other the further enrichment of Lucio Tan, already the second richest Filipino.

PALEA has been pushed to the wall and we prepared for a strike in order that our just demands are heard and met. But the government through a certification order from Labor Secretary Baldoz prevented us from using the workers weapon of last resort. This is the double standard of PNoy’s government: it has bound the hands of workers from fighting abuse and exploitation even as it has given freedom to Lucio Tan to layoff and outsource under the cover of management prerogative. PALEA has now been denied three rights that are guaranteed by the Constitution, ILO conventions and the Labor Code: security of tenure, collective bargaining and peaceful concerted activities including strike.

Any victory that PALEA will achieve in this fight will redound to the benefit not just of PAL employees but to all Filipino workers. PNoy’s approval of contractualization at PAL if not resisted will become policy. Regular jobs will be replaced by contractuals. Contractual workers will not have a chance to become regular employees. And the mass of unemployed will become even bigger under this system in which workers welfare are always sacrificed.

It is in this light that we appeal for the support of the Church. We believe that in this case, the Church will be pro-RH, that is in favor of Regular na Hanapbuhay, which is the essence of the demand of PALEA.

This will not be a country fit for our children if no one will enjoy the dignity of a regular job. A regular job that provides decent wages, substantial benefits, security of tenure and the protection of a union should be the Filipino way of life. This is not an impossible dream for employers need only be guided by Christian teachings on sharing the fruits of production.

We believe that church-labor solidarity is just as important as the labor unity forged in support of PALEA’s fight for regular jobs.

Workers welcome solidarity from Catholic Church on PAL labor row

Press Statement
November 9, 2010
Gerry Rivera
PALEA President

Last October 29 Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz released a decision that allows Philippine Airlines (PAL) to outsource its airport services, in-flight catering and call center reservations and layoff more than half of its workforce. The Halloween order will lead to the massacre of some 3,000 regular jobs and the death of the oldest union in the country.

The decision sets a dangerous precedent for it will open the floodgates to massive contractualization. Regular employees of PAL will be retrenched and then rehired as contractual workers in so-called third-party service providers. The work done at the service providers will be exactly the same but for cheaper wages, fewer benefits, no security of tenure and no protection of a union.

All the employees to be retrenched by PAL will indeed be absorbed by the service providers but only as contractuals. As contractuals, ex-PAL workers would enjoy no security of tenure and thus can be legally fired at the whim of the service providers. Without a union, ex-PAL workers will have no protection and no voice as employees in the service providers.

The euphemistically termed “transition benefits” enumerated in the Baldoz ruling are mere artificial sweeteners to the bitter pill of contractualization. They may well be above the separation pay mandated by law and the CBA but it nonetheless cannot provide for a decent life to those facing the prospect of long-term unemployment.

Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo captured our sentiments when he said that the Baldoz decision reflects the policy of the Aquino administration to continue rather than cure the virus of contractualization. The Philippines will be a much poorer country if we become a nation of contractuals.

This will not be a country fit for our children if no one will enjoy the dignity of a regular job. A regular job that provides decent wages, substantial benefits, security of tenure and the protection of a union should be the Filipino way of life. This is not an impossible dream for employers need only be guided by Christian teachings on sharing the fruits of production.

PAL workers warmly welcome the support of the Catholic Church for PALEA’s demand for social justice and the protection of regular jobs. A church-labor solidarity is just as important as the labor unity forged yesterday with the full spectrum of the trade union movement from the moderate to the militant championing PALEA’s fight for regular jobs.

PALEA calls for the resignation of Labor Sec. Baldoz and the intervention of President Benigno Aquino in suspending the implementation of the mass layoff. On Friday PALEA will also file a case at the Court of Appeals against the Baldoz decision.