PALEA turns 68, consolidates behind call to implement agreement

Among the people at PALEA's 68th founding anniversary

Press Release

September 21, 2014

PALEA

Members of the Philippine Airlines Employees’ Association (PALEA), their families and supporters from the labor and social movement, including the church gathered today to celebrate its 68^th founding anniversary. 

PALEA was founded on September 21, 1946.  And amid the backdrop of the complete buyback of the flag carrier by the Lucio Tan group, PALEA is hopeful the PAL-PALEA settlement agreement ending the labor dispute last year is finally implemented.

“Now that the ownership row in Philippine Airlines is over, we expect that there will be no more obstacles to completing the settlement agreement that guaranteed re-employment of PALEA members,” said PALEA President Gerry Rivera.

In November of last year, PAL and PALEA signed an accord to settle the labor dispute arising from the implementation of an outsourcing program that led to the retrenchment of more than 2,000 employees in September 2011. Meanwhile PAL reported a US$1.49 billion profit in the second quarter of this year, reversing a trend of losses for the past several years.

The 600 PALEA members who resisted the PAL outsourcing plan and are the subject of the agreement attended the noontime mass led by Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo at Our Lady of the Airways Parish.  Pabillo and other church leaders held regular masses at the picket line during the height of PALEA’s resistance against outsourcing.

Rivera said the anniversary theme was extremely serious but at the same time fun-filled and family-centered.

“After all those trying years PALEA remains a solid family. And it is labor dignity and our love of the flag carrier that continue to consolidate our ranks,” added Rivera.

Leaders and representatives from Partido Manggagawa (PM) and Nagkaisa! labor coalition, student groups and community organizations attended the celebration to affirm their commitment to PALEA’s fight. 

Workers blame government for new power emergency

PRESS RELEASE

16 September 2014

For doing nothing during the last four years, a second power crisis is materializing under the watch of the second Aquino, the labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) said in a statement.

“Had the government acted in advance, one of which was going back into generation as recommended by the 19^th EPIRA Status Report of 2011, the President would not have been begging for emergency powers from Congress which the same body that enacted the failed Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) in 2001,” said PM spokesperson Wilson Fortaleza.

Fortaleza said that as early as 2010, red flags on the supply side have already been raised by experts and by the government itself.  Even the labor sector under the coalition Nagkaisa! had been calling on the government since 2012 to decisively address the twin problems of high cost and diminishing power supply.

“Yet the government opted to stay in the sidelines, waiting for the promised megawatts from private players to come online. But to no avail,” lamented Fortaleza

“Now PNoy has placed himself in a situation where his mother once failed: Presiding over a power crisis in a panicky and very costly manner,” explained Fortaleza.

The group said that since there is no more time to build an additional 600-700MW capacity to fill in the annual deficit beginning next year, the government is left with no option but to revert back to provisional and very costly mode of power contracting, similar to the notorious IPP contracts done by the Aquino and Ramos regimes.

“These instant, palliative solutions will bring us, poor consumers, more pain,” said Fortaleza.

But before Congress expressly grant PNoy emergency powers, the group said it is but judicious to declare first that EPIRA and privatization failed.

Second, the group said an audit of all the plants’ capacities as per contracts must be done first to determine the actual numbers since there are reports that power plants are not running on their full capacities or are not properly maintained.

Third, Malacanang must also show the real cost of the planned contract that it will enter into, for how long, to whom, and the actual terms it is willing to commit.

Fourth, with or without emergency, the government should strongly push for a shift to renewable energy.

And lastly, emergency powers must not be granted to the Executive if it has no clear, effective and doable plan to strategically address this oppressive, decade-old energy crisis.

PALEA calls for respect for agreement amidst buyout deal

Press Release

September 12, 2014

PALEA

Amidst the buyout deal at Philippine Airlines (PAL), the Philippine Airlines Employees’ Association (PALEA), the ground crew union of the flag carrier, today called on management to respect the agreement settling the long-running outsourcing dispute. The union expressed hope that a conclusion to the corporate battle over PAL will lead to the full execution of the settlement agreement as the prolonged buyout talks have delayed its implementation.

Last Monday, media reported that San Miguel Corp. and the Lucio Tan group had signed a deal for the latter to buy back the 49% share of the former for US$1 billion to be paid within one week.

“We expect that PAL management would faithfully and fully implement the terms of the agreement resolving the outsourcing dispute. Anything less would mean the resurgence of labor troubles at the flag carrier that could threaten PAL’s return to profitability,” averred Gerry Rivera, PALEA president and Partido ng Manggagawa vice chair.

In November of last year, PAL and PALEA signed an accord to settle the labor dispute arising from the implementation of an outsourcing program that led to the retrenchment of more than 2,000 employees in September 2011. Meanwhile PAL reported a US$1.49 billion profit in the second quarter of this year, reversing a trend of losses for the past several years.

“PALEA has reliably complied with its part of the settlement agreement such as dismantling the picketline and terminating labor cases. Whoever is in control of PAL, we demand that management do the same,” Rivera added.

The settlement provides for the rehiring as regular workers of some 600 PALEA members who were retrenched in 2011 but refused to accept the outsourcing scheme. The agreement also grants an improved separation package.

Rivera asserts that the resolution of the outsourcing dispute is one of the factors that led to PAL’s profitability this year. In the two-year long pendency of the outsourcing issue, PALEA’s supporters have called for a boycott of PAL.

PALEA’s struggle against contractualization has been a trailblazer campaign that has influenced industrial relations in the country. The Labor Department issued new guidelines on subcontracting called DO 18-A in the wake of the PALEA protest and the fractious labor movement united in support of the embattled PAL union.

Partido Manggagawa demands reinstatement of café workers

PRESS RELEASE

03 September 2014

A high-end café and restaurant located at the heart of Malate district in Manila is getting the ire of organized labor after its management sacked several workers upon learning of their move to organize a union some few months back. 

A picket led by Partido Manggagawa (PM) was held today at the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) in Manila demanding the reinstatement of Edaville Minoza, Jesus Porlas, Parsamson Hadjirul, Edgar Pancrudo, Stephen De Leon, and Romy Castolo.  All of them were dismissed by the company in January and May of this year without valid reasons and apparently for initiating the formation of a union which is a guaranteed labor right.

According to PM, Hizon’s/ZA’s Café in Malate is a cozy place where celebrities and Manila’s VIPs come as regular guests.  But its workers, 54 in all, are unjustly treated by the company since the time of their employment.  Most of them had been working in the Café for more than ten years yet they are not enrolled in the social security system, Philhealth and Pag-ibig.  They likewise are underpaid, enjoy no job security and have no union representation.  

“This company violates almost all of the core labor standards.  Thus the labor department cannot play deaf and blind to this blatant breaches in labor rights,” said PM Chair Renato Magtubo.

A notice of strike, on the basis of management interference, illegal dismissal and union busting, was filed before the labor department by Hizon workers in January after the first batch of termination.  The case is still pending before the National Conciliation and Mediation Board (NCMB). 

Magtubo said the labor department has the obligation to order the immediate reinstatement of Hizon workers as their dismissal was clearly a retaliatory action by the management against legitimate union activities. 

He added that it is also the duty of the State, the labor department in particular, to enforce labor law compliance to all companies however big, powerful, or small they are.