PALEA strike vote: Large turnout of members, overwhelming yes vote

Press Release
December 7, 2010
PALEA

The partial results of the PALEA strike vote show a large turnout and an overwhelming yes vote. The balloting closed at 5:00 pm for several PAL offices and work places like the outlying stations at 14 provincial cities and the call center reservations at PNB Building in Macapagal Ave. In the call center reservations, there was an 84% turnout with 86% voting yes. In the outlying stations some 80% of the members voted and 80% of them voted yes. Not all the outlying stations however have transmitted the results.

The votes of a majority of PALEA members remain not counted yet as balloting will only end by midnight tonight at the Terminal 2 of the Manila International Airport, the international cargo terminal, the in-flight catering department and the Mactan airport in Cebu. Nonetheless PALEA expects the trend to continue. PALEA also reported that the voting was orderly and peaceful.

The PALEA leadership will decide on its next move after the final results of the strike vote is canvassed.

PALEA strike vote ongoing as union insists on its legality

Press Release
December 7, 2010
PALEA

Some 3,700 members of the Philippines Airlines Employees’ Association (PALEA) started voting on whether to go on strike at 9:00 am today in the different work sites nationwide. PALEA insisted on the legality and propriety of the strike vote in face of statements from the management of Philippine Airlines (PAL) that it will contest the validity of the action.

“In form the strike vote is simply an exercise of the freedom of speech. We want to gauge the sentiments of PALEA members. More than that, the strike vote is also a requirement of the law. So how can it be illegal and inappropriate?” explained Gerry Rivera, PALEA president and Partido ng Manggagawa vice chair.

PALEA announced that at present the balloting is proceeding in orderly and peaceful fashion in all PAL offices in Manila, the airports of Cebu and Davao, and even outlying stations in 14 cities nationwide.

Rivera added that “The strike vote should not be a threat to anybody, not Malacanang, not even PAL. So we are wondering why is PAL management afraid of the strike vote. Don’t they want to know the opinions of their employees? Maybe they are terrified that their lies and propaganda will be exposed by an overwhelming support for the strike.”

He also answered PAL spokesperson Cielo Villaluna’s argument that the strike vote is illegal because the issues are already pending before the Office of the President (OP): “The issue pending at the OP is PAL’s outsourcing plan. The strike vote stems from a separate case of union busting and individual bargaining by PAL management. That complaint is pending at the National Conciliation and Mediation Board and holding a strike vote in no way violates the Labor Code.”

Last November 5 PALEA filed a notice of strike for alleged unfair labor practices and union busting by PAL stemming from managers’ efforts to convince individual employees to accept the planned mass layoff. “In the November 8 mediation meeting PAL, through its counsel, stated that it will talk to managers to refrain from discussing the issues with PALEA members. That is on record in the minutes of the meeting. Yet managers have kept on convincing PALEA members to accept the gratuity pay that forms of the separation package enumerated in the ruling of Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz,” Rivera insisted.

The final tally of the strike vote is expected after midnight tonight since highly operational PAL work areas like the airport services department, airport ticketing office, in-flight catering department, and the Mactan airport in Cebu where bulk of PALEA members are situated will have their balloting till 12:00 midnight.

PALEA to hold strike vote tomorrow, expects majority support from members

Press Release
December 6, 2010
PALEA

The Philippine Airlines Employees’ Association (PALEA), the embattled ground crew union of Philippine Airlines (PAL), will hold a strike vote tomorrow and expects to get the necessary majority support of its members. PALEA leaders delivered a notice of strike vote to the office of National Conciliation and Mediation Board (NCMB) Executive Director Reynaldo Ubaldo at 8:30 am with a copy furnished the Office of the Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz at 8:55 am. This means that PALEA can proceed with the strike vote from 9:00 am to 12:00 midnight tomorrow.

“The strike vote is compliance with the requirements of the law. If management does not desist from harassing PALEA members to avail of the separation offer which is tantamount to individual bargaining and therefore illegal then we will be forced to actually hold the strike. Management continues to violate its own promise during the mediation last November 8 that PAL managers will refrain from discussing the issues with PALEA members,” insisted Gerry Rivera, PALEA president and vice chair of the militant Partido ng Manggagawa (PM).

“We don't make strike threats. We just do it when needed. That is why we are preparing the requirements for a strike which will happen at the appropriate time. A majority support of members assessed via a strike vote is necessary to hold a legal strike,” Rivera explained.

PALEA explained that the strike vote does not constitute a transgression of the mediation efforts of the Office of the President (OP). “We are not blackmailing Malacanang to favor our position but we are warning management for its illegal acts. It was PALEA that asked for the intervention of President Benigno Aquino III into the PAL-PALEA dispute and so it is illogical that we will sabotage it. The issue pending at the OP is separate though related to the case from which proceeds the strike vote,” Rivera argued.

He clarified that the issue pending at the OP is PAL’s outsourcing plan which has been affirmed by Labor Sec. Baldoz while the strike vote arose from the complaint of individual bargaining by PAL management which constitutes unfair labor practice and union busting.

Rivera called on PALEA members “To vote yes in the strike vote in order to defend our jobs and secure our future. Those who have their day off tomorrow should go to work to register their vote and express their sentiments.”

Some 3,700 PALEA members from all PAL offices in Manila, the airports of Cebu and Davao, and even outlying stations in 14 cities nationwide will participate in the strike vote. PALEA announced that everything is all set for the orderly conduct of the strike vote tomorrow.

Urban poor groups hold caravan around QC

Press Release
December 1, 2010
Alyansa ng Maralitang Pilipino

Some 500 urban poor families from various groups under Kilos Maralita and Alyansa ng Maralitang Pilipino (AMP) held a caravan today. They made the rounds of the offices of the Presidential Commission on Urban Poor, the National Housing Authority, National Anti-Poverty Commission, Department of Interior and Local Government and the Commission on Human Rights, all in QC.

The caravan started at 9:00 am in the corner of Agham Road and North Ave and then ended just after noon. “This is just the kickoff of a sustained campaign to push for a three-year moratorium on demolitions and evictions, and also to engage the PNoy government on its housing program,” declared Michelle Licudine of AMP.

Leaders of Kilos Maralita and AMP also conducted a dialogue with heads of some of the offices to convince them on a three year moratorium on demolitions and evictions, and also to recommend a reform of the housing program and policy to the Aquino administration.

On the other hand at the National Hosing Authority, KM and AMP members locked the gates and served a “Notice to Vacate” to symbolize the inutile program of the office. At the Quezon City Hall meanwhile, protesters called for the reform of its Urban Poor Affairs Office which the groups allege has always been biased to private land developers over the poor communities.

The urban poor are demanding a three-year moratorium on demolitions. Among others, the groups are also concerned about the planned flagship project on flood control that will affected hundreds of thousands of poor families residing in waterways and the shores of Laguna lake.

Women workers support RH bill

PRESS STATEMENT
1 December 2010

Working women add our voice to the chorus of support for the RH bill. The Partido ng Manggagawa asserts that the passage of House Bill 96 or “The Reproductive Health and Population and Development Act of 2010” is critical given the impact of the global financial crisis on working people and the poor, especially women. The growing incidence of hunger and poverty only connotes that poor and working women will neither be able to afford nor access contraceptive methods, in particular, and reproductive health care services, in general.

PM supports the RH bill on the basis of women’s right to reproductive health care. The rapid increase in population due to unmet needs of married Filipino women for family planning services is a growing concern. It is different when population control is forced rather than the implicit demand of women as reflected in the following statistics:

• Women want fewer children than they actually have. The total wanted fertility in the country of 2.4 children is 27% lower than the actual total fertility rate of 3.3 children (NDHS 2008)

• 42% of women consider a two-child family as the ideal family size (2008 NDHS)

• 2.6 million Filipino women would like to plan their families but lack information and access to do so. (Family Planning Survey 2006)

• Among the poorest women who would like to avoid pregnancy, at least 41% do not use any contraceptive method because of lack of information or access. (FPS 2006)

• 22% of married Filipino women have an unmet need for family planning services (2008 National Demographic and Health Survey), an increase of more than one-third since the 2003 NDHS, among other numerous statistics and studies that have been conducted.

These data, including the fact that from the 1999 population of roughly 75 million, 10 years later after the first comprehensive version of the RH bill was filed in Congress, the country’s population has increased by 19.3 million or an annual average increase of two million every year within the decade.

And more importantly, precise and regular use of contraceptives can decrease abortion rates by as much as 85% according to Allan Guttmacher Institute. As to the Catholic Church’s irresponsible statement that modern contraception is a form of abortion, this distorts the scientific fact that pregnancy happens at implantation and not during conception as it boldly claims. Such unscientific assertion belies the Church’s claim of being not anti-scientific; it is rather relative, depending on whether it would adhere to its archaic views, regardless of it being anti-women.

This is like going back to the four centuries-old controversy (wherein the Church believed that it is the Earth rather than the Sun the is the center of the solar system) that led to thee burning of Giordano Bruno alive at the stake and the trial of Galileo Galilei by the Inquisition and which forced him to recant and spend the rest of his life under house arrest. And to which, 1992, Pope John Paul II acknowledged a mistake. PM hopes that it will not take that long for the Church to admit that it is making the same mistake.