No flight sked disruptions, PAL assures

The country's flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) assured that its flights would proceed as scheduled, despite threats made by two of its labor unions about possible work stoppages. Labor strikes, especially in public utilities like PAL, do not happen overnight, said PAL President and Chief Operating Officer Jaime Bautista. “There is a legal process involved which all parties must respect and adhere to, before any lockout or strike can materialize," he explained. When a strike does take place, PAL said several measures are already in place to ensure that operations go smoothly. The contingency measures include an arrangement with partner airlines to take in PAL passengers when work stoppages do happen. “In case of flight disruptions, our passengers can rest assured that we can transfer them to these airline partners," Bautista said. He cited PAL's 134 interline partners:12 airlines in Southeast Asia; 11 in the USA and Canada; 25 inEurope; 12 in the Middle East; 3 airlines in Japan; and 10 airlines in China. Earlier this month, PAL flight attendants, or 1,600 of the company’s 7,000 workers, threatened to go on strike after the management refused to adjust the retirement age of 40 years old. PAL’s ground crew also intended to protest against the company’s plan to outsource the jobs of 2,600 workers in the company’s in-flight catering and airport services operations. However, Bautista remained hopeful that with the help of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), PAL can find peaceful and amicable solutions to its labor problems. “After all, PAL management continues to talk with the union representatives. We believe the negotiating table is still the best venue for resolving differences," he said. PAL also urged DOLE to uphold its previous decision, declaring PAL’s outsourcing of operations to third-party sub-contractors “a valid exercise of management prerogative." The company said the outsourcing was vital to the company’s survival because of the heavy losses it sustained in the past three years. “PAL has presented and fully explained all the evidence in support of the spin-off. It cited all the factors that led to PAL’s current financial difficulties and the legal basis for the spin-off as an integral part of the airline’s survival plan," Bautista said. –VVP, GMANews.TV