Palace mediating in PAL labor row to avoid strike — PNoy

ALAMINOS CITY, PANGASINAN (Updated 8:55 p.m.) — While members and leaders of the Philippine Airlines Employees’ Association (PALEA) are holding a strike vote, Malacañang is trying to mediate between union and management in the hopes of averting a work stoppage involving around 3,700 workers of the flag carrier. In a media briefing Tuesday, President Benigno Aquino III said that Executive Secretary Paquito "Jojo" Ochoa Jr. is acting as arbiter between PAL workers and management. “Last night I was talking to the executive secretary, whom I tasked to talk with both PALEA and the PAL management, and my understanding — about a few weeks ago siguro — was that they were closer to resolving the issues," the President said. "[It] seems there have been some miscommunication, things that should have been transmitted to the other party were not done, so [the executive secretary] is taking care of that," Aquino said. PALEA held a strike vote on Tuesday morning to determine if the association could muster the numbers needed for a strike. The voting, which started at 9 a.m. Tuesday and will close at 12 midnight, involves around 3,700 members from PAL offices in Manila, the airports in Cebu and Davao, and outlying stations in 14 cities. On Oct. 29, Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz affirmed a March 2010 Department of Labor and Employment decision allowing PAL management to retrench 2,600 employees to streamline the airline’s operations The move cuts down PAL’s workforce to 4,000 and the Office of the President is still reviewing the decision of Baldoz. Legal move PALEA president Gerardo Rivera maintained that the strike vote is only “part of the legal proceedings," contrary to the position of the PAL management that the vote is a means to circumvent on-going talks at the Office of the President. Rivera said that the strike vote is only a step in the legal process leading up to an actual work stoppage, following the filing of the notice of strike. “The vote is part of the legal process. We filed a notice of strike last month and this is what follows. We even notified the DOLE about this vote," he told GMANews.TV in a phone interview on Tuesday night. He added that the flag carrier’s rank-and-file workers are only exercising their right to strike, as mandated by the Constitution. Rivera also expressed optimism that the voting will yield an “overwhelming" positive result from the workers.— Jam Sisante and Andreo Calonzo/VS/YA, GMANews.TV