PALEA to hold strike vote Wednesday; PAL says move baseless

The ground crew union of flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) will hold a strike vote on Wednesday, due to the PAL management's alleged refusal to negotiate with it. Members of the PAL Employees Association (PALEA) filed a notice to hold a strike vote early Tuesday morning at the offices of the concerned government agencies. “We ask for the understanding of the people for the strike we are about to hold. PAL employees have endured almost 13 years of suspension of our collective bargaining agreement (CBA) and for five months PAL has sat on our request for bargaining negotiations," PALEA president Gerry Rivera said in an entry on the blog of Partido ng Manggagawa, where PALEA is a member. “After all that sacrifice and now that PAL are expecting $1.6 billion in yearly profit, it plans to layoff 2,600 regular workers and make us contractuals in service providers. Enough is enough," Rivera added. The PAL management, on the other hand, was unfazed by PALEA’s planned strike vote, saying the grounds it cited are “utterly baseless." “PAL is perplexed over the planned strike because apart from expressing willingness to negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA), we told the National Conciliation and Mediation Board that we will submit our counter-proposal on or before Monday (March 28) next week," PAL president and COO Jaime Bautista said in a news release posted on PAL’s website. Bautista also maintained that the CBA negotiations can proceed independent of the labor dispute on the spin-off issue that is still pending before the Office of the President. PALEA, meanwhile, wants the CBA to delve on the spin-off issue. Notice of strike The PALEA filed its notice with the National Conciliation and Mediation Board (NCMB), Office of the Secretary of Labor and Employment, and the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE)-NCR. PALEA said the strike vote will be held Wednesday at all PAL offices and outlying stations from Laoag to Cebu to Zamboanga. The results of the strike vote are expected by late Thursday. PALEA plans to submit the outcome of the strike vote to the DOLE on Friday. The actual strike can then commence after a lapse of seven days. Negotiations without preconditions PALEA called on PAL to resolve the dispute by immediately opening CBA negotiations without preconditions. “The issue has dragged on since PAL has been changing its mind erratically. They initially announced they were willing to negotiate. Then they said that they won’t until after the termination of half of PAL’s workforce. And now they insist that they will negotiate but only with preconditions that are unacceptable to the PAL workers," Rivera said. Rivera also warned PAL management that it risks disrupting efforts to evacuate Filipinos in troubled countries by not taking steps to avert the strike. He said that while PALEA does not want to derail the evacuation efforts for Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) by being forced to go on strike, the retrenchment of 2,600 workers “is also a man-made tsunami for the country." “Still it is a disaster that can be prevented by management. The ball is in PAL’s court," he said. Insensitive But Bautista reminded PALEA leaders that they should wait for the results of their own petition for presidential intervention before Malacañang. “Using the CBA negotiations as a forum to discuss the merits of a pending case is unacceptable," he said. He said the management will not be cowed by the union’s pressure tactics. Bautista stressed PALEA’s planned mass action betrays the insensitivity of PALEA leaders to the current problems plaguing the country and the rest of the world. “PALEA’s planned strike which could hamper operations at a time when the flag carrier is in the midst of repatriation flights and relief operations for our fellow Filipinos in Japan, the Middle East and North Africa is downright callous, if not unpatriotic," Bautista said. Despite differences on the issue of what should be included in the CBA discussions, Bautista told PALEA officers in a meeting at the NCMB last March 14 that PAL’s counter-proposal to the PALEA proposed CBA will still be submitted. - KBK, GMA News