PAL Workers Wonder if Aquino Is Really Concerned About Their Plight

PAL Workers Wonder if Aquino Is Really Concerned About Their Plight

By MARYA SALAMAT
Bulatlat.com
MANILA – ‘Tis the peak season in the airline business, and workers of Philippine flag-carrier Philippine Air Lines (PAL) say they can feel it in their workload. ‘Tis also the season when any hint of work stoppage in the airline can rattle the management, especially since the more numerous and strike-tested ground crew union has filed another notice of strike first week of November.

The labor department had at the time just thrown away the said union’s petition against the Department of Labor and Employment’s earlier approval of PAL’s outsourcing plans. That notice of strike has not yet been scuttled by an assumption of jurisdiction order, although the recent decision of President Benigno S. Aquino III to “review” the PAL case has somewhat created the same effect.

Challenged to hold stronger mass actions … (Photo by Angelica G. de Lara / bulatlat.com)

Last week, Aquino announced that his office would review the outsourcing case of PAL. Afterward, Aquino’s executive secretary met with the officers of Philippine Airlines Employees Association (PALEA) for what turned out to be “more of an exploratory talk,” as PALEA president Gerry Rivera described it. The presidential review has “temporarily stopped the conciliation conferences between the union, PAL and DOLE, as all parties await the result of the president’s review,” Rivera told Bulatlat.com.

While under “review,” PAL’s spokesperson Cielo Villaluna said the airline would observe the “status quo” and would not yet implement their DOLE-approved spin-off and outsourcing plans.

But for PAL workers, is there cause for hope that Aquino will reverse the approval of the Lucio Tan company’s planned outsourcing, mass termination and contractualization, which had been affirmed by two succeeding labor secretaries? Or is Aquino merely helping Tan to buy time, until the Christmas peak season — and the optimum time for the ground workers’ strike — is over?

Streamlining
In the same way that the Lopezes of the ABS-CBN are reportedly one of Aquino’s biggest presidential campaign supporters, so is Tan, who in the past has also had close relations with the president’s cousin and campaigner, Antonio “Boy” Cojuangco. Tan first bought into the flag carrier when it was being privatized — through Cojuangco, who reportedly served as Tan’s dummy for the initial transactions..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.bulatlat.com/main/2010/11/27/pal-workers-wonder-if-aquino-is-really-concerned-about-their-plight/