Original Article: http://www.philstar.com/nation/article.aspx?

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PAL reduces flights due to workers' strike

Home Updated September 29, 2011 12:55 PM 0 comment to this post

MANILA (Xinhua) -- Flag carrier Philippine Airlines ( PAL) reduced its schedule of flights after striking workers damaged ground equipment and held protest rallies.

PAL announced Wednesday that it is operating 18 regular international flights and 18 domestic flights, most of which will depart from its hub in Terminal 2 of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA). Some flights were transferred to NAIA Terminal 3.

"Despite our best efforts to restore normalcy at NAIA Terminal 2, the union still persists in hampering our airport operations and preventing the delivery of service to our passengers," PAL officials said in a statement.

The domestic flights which operated mid-week are selected regular services to Davao, Cebu, Kalibo and Dumaguete.

PAL will mount replacement flights in four specific flights canceled Tuesday from Manila to Cagayan de Oro, Davao, Bacolod and Cebu, and back.

The airline resumed its international flights to Hong Kong, Xiamen, Beijing, Narita, Nagoya, Kansai, Incheon, Taipei, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Vancouver and Australia.

PAL was able to come back on-line hours after striking members of the PAL Employees Association (PALEA) vacated their posts Tuesday. PAL volunteers took over the check-in, ramp and catering functions, enabling the airline to deploy two U.S.-bound flights, three regional and two domestic flights. But PAL had to cancel 64 domestic and 40 international flights due to manpower shortage.

PAL also managed to operate a special flight from Haneda airport in Tokyo to Manila, carrying President Benigno S. Aquino III and his delegation, who flew home after a working visit to Japan.

PAL expects to return to normal operations within a month after its designated service providers -- Sky Logistics, Sky Kitchen and SPi Global -- formally take over the airline's ground-handling, catering and call-center reservations functions.

This article shows power between two forces in our Philippine society: A big, powerful business/corporation and the employees or the everyday people. If you read the article, you will see that a strike by the workers occurred because they felt as they were not treated right after being outsourced. Reason for PAL strike article: http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/business/07/28/10/pal-flight-attendants-threaten-go-strike

PAL flight attendants threaten to go on strike

abs-cbnNEWS.com Posted at 07/28/2010 7:16 PM | Updated as of 07/28/2010 7:26 PM MANILA, Philippines - Flight attendants of flag carrier Philippine Airlines may go on strike over management's discriminatory policies, which includes a lower compulsory retirement age for attendants and stewards. The 1,600 members of the PAL- Flight Attendants and Stewards Association of the Philippines (FASAP), said in a statement on Wednesday, that management has been "bargaining in bad faith" and has not offered collective bargaining agreement (CBA) proposals since the last deal expired in 2007. "The flight attendants' collective morale has dipped to an all-time low," FASAP said, adding its members have not been granted any salary increase. FASAP said the primary reason for contemplating a strike, aside from the standoff in the CBA, is the age and gender discrimination against its flight attendants. All we ask is for equality in the workplace. In PAL, the other employees are allowed to work until 65 years old. The pilots compulsory retirement age for both males and females is 60 years old. But for flight attendants, the compulsory retirement age is as young as 40 years old, said FASAP President Roberto Anduiza. "We are against age and gender discrimination. PAL cannot continue to turn a blind eye to inequality. PAL should correct this discriminatory policy, instead of using it as a bargaining chip against the flight attendants," Anduiza said. He said the planned strike will force PAL management to respect the legal CBA process and bring them back to the negotiating table. "We have more than legal basis and documentation to file a notice of strike," said Anduiza.

Definition of outsource: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/outsource To contract out (jobs, services, etc.): a small business thatoutsources bookkeeping to an accounting firm. Perspectives (From other peoples opinions): http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=736239&publicationSubCategoryId=109

Lessons learned from that PAL strike

DIRECT FROM THE LABOR FRONT By Atty Josephus Jimenez (The Freeman) Updated October 11, 2011 12:00 AM Comments (0)

When all shall have been said and done, and in moments of deep reflection, we should all pick up a lesson or two, nay, learn many lessons indeed from this unfortunate experience, where all parties lost something, or a number of things very important. The PAL management lost tremendous amount of money in terms of unearned revenues, unrealized profits and a besmirched reputation, and a damaged goodwill before the riding public, not to mention the serious anxieties and humiliation before the airline industry. These damages are beyond pecuniary estimation. The union, on the other hand, lost the confidence of its members for its seeming incapability to preserve its members security of tenure, and many of its hitherto loyal adherents are beginning to question their own acts of following the union leaders in their decision to stage a preemptive strike. The members, or at least, a number of them, must have started to regret why they ended their careers that way. The

government must have also come to realization that there is no legal injunction nor any doctrine of law or of jurisprudence, in this jurisdiction, that is strong enough to stop a union that is determined to go on strike, come hell or high water. The nation was damaged too, especially the riding public. There were too many meetings and appointments that had to be cancelled or postponed indefinitely, too many hotel bookings that had to be shelved, conventions and conferences which had to be reset, scheduled vacations that were derailed, business transactions that were jeopardized, and many many unreported, undocumented impact on the innocent public. What matters most is that such an unfortunate incident inflicted, and is still inflicting, a deep wound on the image of the Philippines as a tourist destination. How can Tourism Secretary Jimenez sell the Philippines now as a preferred destination, when angry tourists, hurling invectives in many domestic airports have been interviewed by CNN, and Al Jazerra, as well as other global networks, and broadcast all over the world. Added to the devastating typhoons, floods and garbage, was the lightning raid by the rebels in the Caraga Region mining companies, and then came this nasty and ill-timed work stoppage in PAL. Indeed, when it rains, it really pours. Management must have learned its lessons the hard way, They were assuring us, the riding public, without batting an eyelash that the many outsourcing companies, many service contractors, that have signed contracts with PAL, would be able to normalize the operations by the first of October. They have to eat their words now. The contractors failed to deliver. There are no ground staff in the counters. There are no call center operators to answer questions straight, or if there were some, they were merely starting their learning curves at a very critical period of emergency. They are not familiar with the territory. They are not experienced in dealing with impatient, angry and agitated customers. They have a lot to learn from the realities of the industry. PAL underestimated the will and the strength of PALEA. Instead of handling the matter with a sense of respect for people, they rushed the process of outsourcing on the strength of favorable decisions from DOLE and Malacaang. Somehow, they seemed to have forgotten the humane side of managing people. Somehow, they have forgotten that these people served PAL with utmost loyalty all their lifetime. The union also had its own share of recklessness, leading its flock of disgruntled employees to a lose-lose bargaining position. PALEA sadly realized that, to use a cliche, when the rubber hits the road, the other two unions would leave them alone. ALPAP, the richer union of pilots, and FASAP, the Union of Flight Attendants, have their own labor issues and disputes with management. One thing has been made clear by these turn of events: The three unions in PAL are far from united, they have no working alliance, and they are too preoccupied with their own respective insecurity to think of one concerted action. The union also came to realize that there is no strike, no work stoppage that can last for a protracted legal and propaganda warfare which PAL, with its vast resources and connections, is able to mount with merciless ferocity. The individual employees are now starting to feel the pains of joblessness, to face the depressions and mental anguish, the sleepless nights and sudden humiliation, before their communities and families. In this kind of game, everybody loses. There are no winners.

http://opinion.inquirer.net/13347/right-cause-wrong-tack
Theres The Rub
Rightcause,wrongtack By: Conrado de Quiros Philippine Daily Inquirer
2:32 am | Tuesday, October 4th, 2011

One of the things I heard in the wake of Paleas wildcat strike at the height of Typhoon Pedring was this: Grabe naman sila, theyve gotten so spoiled. Didnt they just get a Christmas gift from the Supreme Court in the form of a ruling ordering PAL to pay them their back wages? No, that wasnt Palea, that was Fasap, or the Flight Attendants and Stewards Association of the Philippines. A couple of months ago, the Supreme Court ruled with finality that PALs retrenchment of 1,400 flight attendants in 1998 was illegal. It had already made that ruling some years ago but PAL had blocked it with a couple of motions for reconsideration. In quashing the second one, the Supreme Court said PAL had shown itself less than honest in its claim. It said it would no longer entertain further motions for reconsideration and ordered PAL to pay the back wages of the retrenched personnel. This confusion alone shows the folly of the wildcat strike. From Paleas perspective, the strike was well past due. They had been complaining about PALs labor policies for some time now, and management hadnt heeded them. Worse, the labor department agreed that management had the right to retrench them. The retrenchment was imminent: it was to take place last Saturday, Oct. 1. They had no time to lose.

But from the publics perspective, the strike was sudden and capricious. What the hell did they know of Paleas problems? If Palea was desperate, only its members knew about it. They themselves, the public, knew nothing, or next to nothing, about it. All they knew was that the airport personnel refused to move their asses at a time that the passengers badly needed them to do it. A storm was raging and they were desperate to quite literally fly to the arms of their loved ones. Its not government Palea should be worried about, its the public. Its not government Palea has pissed off, its the public. The tack of calling P-Noy an enemy of labor and in league with Lucio Tan doesnt make things better, it makes things worse. Its thoroughly unthinking. I dont particularly care about Mar Roxas, he probably is, on both counts. In fact, its not just unthinking, its suicidal. Why make an enemy of a potential ally? Why make an enemy of someone who is out to make Tan pay for his sins, not the least of them tax evasion, or fraud? The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Surely even unions know that? Maybe Palea thinks that by showing this kind of militancy, or by being controversial, it is finally getting some media mileage? Maybe, but unlike show biz where no news is bad news, in union work, some news, particularly bad news, can be the death of you. Controversy about movie stars can only drive people to watch their movies. Controversy about unions can only drive a strike to the ground. Theres a precedent for this. In June 1998, PALs pilots also staged a wildcat strike abandoning their posts during the peak season, when a horde of Filipinos were flying in for the Independence Centennial. The pilots had perfectly valid grievances. But their action did not get them heard, it got them drowned in a roar of public outrage. The strike got little sympathy. The pilots lost the public, and with that lost their strike, lost their jobs, and lost their chance. Thankfully, they did not lose their licenses, many of them finding a better place in other airlines, local and foreign. A pity if Paleas strike would meet the same fate because its grievances are perfectly valid as well. By the time this comes out, PAL will have terminated the services of 2,600 regular employees. The problem is not the size, it is that PAL wants to terminate them and rehire them again as contractuals under another service provider at half their wages. Some of the employees have worked for as long as 20 years in the company and were earning P20,000 a month. If they agree to be rehired, they would be doing exactly the same thing they were doing before for only P11,000 now. If you were that employee, wouldnt you be furious too? Not surprisingly, only a few desperate souls have agreed to it. What makes it worse is that during Eraps time Palea agreed to sign a 10-year moratorium on collective bargaining in exchange for certain concessions, among them job security. The strikers have a point when they say that you want to see economic sabotage, dont look at them, look at the PAL management. What it is doing is economic sabotage in ways that give whole new meanings to the concept. It is sabotaging the dignity of labor, word of honor, and fairness and decency, the cornerstones of a just society. Contrary to PALs claim that it is losing money, which compels it to resort to such oppressive means as this, it is in fact raking billions. It did so last year, according to the calculations of all the unions. PAL is the only company that claims to be losing money that its owner, Lucio Tan, refuses to sell to someone who can run it without hiding behind an Erap, clinging to it instead with the tenaciousness of a leech. The Supreme Courts felicitous description of PALs retrenchment of the 1,400 flight attendants applies as well, or far more aptly to PALs retrenchment of the 2,600 ground crew: less than honest. In the one as in the other, there was no lack of alternatives to cutting the workers wages by half by that ruse. In the one as in the other, there was only exploitation to justify it. Unfortunately all this is being lost by Paleas knee-jerk response to the problem. You want to strike, fine, but first strike at the heart of the public. Get the public to understand your cause, get the public to sympathize with it, get the public to appreciate it. Otherwise, well, remember the pilots, and despair.
Why did PAL outsource people in the first place?

Outsourcing will save airline, says PAL president

Jaime Bautista, President and COO of Philippine Airlines, said: "We are now being serviced by at least six service providers in the airport and we think that with the support of all these service providers, we will soon be back to normalcy." These service providers have taken over the airline's catering, ground-handling, and call centre reservations units. The flag carrier believes outsourcing three of its non-core business will help save Asia's oldest airline. Mr Bautista said: "The airline is now experiencing a difficult time, not only PAL but the whole airline industry. And everybody is thinking of how to save costs. Outsourcing is now the practice in the airline industry.

"By outsourcing, your cost becomes a variable cost rather than a fixed cost. Everybody in the industry is thinking of ways and means on how to reduce cost because this is crucial for the survival of each airline." Outsourcing will save Philippine Airlines some US$10 million to US$15 million annually. Just last quarter, the flag carrier incurred a net loss of US$10.6 million due to rising fuel costs and competition from budget carriers like Cebu Pacific. Mr Bautista said: "With the implementation of the outsourcing, PAL will continue to hire 5,000 direct employees, so we are trying to save the jobs of these 5,000 employees. Rather than close the airline after some time because we cannot sustain operations, (its better that) we do this. "Implementing outsourcing affects 2,600 people who will not really lose jobs, and with that we will save the jobs of the 5,000 people from Philippine Airlines. The more important result of the outsourcing, aside from the cost savings is making our operations more efficient." Outside the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 2, former employees of Philippine Airlines continue to hold camp, hoping that the Court of Appeals declare the airline's outsourcing plan as illegal. Manny Gan, a former Philippine Airlines employee, said: "Outsourcing is not the issue. It does not prove productive anymore. As a matter of fact, many countries in Europe have turned their back on this issue because it has proven counter-productive. Here in the Philippines, we are embracing this." For the thousands of passengers who are still affected by the airline's skeleton flight schedules, they can only hope that both parties reach an amicable solution. One of the stranded passenger, Melai Santos, said: "I have two kids with me. It's hard to travel and then have cancellations. Whatever their labour situation is, I hope they can find a Plan B so we will not be hassled like this." Philippine Airlines said it will take at least a month for their operations to return to normal, after its service providers formally take over the airline's ground operations. For now, the flag carrier is relying on its trained management volunteers to handle these operations, as it beefs up its manpower during this transition period with their service providers. Definition of contractualization: ContractualA contractual arrangement or relationship involves a legal agreement between people.