The Philippine Airlines Employees’ Association (PALEA) held a motorcade around the Manila International Airport and the offices of Philippine Airlines (PAL) this morning as it entered the 30th day of what the union claims as an “illegal lockout.” “On the 30th day of the forcible eviction of protesting PALEA members from the airport and other offices, we remain strong in our resistance to the contractualization plan of PAL. PAL’s outsourcing scheme is a failure as shown by the continuing flight cancellations and delays,” declared Gerry Rivera, PALEA president and vice chair of Partido ng Manggagawa.

The motorcade started at 10:00 a.m today at PALEA’s protest camp outside the In-Flight Center along MIA Road and then passed by PAL’s Nichols Gate 1 and 2, Terminal 3, Terminal 2, Terminal 1 and then ended at the PNB Building at Macapagal Ave. A program was held at the PNB Building until 12 noon for a lunch break protest with employees there.

PALEA welcomed the support of the Migrant Forum in Asia (MFA) who in a press conference yesterday called for OFW’s to boycott PAL until it has heeded the demand of its workers to be accepted back to their regular jobs. MFA members from different parts of Asia attended the Asia Regional Conference on Decent Work for Domestic Workers. Rivera said that “We respect the boycott campaign of migrants and thank them for their support. Hopefully PAL will listen to the voice of its passengers who refuse to patronize a flag carrier of contractualization. PNoy should also stop using the OFW’s as an alibi for his inaction on the labor dispute.” He was referring to President Benigno Aquino’s speech at the FOCAP in which the latter said that he will not intervene on behalf of PALEA since the interests of 10 million OFW’s are a bigger priority.

Also in commemoration of PALEA’s 30th day of protest against contractualization, solidarity actions were held in San Francisco and Los Angeles by US unions and the Filipino-American community. In San Francisco, the groups picketed the Philippine consulate and PAL ticketing office, and submitted a letter of concern to Deputy Consul General Alfonso Ver.

Among the participants in the picket are the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers which represents PAL customer service agents in the San Francisco International Airport. The delegation raised to Mr. Ver the concern that airline service is deteriorating and passenger safety is put at risk by the untrained and overworked replacement workers who are now operating PAL flights, including the transpacific route which conveys many US nationals.

In Los Angeles, Fil-Am groups Alliance Philippines, Ecumenical Fellowship for Justice and Peace (EFJP) and Bantay Pilipinas-LA led the protest outside the consulate. On October 28, another picket is to be staged at the consulate in Chicago by the UNITE-HERE and UE unions, and the Filipino-American community in Illinois.

In his message to the solidarity actions in the US, Rivera said that “PAL’s outsourcing plan is an example of the corporate greed that has earned the outrage of working people in the America and the world. Organized action by workers is the antidote to the organized greed of corporations.”

Labor Party - Philippines

www.partidongmanggagawa2001.blogspot.com/

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Labor groups vowed to launch more protest actions vs. PAL

By Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL)

A broad coalition of labor groups against contractual employment vowed to intensify protest actions against the management of Philippine Airlines and until President Benigno Aquino III reverses his decision upholding the outsourcing of PAL workers.

“Protest has become the only available recourse for the workers who have to constantly resist the threat to jobs security and most especially their inherent human right to unionize and engage in Collective Bargaining Agreement to improve their plight. We are even more disappointed that President Aquino opted to side with Mr. Lucio Tan who is the epitome of corporate greed,” said Josua Mata, Co-Convenor of Koalisyon Kontra sa Kontraktwalisasyon (KONTRA) and Secretary General of Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL).

Major trade unions and labor groups around the country have banded together to form KONTRA to arrest the growing threat of contractualization that will leave the livelihood of workers and their families at the mercy of the profit interests of capitalists and company owners.

“We appeal for the people’s understanding. Whatever happened to the workers of PAL will become the reality to them and to millions of other workers who will be removed from their regular jobs and subjected to contract employment with low salaries and no security of tenure,” Mata explained.

PALEA sought Presidential Intervention on this case as early as November of last year but the Office of the President ruled in favor of PAL.

The President has the power to intervene and assume direct jurisdiction over any labor dispute involving industries that, in his opinion, are indispensable to the national interest.

Mata said President Aquino continues to ignore the workers’ appeal and even engaged in tasteless media grandstanding that pitted the PAL workers with the migrant workers.

In a statement following the protest that started on September 27, President Aquino was quoted as saying the interest of the millions of Filipinos working abroad is heavier than the interest of the 2,600 workers.

This prompted the migrant workers to issue statements criticizing this justification.

The Migrant Forum in Asia (MFA) issued a statement yesterday rejecting this claim of the President.

“We shall never condone that the rights of our fellow workers be violated in our name. The anti-worker actions of PAL management serve only itself and its profit motive – not the migrants, not the workers. Undermining the legitimate rights of workers in the Philippines ultimately reduces our rights overseas and makes us more vulnerable to corporate greed and employer abuses,” said Rex Varona, MFA Spokesperson.

Varona said the basic interest of 10 million OFWs and the interest of 2,000 workers are one and the same. “In the same way that we demand host countries to respect our right to unionise and give us our just wages and job security – we shall never accept that the rights and job security of workers in the Philippines be violated,” he added.

The group also called on their fellow migrant workers in Asia especially the OFWs coming home for the holidays, to boycott PAL.

MFA is an Asia-wide network of migrant organizations, trade unions and advocates.

“We shall continue to do this, and call on our fellow OFWs to do the same, until PAL management rectifies the violations and fully respects PALEA and the allied unions. We, Filipino and other Asian migrant workers, stand in firm solidarity and support for the PAL workers. An attack against workers anywhere is an attack to all workers everywhere,” the MFA said.

www.apl.org.ph/