False claim

An anonymous person claiming to be a member of the PLDT employees union, made the rounds and sent press releases to various media outlets including radio, TV and print last Sunday, claiming that PLDT management has submitted an offer to the union in relation to the ongoing CBA. The anonymous "union personality," whom the press say was afraid to reveal his identity falsely claimed that the offer of PLDT management was to freeze any wage increase for the next three years, and in exchange give P50,000 lumpsum.

As of that day, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2003, PLDT management had yet to submit a formal offer of economic benefits to the union. Therefore, the statements made by the anonymous personality was false, misleading, and in bad faith since discussions and negotiations were still on-going.

Experts in the art of propaganda believe that the move of this anonymous "union personality" was not meant to give factual information, but designed to: first, unnecessarily inflame anti-management sentiments at this point in time; and second, portray that management is only giving P50,000 lumpsum, so if and when management gives a higher offer, they will claim victory and credit for it, when in fact, they did nothing but release false figures.

Insiders say both the PLDT management and the union are in continued discussions over a new collective bargaining agreement covering the period 2004-2006 and both camps remain optimistic that all issues will be resolved without need for a strike.

Fixed Line’s Dilemma

What the union probably does not understand is that PLDT’s fixed line business is still undergoing tremendous challenges. According to PLDT spokesperson Butch Jimenez, "PLDT fixed is experiencing a lackluster growth in subscribers, a declining market, and lower revenues. We project to register a billion peso loss for the year 2003. That’s the scenario everyone in the PLDT Fixed line business is facing, from the chairman of the board to our rank and file employees."

Their bigger challenge though is PLDT fixed line’s gigantic debt of about P135 billion, which means that no matter how good the performance of wireless subsidiary Smart Communications is, all that money will have to primarily go to paying that huge debt. Jimenez adds that it is also important to remember that over 90 percent of the debt is dollar denominated, meaning that every time the peso depreciates, the debt instantaneously goes up.

Despite the challenges, Jimenez quickly explains that PLDT employees remain to be one of the best and highest paid employees in the country today with benefits very few companies can come close to. He points out that PLDT is probably the only company that gives its employees a half month bonus availing of all his or her vacation leaves.

He likewise emphasized that PLDT management is committed to offering its employees the best possible package it can amidst the challenges confronting the company and that the last thing they need is to divide the company in a bitter strike against each other, in which case everybody will lose.

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