Impasse remains

In a meeting last Friday, Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) human resources head Victorico Vargas and PLDT Union president Pete Pinlac once again failed to iron out a solution to the collective bargaining agreement deadlock they hit last Wednesday.

The Manggagawa Sa Komunikasyon ng Pilipinas (MKP), PLDT’s rank and file union have bewailed Vargas’ delaying tactics and lack of sincerity in the on-going negotiations. According to the union, Vargas’ objective is to stonewall discussions to force them to agree to management’s demand in an effort to make himself look good to PLDT president Manuel V. Pangilinan.

The MKP said in a statement to union members that these negotiations are driven by Mr. Vargas’ ego. They cited an important meeting between both parties where Vargas made them wait for six hours before arriving.

Union leaders also bemoan the fact that last December, Vargas verbally presented to them a financial package, which is now being denied by Vargas and his negotiators. Vargas allegedly offered P1,600 per year for year one, P1,800 for year two and P2,400 for year three with a one-month signing bonus.

The union is demanding P2,200 for year one, P2,000 for year two, and P2,750 for year three plus a P 50,000 signing bonus. (In fact, in disgust, the employees burned Vargas’ effigy in Cebu last Thursday. They say he is not an honorable negotiator and that he gives management a bad name.)

Vargas and Pinlac have agreed to one more meeting to possibly arrive at a compromise. The MKP is ready to go on strike if no agreement is reached.

PLDT is expected to announce a net income of over P10 billion for 2003 in its forthcoming year-end results announcement scheduled for February 26, one of the reasons why the union believes that they have a right to a share of the windfall. However, management claims that the net income is driven by PLDT wireless subsidiary Smart Communications. The fixed line business of PLDT is expected to register a loss of over P1 billion.

Regardless of who is making the money, isn’t it but fair that the employees get their fair share?

Smart Tactic Working?

During Friday’s investors briefing held by Globe Telecom, company president and CEO Gerry Ablaza, who once frowned upon fierce rival Smart Communication’s ‘free SIM swap’ tactic, is now seriously considering employing the same.

The reason why Globe has been wary about the scheme in the first place is that it might just result in Globe subscribers swapping for Smart SIMs and vice-versa, in which case nobody emerges a winner.

The scheme however seems to be working favorably for Smart which is the reason why Ablaza is now toying with the idea of a free SIM swap. Reason: to avert a one-way migration from Globe to Smart.

So far, Smart’s marketing ideas, which at first sound unbelievable if not crazy, are working wonders for the company. Remember the "sachet" idea (Smart Buddy Load) which resulted in 250,000 new Smart load retail agents, many of which are sari-sari stores, increasing the company’s distribution outlets to 400,000 (Coke has 500,000)? By end-September 2003, barely four months after its launch, the average daily Smart Load transactions had passed the one million mark. Over-the-air loads accounted for over 40 percent of Smart’s top-up sales in the 3rd quarter. Or Smart’s Pasa Load which allows a prepaid subscriber to pass to another prepaid subscriber a P10 load? (Globe has adopted a similar scheme recently.) Smart’s ideas are definitely worth looking into.

For comments, e-mail at [email protected]