PAL workers file strike notice

MANILA, Philippines - Flight attendants and stewards of Philippine Airlines (PAL) filed a notice of strike at the Department of Labor and Employment yesterday.

The 1,600-strong Flight Attendants and Stewards Association of the Philippines (FASAP) vowed to paralyze operations of the country’s flag carrier.

However, Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said work stoppage at PAL is highly remote despite the filing of a notice of strike.

“A strike at PAL is a very remote possibility at this time considering that both parties are still open and willing to sit down again and come up with a settlement,” she said.

 Meanwhile, PAL assured the riding public of continued and unhampered service despite a notice of strike filed by its cabin crew union.

“PAL’s operations remain normal and all flights are operating as scheduled. There is no immediate work stoppage,” PAL spokesperson Cielo Villaluna stressed.

Villaluna said the union’s plan to strike is ill-timed as it would scare away tourists and cause further damage to the flag carrier’s fragile finances.

“We are saddened by the union’s decision, but we recognize their right to file a notice of strike,” Villaluna said.

She added the union’s move is untimely in the wake of thousands of Hong Kong and Chinese tourists canceling their forward bookings in the aftermath of the Rizal Park hostage tragedy. “A strike threat doesn’t help in efforts to lure back tourists to the country.”

She added that management is willing to sit down again with FASAP leaders to discuss and settle any pending issues in the 2007-2010 collective bargaining agreement.

Bob Anduiza, FASAP president, said PAL’s flight attendants were left with no option but to file a notice of strike since management refused to heed their demands.

“We have exhausted the negotiating process, and after countless mediation hearings, PAL remains unmoved and refuses to negotiate in good faith,” he said.

“Our demand is very simple: Give us better compensation that are given to other employees of PAL and for the management to address the age and gender discrimination issue, but all our pleas fell on deaf ears,” he said.

Anduiza said that a flight attendant who becomes pregnant is placed on leave without pay until she gives birth.

The pregnancy leave without pay that normally lasts for almost a year is deducted from the flight attendant’s years of service, he added.

Anduiza said in their last meeting with management, PAL’s legal counsels merely reiterated their previous offer of an P80-million lump sum for the remaining three years of the PAL-FASAP collective bargaining agreement.

They set aside the issue of retirement age, he added.

Anduiza said PAL should adapt to the times and abandon its outdated “sexist policies” against flight attendants.

“Compensation is just secondary to us now because our main issue is the gender and discrimination (issue) which management opted to set aside since 2007,” he said. – Mayen Jaymalin, Rudy Santos