BMP pickets SC over PAL row

Some 50 members of the militant labor group Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP) picketed the Supreme Court on Padre Faura St., Manila yesterday, calling on the high tribunal to reverse a decision of its second division affirming the 10-year suspension of the Philippine Airlines’ collective bargaining agreement (CBA).

"The decision of the second division is not only a dangerous precedent for labor," said BMP secretary general Leody de Guzman. "It is the death sentence of the constitutional right to collectively bargain since employers can now legally blackmail their workers to accept a suspension of their CBA."

In the 1998 labor dispute at PAL, the management threatened to close the nation’s flag carrier if the CBA was not suspended. BMP, an ally of the PAL union, said granting that PAL workers voluntarily agreed to suspend their CBA for 10 years, the contract is still null and void. This is because the suspension is contrary to law and public policy, as assured in the Constitution.

The BMP official said the picket is part of the mobilization efforts of militant groups in preparation for the May 1 Labor Day celebrations. The BMP will commemorate the Centennial of Unionism in the Philippines on May 1, he said.

He said: "It is the height of irony that Filipino workers are celebrating 100 years of unionism while unionism itself is pushed to extinction since basic trade union rights such as the rights to collectively bargain and to strike are being infringed."

The BMP will be joined in the May 1 protests by allied groups Kongreso ng Pagkakaisa ng Maralitang Lungsod (KPML) and the Partido ng Manggagawa (PM). – Romel Bagares