PALEA Press Release: Support PALEA members and families this holiday season

The Philippine Airlines Employees’ Association (PALEA) once more appeals for support as it enters the third month of a lockout by Philippine Airlines (PAL) and the prospect of spending the holidays on the picketlines.

PAL, despite having earned USD 76.5 million in net income, illegally retrenched 2,400 of its regular workers. PALEA is fighting PAL’s outsourcing scheme that sought to downgrade us into contractuals and bust the union.

PALEA is against contractualization. What we want is a life of dignity for workers and our families.

Three typhoons have come and gone yet PALEA’s protest camps outside the international airports of Manila and Cebu remained strong and defiant. Heavy rains and soaked sleeping mats failed to dampen the fighting spirit of PALEA members. Every day several hundred workers man the pickets in shifts.

PALEA’s protest camp has been attacked twice by hired goons. But vigilant PALEA members frustrated their plan to demolish the picketline though seven workers were injured.

PALEA is demanding that PAL open talks to resolve the labor dispute. The lockout must stop, the outsourcing plan should be scrapped and the workers should be allowed to return to their jobs as regular workers.

PALEA needs your moral and logistical support.

We ask for solidarity messages and actions. Even the simplest expression of support will help sustain the high morale of PALEA members at the picketlines.

Trade union and church groups who are in solidarity with PALEA have called for a boycott of Lucio Tan-owned PAL and Air Philippines until management has heeded workers demands for a return to their regular jobs. We welcome such and other forms of support. Sign the online petition athttp://action.laborrights.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=3183.

Finally we appeal for financial assistance to sustain the campout, to help PALEA members who have been without jobs and wages for the last two months and to lend a hand to our families and children who will be spending the holidays at the picketlines.

Donate online via the website of Partido ng Manggagawa [Labor Party-Philippines]:

http://laborpartyphilippines.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=21&Itemid=43.

Or send donations by bank to:

PALEA Strike Fund

Account Number 00008-057-00403-9

Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation(RCBC)

Quirino Ave., Baclaran, Paranaque City, Philippines.

For packages, send to PALEA 2014 J. Gabriel St., Baclaran, Paranaque City, Philippines 1702.

ENDS

Source: http://www.itfglobal.org/campaigns/campaigns-3504.cfm