Labor cries foul over Pasay judge ruling against PALEA

Nagkaisa!

PRESS RELEASE

11 September 2012

The country’s biggest coalition of trade unions and labor organizations, NAGKAISA! described as ‘sadistically anti-labor’ a Pasay judge who adversely ruled against the protesting officers and members of the Philippine Airlines Employees Association (PALEA).

On September 3, 2012, when PALEA photocopied the entire court record of a pending case of grave coercion filed by the Philippine Airlines against a number of union officers and members, it accidentally discovered from among the documents an order dated August 15, 2012 already signed by Judge Bibiano Colasito of Pasay City’s Metropolitan Trial Court Branch 44 for the issuance of a warrant of arrest against 39 officers and members of PALEA.

“What a farce! On July 25, a Pasay court under Judge Mupas freed Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on bail citing weak evidence against the former President.  It granted the same to former Comelec Chair Benjamin Abalos on August 18.  Nobody noticed that during this same period, August 15, there was another Pasay judge in the name of Bibiano Colasito who ordered the arrest of 39 PALEA officers and members from a clearly non-criminal but dispute related action by workers,”bewailed NAGKAISA! leaders during a press conference held  yesterday at the TUCP headquarters in Quezon City.

NAGKAISA! said Colasito’s ruling was unfair and unjust. In particular, it cried foul on the judge’s decision to blindly entertain the information filed by the prosecutor against the accused PALEA officers and members without the required clearance from the labor department as provided under DOJ Ministry Circular No. 15 (Series of 1982) and Department of Labor and Employment Department Order No. 40-G-03 (Series of 2010).   

Labor leaders pointed out that the PAL-PALEA dispute on outsourcing/contractualization was the biggest labor dispute in the country that hugged the news during the last three years thus any action by PALEA members clearly arose from this long running dispute completely ignored by the Office of City Prosecutor and then by Judge Colasito.

“Worse, Colasito sided with the fallacious claim by PAL that PALEA members ‘coerced’ the company on October 29, 2011 when on the contrary it was the PALEA protest camp that was attacked on the same time and date by dozens of hired goons resulting in fact to the arrest of one goon, physical injuries to several PALEA members, and the destruction of half of the camp,” said NAGKAISA!. 

The labor coalition said, it will join PALEA in taking Colasito’s action to higher authorities for remedy and will not hesitate to file administrative charges against the judge if necessary. 

The group is alarmed that once Colasito’s action takes precedence, courts can anytime be utilized by employers as a tool to supress labor rights by criminalizing cases arising out of purely labor-related disputes – rights that were respected even during the martial law period.   

NAGKAISA! also called on the new PAL management to commence negotiations with PALEA rather than pursue a protracted legal battle that will never arrive at a just resolution to the lingering labor dispute in the flag carrier.

Apart from the grave coercion rap, 234 PALEA members including the top leaders are facing another case for violation of RA 9497 or the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) Law in relation to their September 27, 2011 protest against outsourcing that disrupted airport operations.

NAGKAISA! is joining PALEA in its planned one year commemoration of the September 27, 2011 event which highlight this year is a Global Day of Action against outsourcing in the aviation industry organized by the International Transport Federation (ITF).

International day of action for airline workers

In September 2011 Philippine Airlines locked out 2600 workers and then sacked them. The workers had refused to accept their jobs being outsourced leading to a 50% cut in wages, loss of benefits including health insurance, longer working hours and loss of union coverage. QANTAS grounded all of their fleet in October 2011 to pressure unions to drop their demand for secure jobs and wages for all workers. QANTAS has sacked over 500 workers in a long term plan to move its heavy maintenance bases offshore. A big part of outsourcing is the attempt to break our unions. If airline workers take industrial action, on the same day, in a co-ordinated way, all over the world, we will be stronger and more effective. The workers at Philippine Airlines, organised by their union PALEA, are calling for a Global Day of Action in the airline industry on 27 September 2012, anniversary of PALEA's protest against outsourcing. The Global Day of Action has received endorsement from the International Transport Federation at their recently held Asia Pacific meeting in Kuala Lumpur. Download leaflet.

Reopening of FASAP case is a travesty of justice

Press Release

March 22, 2012

PALEA

The Philippine Airlines Employees Association (PALEA) called the decision of the Supreme Court to affirm the reopening of the Flight Attendants and Stewards Association (FASAP) case as a “travesty of justice.” “Only in the Philippines can a case that had already been ruled with finality twice by the highest court of the land still be reviewed once more on its merits. Indeed justice delayed is justice denied for 1,400 our sister and brother flight attendants,”asserted Gerry Rivera, PALEA president.

He added that “FASAP’s case is relevant is PALEA’s fight since if the retrenchment of cabin crew in 1998 at a time when Philippine Airlines was bankrupt is illegal then so much more is the layoff of 2,400 ground staff after the flag carrier posted PhP 3 billion in profit for its previous fiscal year.”

Meanwhile Renato Magtubo, chairperson of the Partido ng Manggagawa, declared that “The timing of the release of the Supreme Court resolution clearing Chief Justice Renato Corona is perfectly timed for the defense presentation in the impeachment case. It leaves everyone thinking that it is part of the impeachment defense of Corona.”

Magtubo said that the plight of FASAP and PALEA reveals the failure of the labor justice system in the country. “It is not just with the Supreme Court but even more with the graft ridden National Labor Relations Commission, National Mediation and Conciliation Board and Department of Labor and Employment that workers lose to the power of money of abusive capitalists,” he added.

“Workers demand reforms beyond the prosecution of Gloria and the impeachment of Corona. For workers at least get a taste of fair share of justice, the NLRC, NCMB and DOLE must be cleansed, and the policies of liberalization, deregulation and privatization that have led to thousands of closures and layoffs, and collapse of industry and agriculture must be rolled back,” Magtubo explained.

PM announced that the May Day campaign will start early with a “Kalbaryo ng Manggagawa at Maralita” on the first week of April that will highlight the issues of low wages, high prices, mass unemployment, contractual jobs and urban poor demolitions.

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