PALEA calls for release of detained member

Press Release

October 18, 2012

PALEA

The Philippine Airlines Employees’ Association (PALEA) called for the release of Romeo Sayas, its member arrested in Malvar, Batangas and detained since Tuesday. “Free Romeo Sayas,” chanted hundreds of PALEA members as they marched this afternoon for the second straight day in front of the Philippine Airlines (PAL) In-Flight Center near the Terminal 2 of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

Gerry Rivera, PALEA president and vice chair of Partido ng Manggagawa, said that “The arrest of Romeo is a travesty of justice and we demand his immediate release.” He explained that Sayas should not have been arrested in the first place and the charges should have been dismissed outright. Rivera quoted the Department of Justice Ministry Circular No. 15 (Series of 1982) and the Department of Labor and Employment Order No. 40-G-03 (Series of 2010) that no criminal information can be filed against workers without the required clearance from the DOLE.

Sayas and another 38 PALEA members, including two women, were issued warrants of arrest by the Pasay City Municipal Trial Court branch 44 after finding probable cause to a grave coercion case filed by Philippine Airlines against workers who defended the protest camp when it was attacked by hired goons on October 29, 2011.

Meanwhile Renato Magtubo, national chair, announced that they are coordinating with other labor groups to raise funds for Sayas’ PhP 12,000 bail bond. “I appeal to workers organizations and labor advocates to chip in for a ‘Piso para sa paglaya ni Romeo Sayas’ drive as his incarceration may complicate his diabetes and gout, and also to alleviate his family’s agony who have suffered enough from his one year of joblessness.”

With the air travel peak season approaching, Magtubo renewed the call of labor and church groups for the public to boycott PAL until the labor dispute is resolved and charges against PALEA members are dropped. “We ask OFW’s, balikbayans, students, workers and other travellers to book airlines other than PAL and Air Philippines as labor rights are being violated at the flag carrier,” he reiterated.

Rivera extolled Sayas as a “working class martyr.” “Sayas worked for 20 years as ramp equipment operator in the airport, at first as a contractual, and then he became a regular PAL employee but was finally retrenched for refusing to be outsourced. He has two children, and hails from a working class family—his brother is also a fighting PALEAn and their father formerly worked at PAL,” he stated.

PALEA lawyers are preparing to file a motion to quash or recall the warrants of arrest while protests at the DOLE and DOJ are also being planned. Aside from the case against the PALEA 39, there is another criminal suit and a separate civil suit pending against union members, all arising out of the labor row concerning outsourcing at PAL.

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).

PALEA 300 moves for the dismissal of PAL harassment case

Press Release

February 2, 2012

PALEA

The Philippine Airlines Employees Association (PALEA) will move today for the dismissal of the case filed by the management of Philippine Airlines (PAL) for alleged violation of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines law arising from the September 27 protest at the ManilaInternational Airport.

Hundreds of PALEA members also held a rally this afternoon at the Pasay Hall of Justice to coincide with the court hearing on what the union describes as a “harassment case” by PAL regarding supposed destruction of equipment during the airport protest.

“It behooves the court to dismiss this apparent harassment case because of a fatal flaw. PAL’s lawyers do not have any clearance from the Department of Labor and Employment in filing the case. Any complaint arising from a labor dispute requires such a clearance before civil courts can take jurisdiction,” asserted Gerry Rivera, PALEA president.

Last January 11, the 258 PALEA members who are respondents to the case, appeared at the Pasay regional trial court for the first hearing. The respondents are called PALEA 300 sincePAL in previous press releases has claimed that some 300 PALEA members joined the September 27 protest. The next hearing is scheduled for February 9. In an allusion to the mythical Spartans, Rivera declared that “The respondents to the case, the PALEA 300 are brave men and women who will die fighting instead of surrendering to tyranny by PAL.”

He claimed that “PAL is blindly shooting nuisance cases at PALEA members in a desperate bid to force them to accept the separation package and sign up for the illegal labor contractors Sky Logistics and Sky Kitchen.”

Rivera asserts further that PAL services deteriorated sharply after September not because of damaged equipments but due to lack of skilled and experienced manpower after PALEA members, in opposition to outsourcing, refused to transfer to assigned service providers.

PALEA insists that PAL’s waning reputation and deteriorating quality service can only be saved by getting its regular workers back. Supporters of PALEA are calling for a boycott of PAL and its sister company Air Philippines until the laid off workers are reinstated to their regular jobs.

On Monday, hundreds of PALEA members will join retrenched flights attendants of PAL in a rally at the impeachment trial since the president of the Flight Attendants and Stewards Association is expected to testify for the prosecution.