PAL's outsourcing and workers' strike

There is a coming turbulence in the air involving the nation’s flag carrier. And it has nothing to do with the OPEN SKIES POLICY that caused the untimely resignation of the Tourism Secretary. This is about a raging labor dispute on the legality of outsourcing some of the airline’s support services, which shall result to the loss of jobs of more than 2,000 regular PAL personnel, who are members of the PALEA UNION.Many of them have already been served their termination notices, thus causing unrest and gloom among the ranks of the PAL’s ground personnel. The union questions management’s “hasty action,’’ while there is still a pending appeal filed by PALEA before the Appellate Court. Earlier, both the Secretary of Labor and the Office of the President have affirmed the validity of such outsourcing option.

 The union submits that is an unfair labor practice to outsource an activity that is regularly performed by union members, for it would necessarily dislocate the regular workers and thus, virtually kill the union. Management however holds that outsourcing is a valid management prerogative that springs from its ownership of the business, for it remains as the only viable option for PAL to protect its business viability, given the very harsh business environment and the tight competitive situation in the airline industry.

 Meanwhile, ALPAP, the pilots’ union, and FASAP, the union of flight attendants, are watching the developments closely. It will be fatal to PAL if both ALPAP and FASAP should sympathize with PALEA. It would be chaos indeed, if not a tumultuous affray in PAL. And if that happens, CEBU PACIFIC would be the greatest beneficiary. Years back, the pilots had a very nasty strike, which caused billions of damages to PAL and resulting to the dismissal of ALPAP’s leaders with forfeiture of millions of retirement benefits. Just a few months ago, the flight attendants were poised to go on strike on the issue of lowered retirement age for flight stewards and stewardesses. The union won that issue.

 If pushed to the wall, PALEAmay go on strike in the light of the decapitation of its union due to these dismissals caused by outsourcing. But we must hasten to warn the union, that such a strike may be declared illegal in view of the pending appeal filed by PALEA with the Court of Appeals. The legal luminaries will tell us that it is illegal for the union to file an appeal on one hand, and to strike on the other hand. For in legal parlance, it would constitute what lawyers call FORUM SHOPPING, or SPLITTING THE CAUSE OF ACTION, which results to MULTIPLICITY OF SUITS. All these are considered by the Supreme Court as ‘’obnoxious to the orderly administration of justice.’’

 If the strike is declared illegal, all the union leaders shall their employment status, and the union members who knowingly participate in the commission of illegal acts shall suffer the same fate.

 The owner of PAL is perhaps the most shrewd, the most astute and the most brilliant negotiator and industrial relations expert, backed up by the country’s best legal minds, the most well-connected lawyers and PRexperts and behind-the-scenes strategists and tacticians. No other business tycoon, mogul or taipan has achieved what Lucio Tan has done. He is the only businessman, in the long history of industrial and labor relations, who was able to convince his workers in PAL to agree to a TEN-YEAR MORATORIUM ON CBA NEGOTIATIONS, which saved billions of money forPAL, while also saving the jobs of thousand employees. He gave, as quid pro quo, millions worth of shares of stock to the workers enough to elect one board member representing the workers. That was unprecedented and has never been duplicated in the Philippines.

Based on Lucio Tan’s style, the best solution is a negotiated one. However, outsourcing is not negotiable. Management is going ahead full steam, notwithstanding the pending appeal. Unless a TROis issued in the next few days, there shall be lot crying and grinding of teeth in PAL. Should PALEA go on with any strike, the workers would be walking into a booby trap. For the strike may be deemed illegal and the workers may lose both their jobs and their retirement benefits.The best option perhaps is to agree to the Lucio Tan formula: accept the separation benefits and get rehired by the companies that will undertake the outsourced services. They will have both money and jobs.They will have their cakes and eat them too. PALwill have no chaos. And the government won’t have a headache. It will be a triplewin for all parties. Think about it.