Press Release
July 3, 2010
Renato Magtubo

Militant workers welcome 22-point labor platform

The Partido ng Manggagawa welcomes the 22-point labor platform of the Noynoy Aquino administration as announced by Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz. P-Noy’s promise of change and call of making democracy work for all should indeed be made concrete in the form of doable and substantial reform in labor policy. The 22-point platform is a good first step and militant workers are open to engaging with new President and the new Labor Secretary to make the promise of reform a reality.

We appreciate P-Noy’s order for the DOLE to review and evaluate the midnight decision on the dispute regarding PAL’s planned mass layoff. The PAL labor dispute will not only be a litmus test of the Aquino government’s handling of labor management relations. It will also be an acid test of the task of cleansing the DOLE of corrupt officials and reforming the policy on labor contractualization, both of which are a scourge on the workers. ###

Press Release
July 1, 2010

Labor group calls on ABS-CBN to regularize workers without conditions

The militant labor group Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) today called on the media network ABS-CBN to respect labor rights and regularize its workers without conditions. “The leaders of the ABS-CBN Internal Job Market Workers Union who have been terminated for refusing to sign waivers must be accepted back to work. We support the workers’ demand that ABS-CBN management regularize its contractual workforce without discrimination and without conditions. ABS-CBN should treat its workers as kapamilyas instead of strangers,” stated Judy Ann Miranda, PM secretary-general.

The support from PM came two days after the National Union of Journalist in the Philippines (NUJP) expressed alarm over the mass termination at ABS-CBN. The ABS-CBN Internal Job Market Workers Union (IJMWU) has been waging a fight to regularize more than 1,000 contractual employees and win recognition as a bargaining agent.

PM also appealed to newly installed President Noynoy Aquino to review and reform the policy on labor contractualization. “The labor disputes at giant companies like Philippine Airlines (PAL) and ABS-CBN are rooted in the epidemic of contractualization. For democracy to work for all and not just a few—as P-Noy as promised—then the right to job security must be guaranteed and the loopholes of the Labor Code must be closed by this government,” Miranda argued.

Press Release
June 28, 2010

PAL union rallies anew at DOLE, appeals “midnight decision”

The Philippine Airlines Employees’ Association (PALEA) held another rally this afternoon at the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) in protest at the decision of Acting Labor Secretary Romeo Lagman that declared the planned PAL mass layoff to be a “valid exercise of management prerogative.” PALEA also filed a motion for reconsideration of the Lagman order in time for the deadline today.

Gerry Rivera, PALEA president and Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) vice-chairperson, insisted that “There are strong grounds to seek the reversal of Lagman’s decision.” PALEA assails the order as a “midnight decision that is erroneous on both substantive and procedural grounds.”

Some 500 PAL employees trooped to the DOLE around 3:30 pm today together with scores of supporters from PM. The protesters lambasted corruption at the DOLE as they carried placards that read “Kung walang corrupt sa DOLE, Walang manggagawang maghihirap.”