Dear Friend,
Trade unions and church groups in the Philippines have joined together in calling a boycott of Philippine Airlines and Air Philippines in solidarity with the Philippine Airlines Employees’ Association (PALEA).
I’m writing to ask you to make your voice heard in support of this boycott. Let Lucio Tan, owner of both airlines, know that you won’t fly PAL or AirPhil until locked-out workers have been reinstated to their regular jobs [se below].
Philippine Airlines is putting into place a plan to outsource its ground crew, which would result in deep pay cuts and job insecurity with the downgrading of employees from regular to contractual hires. On September 27, the PALEA union launched a protest at Manila airport that paralyzed the operations of Philippine Airlines. In response, Philippine Airlines and the government forcibly evicted the protesting workers. Since then, Philippine Airlines locked-out 2,600 airport services, catering and call center workers, and terminated them from their jobs on October 1. The workers have set up protest camps and are running continuous picket lines. They are calling for our solidarity.
It’s time to up the pressure. The company’s line, as quoted in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, is: “No amount of rallies, protest actions or letters of support/complaints from sympathetic groups both within and outside the country could change the fact that PAL has already spun off and outsourced its non-core businesses.” But we know that the airlines cannot withstand a boycott. PAL and AirPhil rely on end-of-year holidays travel for their profit line. If a large enough group of us join the boycott publicly, we will have an impact.
Take a moment to click here [see below] to send a letter to Philippine Airlines and the Philippine government.
The PALEA union likens its struggle to that of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) union in 1981. Those familiar with U.S. labor history will recall: when 13,000 air traffic controllers went on strike, Ronald Reagan fired the union supporters and broke the union. As a result, the bargaining power of American workers and labor unions was severely undermined. Let’s act together for a better future for airline workers who are facing job loss and state-sponsored repression today. Now is the time to join with PALEA in their call for justice.
In solidarity,
Brian Campbell
Director, Policy and Legal Programs
International Labor Rights Forum
Sample letter
Until Fired Workers Are Reinstated: Boycott Philippine Airlines and Air Philippines
Once workers in Philippine Airlines ground crew protested the planned outsourcing of their work, they faced violent repression by police. 2,600 workers were locked-out and fired from their jobs. ILRF is joining the boycott of PAL and AirPhil (both owned by Lucio Tan) in solidarity with members of the Philippine Airlines Employees’ Association (PALEA). Sign your name here to join the boycott and to call on Philippine Airlines and the Philippine Government to ensure that the workers are immediately reinstated.
I am boycotting PAL and AirPhil until locked-out workers are reinstated
I am writing to express my deep concern with the plight of the approximately 2,600 locked-out and terminated ground crew of Philippine Airlines in the airport services, inflight catering and call center reservations departments who are represented by the union Philippine Airlines Employees’ Association (PALEA). After the protest by PALEA on September 27 at the Manila International Airport and other offices, they were abruptly locked out and then terminated.
I support the demand of PALEA that the workers should be allowed to immediately return to work as regular employees, and I question the Philippine Government’s and the company management’s determination that the workers must bear the needless loss of both money and their rights to save a company that turned net profits of US$72.5 million last fiscal year.
To achieve your goal, the Government has backed the outsourcing scheme by taking steps to eliminate the employees’ union and to curtail their right to a free and fair collective bargaining. By a simply sleight of hand, the Government transformed full time workers into temporary, contractual workers, who will now be treated as commodities and traded between companies by labor brokers.
I am alarmed that the Government and the company sent police and private security guards to forcibly evict peacefully protesting union members from the airport, and have continued to threaten punitive criminal charges against the union members for their peaceful protests.
Again I reiterate my solidarity with PALEA, and urge you to take action to ensure that the locked-out and terminated workers are immediately reinstated to their regular jobs, and to tell the Philippine Government to support full-time jobs and job security for PALEA workers.
Sincerely,
To sign, go to:
http://action.laborrights.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=3183