A newly formed network of church people, workers and labor advocates opposed Malacañang’s approval of mass layoffs in Lucio Tan-owned Philippine Airlines (PAL), saying the decision is a curse for all Filipino workers, and is essentially a go-signal for outsourcing schemes in other companies.

Amidst the impending retrenchment of some 2,600 PAL employees, the Church People-Workers’ Solidarity (CWS) in its covenant statement in a recent national conference, declared that  “contractualization allows capital to violate the workers’ basic right to security.”

Plans of the said national conference of church people and workers include lobbying for the abolition of laws which promote contractualization and outsourcing.

“We regret that President Benigno Aquino III has chosen to unleash a deluge that will destroy job security of thousands of Filipino workers by giving blessing to the retrenchment of 2,600 PAL employees. Such move will embolden all other companies to do the same kind of injustice,” said Auxiliary Bishop of Jaro Gerardo Alminaza, one of the CWS convenors.

Bishop Alminaza is dismayed that despite workers’ resistance, the mass layoffs in PAL will occur just as the Church celebrates the 30th anniversary of Blessed Pope John Paul II’s Laborem Exercens, an encyclical on the dignity and rights of workers.

“Three decades ago, the Pope wrote about the primacy of workers or of labor over capital in the production process. The human person’s welfare must be the goal of economic policies and decisions. We are alarmed that President Aquino is now declaring managerial prerogative’s primacy over workers’ rights.”

“The Pope also pushed for organizing of labor unions, which he called as an ‘indispensable element of social life’. Ironically, the approved outsourcing scheme in PAL leads to the local union’s disintegration as such will retrench a significant number of union members,” Bishop Alminaza said.

The CWS fears the scenario of companies using the PAL labor case as convenient excuse to implement labor flexibilization schemes such as contractualization and outsourcing to undermine wages, job security and other basic workers’ rights.

“We are in solidarity with our brothers and sisters who work in PAL in opposing the impending mass retrenchment and in asserting social justice,” said Bishop Alminaza.

The CWS is a nationwide network of Church people, workers, and non-government organizations advocating for the dignity and basic rights of workers.###

Reference:

Bishop Gerardo A. Alminaza, D.D.,  Church People-Workers’ Solidarity (CWS) Convenor
Mr. Garry Martinez, Church People-Workers’ Solidarity (CWS) Convenor and Spokesperson
Mobile No. 0939-3914418
Email address: churchpeople.workers.solidarity@gmail.com