NAGKAISA! lauds settlement of PAL-PALEA dispute

We welcome with great enthusiasm the amicable resolution of the PAL-PALEA labor dispute this afternoon. We congratulate both the new management of the Philippine Airlines (PAL) and the leadership of the Philippine Airlines Employees Association (PALEA) for coming into an agreement that finally settled the country’s biggest labor dispute in recent years.

The labor movement that we represent considers this as one positive news amid the harrowing devastations brought upon us by typhoon Yolanda. It can be recalled that PALEA members were locked out and outsourced at the height of typhoon Pedring on September 27, 2011. Now after Yolanda and with this final agreement, PALEAns are assured of re-employment as regular workers and getting a much improved financial package than what was granted to them by the labor department and the Office of the President (OP). This is sweet victory, indeed.

Yet this is not just a victory for PALEA. This is likewise victory for Nagkaisa!, in fact the first for the coalition’s campaign against precarious work and contractualization. When we embraced PALEA’s call, “Ang laban ng PALEA ay laban ng lahat!”, we thereby considered this struggle as our own. This is victory to all Filipinos who continue to struggle for decent work.

Nagkaisa! regards this victory as an inspiration in pushing further for the enactment of the security of tenure bill, reforms in wage fixing mechanisms, and other agenda that promote the interest and welfare of Filipino workers.

The NAGKAISA Convenors: Alliance of Free Workers (AFW), All Filipino Workers Confederation (AFWC), Automobile Industry Workers’ Alliance (AIWA), Associated Labor Unions (ALU), Associated Labor Unions – Association of Professional Supervisory Officers Technical Employees Union (ALU-APSOTEU), ALU-Metal, Associated Labor Unions-Philippine Seafarers’ Union (ALU-PSU), ALU-Textile, ALU-Transport, Associated Labor Unions-Visayas Mindanao Confederation of Trade Unions (ALU-VIMCOMTU), Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL), Association of Trade Unions (ATU), Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP), Confederation of Independent Unions in the Public Sector (CIU), Confederation of Labor and Allied Social Services (CLASS), Construction Workers Solidarity (CWS), Federation of Coca-Cola Unions (FCCU), Federation of Free Workers (FFW), Kapisanan ng Maralitang Obrero (KAMAO), Katipunan, Pambansang Kilusan sa Paggawa (KILUSAN), Kapisanan ng mga Kawani sa Koreo sa Pilipinas (KKKP), League of Independent Bank Organizations (LIBO), Manggagawa para sa Kalayaan ng Bayan (MAKABAYAN), MARINO, National Association of Broadcast Unions (NABU), National Federation of Labor Unions (NAFLU), National Association of Trade Unions (NATU), National Confederation of Labor (NCL), National Confederation of Transportworkers’ Union (NCTU), National Union of Portworkers in the Philippines (NUPP), National Union of Workers in Hotel, Restaurant and Allied Industries (NUWHRAIN), Philippine Airlines Employees Association (PALEA), Postal Employees Union of the Philippines (PEUP), Philippine Government Employees Association (PGEA), Pinag-isang Tinig at Lakas ng Anakpawis (PIGLAS), Philippine Integrated Industries Labor Union (PILLU), Philippine Independent Public Sector Employees Association (PIPSEA), Partido Manggagawa (PM), Philippine Metalworkers Alliance (PMA), Public Services Labor Independent Confederation (PSLINK), Philippine Transport and General Workers Organization (PTGWO), Sentro ng mga Nagkakaisa at Progresibong Manggagawa (SENTRO), Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) and, Workers Solidarity Network (WSN)

SONA 2013 July 22

Pre-SONA rally at Makati July 18, 2013

Filipino workers join international action on Turkey; Calls on Turkish PM to yield to people’s demand

Filipino workers held a rally near the Turkish Embassy inside a plush village in Makati this morning to call on the government in Ankara to stop the violence against protesters and yield to its citizens’ legitimate demands.

A group of workers belonging to the NAGKAISA!, the largest coalition of trade unions and workers organizations, briefly scuffled with the security guards of Forbes Park and Dasmariñas Village gates in EDSA, Makati City, after the former attempted to enter the exclusive neighborhood to get to the Embassy of Turkey.

NAGKAISA!, thru a scathing letter to the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo?an, called for an end to the brutal repression of the Ankara government against its protesters in Gezi Park and other parts of Turkey.

“Together with the global labor movement, we are concerned at the use of brutal and excessive violence by government security forces against people peacefully exercising their rights of freedom of assembly, an essential part of freedom of expression… We are concerned that your Government engages in such repression as a regular practice based on earlier episodes. Still fresh in our minds is this year’s May Day Celebrations, which were supposed to take place in Taksim Square in Istanbul. “

The letter also demanded for the following:

The Government in Ankara should put an end to state violence against peaceful demonstrators and ensure that the right of freedom of expression and assembly is guaranteed in all public areas of Turkey.
Those responsible for the thousands of injured people and the deaths of Mehmet Ayval?ta?, Abdullah Cömert, Ethem Sar?sülük and Mustafa Sar? should be held accountable, dismissed from their posts and prosecuted before the law.

Detained citizens who attended the protests across the country should be immediately released with an official statement declaring that there will not be any investigations pursued into them.
All the legal and practical barriers against the exercise of trade union rights are removed and the right to strike is respected

KESK trade unionists, detained journalists and all others unjustly held for legitimate acts of protests and opposition should be released immediately.

“We are all Turks!,” stated Edwn Bustillos, Deputy Secretary-General of the Alliance of Progressive Labor-NAGKAISA. Bustillos, a speaker at the rally, condemned the corporate grab of parks in Turkey and other parts of the world, and the criminalization of those who protest against it.