PAL fires al striking pilots

PAL fires al striking pilots

MANILA (AP): Philippine Airlines announced yesterday it was firing all striking pilots who had defied a return to work order, plunging the financially-troubled airline into one of its biggest labor crises.

The pilots continued a strike and staged a protest march yesterday, defying airline threats of dismissal unless they return to work.

The strike began last Friday, forcing international and domestic flight cancellations and stranding hundreds of passengers.

"Some pilots were able to beat the deadline but those who remained defiant were, in accordance with law and jurisprudence, declared as having lost their jobs with the airline," PAL said in a statement.

An airline official refused to say how many pilots chose to return to work but the pilots' union said it remained backed up by all of its 620 members.

Calling the strike illegal, the airline fired 29 officers of the Airline Pilots Association of the Philippines Saturday and warned remaining members would also be dismissed if they didn't return to work by noon of yesterday.

Instead of returning to work, the pilots marched around a PAL compound in metropolitan Manila's suburban Paranaque city, brandishing placards that read "Give labor its due" and "All is not well in PAL."

The strikers staged a countdown and yelled, "jobless!" at noon yesterday.

Union spokesman Florendo Umali said the dismissal of the union officers was illegal and warned they would go on with the strike indefinitely until their demands are met.

The union is protesting a new management policy of retiring pilots who have reached 20 years of service or flown 20,000 hours, regardless of age. This policy puts about 200 pilots in danger of being "retired," Umali said.

PAL called the strike illegal because the Department of Labor has assumed jurisdiction over the labor dispute. Labor department officials were determining whether the strike was illegal or not, and trying to mediate.

PAL scheduled five international flights out of Manila, including three bound for Hong Kong, one for Singapore and another for Los Angeles and 14 domestic flights.

Over the past four years, the airline has incurred annual losses ranging from 451.4 million pesos (US$11.3 million) to 2.5 billion pesos.