Cebu Pacific airline cabin crew and flight attendants formed a labor union as the bargaining agent for employees of the Cebu Pacific airline, the country’s second largest and fast growing airline in Southeast Asia.
The new labor union, called the Juan Wing Regular Cabin Crews of the Philippines, is now a member of the Associated Labor Unions the country’s biggest labor federation.
“With this certification, the next procedure is for members of the union to discuss among themselves what are the terms agreements of security of tenure, wages and benefits etc. that they intend to offer and negotiate with Cebu Pacific Air Inc. Management,” Raymond Mendoza, President of the country’s biggest workers’ group the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines said.
“The union will negotiate for better wages and benefits, better working conditions, and better terms under the existing labor policies and regulations to improve co-employees synergy and improve working climate that would benefit the interest of both the union members and the management,” Mendoza said.
Aside from this, other possible areas for negotiation between union and management are the responsibilities of the parties, hours of work, leave benefits, health and dental benefits, incentives, and other forms of benefits such professional development benefits, and promotion of industrial harmony.
Mendoza said the aspiration of the cabin crews and flight attendants to form a union went through the legal step by step process mandated by the Labor Code and other labor regulations.
“These Juan Wing members possessed a unique brand of principled young unionism and are professional, intelligent and diligent workers eager to make a difference in their career and for the company– a clear asset to the management of Cebu Pacific Air Inc. and a very welcome addition to the labor movement,” said Mendoza.
For his part, ALU National executive Vice President Gerard Seno said they were overwhelmed by the strong determination of the young workers to form a union in this day and age when unionism is a hard sell.
“Congratulations to all Juan Wing Regular Cabin Crews of the Philippines-ALU! With the overwhelming ‘yes to union’ turnout today, each one of you have just demonstrated to the world– with boldness– how determined all of you to come together in achieving and creating genuine power for Juan Wing,” Seno said.
ALU National President Michael Mendoza said he hopes that the unionization of Cebu Pacific cabin crews and flight attendants would embolden other young working people to organize and protect themselves in the face of additional and emerging forms of challenges in the world of work such as artificial intelligence, work from home and telecommuting scheme and freelancing.