Women workers hold “Kalbaryo ng Kababaihan”

PALEA women power on the march

PRESS RELEASE

Partido ng Manggagawa (PM)

PALEA Women’s Committee

7 March 2012

Women members of the Philippine Airlines Employees Association (PALEA) and Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) held a march dubbed “Kalbaryo ng Kababaihan” from Sta. Cruz Church to Recto to Morayta, Manila.  The march highlighted the “101 burdens of women on the 101^st anniversary of International Women’s Day.”

Among the burdens of women raised during the activity included the following: grave lack of job opportunities for women, outsourcing and contractualization being experienced by PALEA members and other women workers, high prices of basic commodities, non-passage of a reproductive health program after more than a decade and extreme lack of social services. 

“International Women’s Day will be 101 years tomorrow.  From continuously struggling for our rights and a better life, we have won victories.  However, the capitalist system in deep crisis has been little by little taking back what our forebears have won and sacrificed their lives for,” asserted PM Secretary General Judy Ann Miranda.

“Subalit hindi kami titigil sa paglaban – para sa trabaho, mas mababang presyo ng bilihin, kalidad na pampublikong serbisyo, programa sa reproduktibong kalusugan, at pagtutol sa kontraktwalisasyon, mababang sweldo, expanded value added taxes sa gasolina, tubig at kuryente, at marami pang iba.  Dahil itinuturo ng kasaysayan na hindi kusang ibinibigay ng gobyerno ang karapatan at mas kaaya-ayang buhay para sa kababaihan at mamamayan, ipinaglalaban ito!” Ms. Miranda added.

“Ang pagpunit ng pinalaking bills ng tubig at kuryente, payslip, reseta ng gamot, endong employment contract, at iba pa are symbols of our disappointment at the Aquino government’s lip service to our demands, and our expression that the fight for the reinstatement of PALEA workers, for jobs for women and a better life will continue,” explained Arlene Ladimo of PALEA Women’s Committee.

Afterwards, the Kalbaryo ng Kababaihan merged with the rally for economic justice of the Freedom from Debt Coalition-Women (FDC). The FDC mobilization bannered the call “Utang sa Kababaihan, Dapat Bayaran.”