DOLE to mediate today month-long strike at cigarette giant

Media Advisory

October 29, 2018

Partido Manggagawa

Contact Rey Almendras @ 09430776045

Rene Magtubo @ 09178532905

The DOLE is convening the management and union of the strikebound Philip Morris Fortune Tobacco Corp. (PMFTC) this morning. The mediation is set at 10:00 am today at DOLE Intramuros. Previous mediation meetings have been held in Marikina.

The month-long strike at the cigarette giant has cost the company around four billion in lost production. The strike started last September 28. 

Yesterday the workers held a family day with kids watching a film at the picketline and sharing loot bags from union and student supporters. Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo also held a mass yesterday at the picketline. 

Workers unrest is rising with a series of labor strikes in recent months and the strike at the leading cigarette firm is the biggest to date.  PMFTC workers have set up picketlines in its Marikina and Vigan factories. 

Photos of the family day and other strike activities can be accessed at PMFTCLU’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/zpipsamonte/

Employers still owe workers for productivity growth

As the NCR wage board conducts its last hearing today on the proposed wage hike, the labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) asserted that employers still owe workers for the productivity growth of the past decade and a half.

“Employers keep on harping that inflation is merely temporary and so that a big wage hike is uncalled for. Yet they are utterly silent on the long-term stagnation of real wages despite the economic growth for the past 15 years,” insisted Rene Magtubo, PM national chair.

He added that “According to data from the Department of Finance, real wages have not risen from 2001 to 2016 even as labor productivity has grown by 50% in that period. In other words, the pie has become bigger but workers have not gotten even a crumbs. Instead employers have greedily taken all the increase in size of the pie. Workers have been denied their fair share in the fruits of production.”

“A concrete example of this is the plight of workers of the cigarette giant Philip Morris Fortune Tobacco Corp. (PMFTC). Workers met all their key performance indicators and yet 310 employees were retrenched in August. The Lucio Tan group of companies reported a total income of PhP 3.63B for the first quarter of this year and 65 percent or PhP 2.35B came from PMFTC. The company’s reward for increased labor productivity was mass layoff!,” Magtubo argued.

The mass layoff at PMFTC has led to the biggest strike yet this year. Tomorrow, the workers will on their first month at the picketlines.

“The wage hearing today is an utter sham. Lutong makaw na ang wage increase. Our fearless forecast is that the NCR wage board will order a measly P20 minimum wage hike. This is a foregone conclusion as the DOLE and ECOP have already revealed their preference for P20 in coins for the hardworking Filipino workers,” Magtubo averred.

He concluded that “P20 does not even compensate for the runaway inflation of 7% in the NCR which translates to an erosion of P35.84 in the minimum wage of P512. Much less, it cannot offset the productivity growth that has been denied workers since 2001.” 

October 26, 2018

P20 wage hike won’t make a dent in P1,300 daily cost of living

A labor group has slammed the P20 wage offer by employers as “an insult to hard working Filipinos.” The Partido Manggagawa (PM) said that the proposed wage hike will not make a dent in group’s daily cost of living estimate of P1,300.

A cost of living survey by PM found that a family of five in the National Capital Region needs P1,300 daily or P39,000 monthly to live decently as of May.

PM chair Magtubo criticized the regional wage board hearings as a “moro-moro” as Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello and the Employers Confederation of the Philippines have already agreed on “a P20 alms to workers.” The regional wage boards are composed of three representatives from the government, two from employers and two from labor.

“Wage regionalization has been weaponized in the employers’ war to cheapen wages and increase profits. An evaluation of the policy performance of wage regionalization that started in 1989 will show that it has consistently resulted in measly salary hikes that are below inflation rates and disregards economic growth,” Magtubo explained.

In PM’s own study, P3,150 monthly are needed to buy daily 2.5 kilos of the cheapest commercial rice at P42. Of the P39,000 monthly budget, 44% is earmarked for food and 56% for non-food. Utilities like electricity, water and cooking gas make up 8%, house rent 15%, transportation expenses 11% and education needs 13% of the total budget.

“Our cost of living study is in fact an underestimation as it does not provide for leisure and recreation, savings or social security which should comprise 10% as a standard or for a house help which is a necessity if the government insists that both parents must work to sustain the family,” Magtubo averred.

He insisted that “The focus now is on worsening inflation that has eroded workers nominal wages. But hardly noticed is growing inequality due to the stagnation of real wages while productivity is booming. From 2001 to 2016, labor productivity grew by at least 50 percent, yet the real wages did not grow at all. Workers have been denied their fair share in the fruits of production.” 

Items	Volume/Cost	Daily Cost	Monthly Cost	% share
Food & Beverages			17,446.50	44.33
rice	2.5kg/day x P42 (sinandomeng)	105	3,150
ulam & gulay	3 servings (P82/pax/day x 5 pax)	410	12,300
seasoning	2kg onion (P97/kilo), 1kg garlic (P110/kilo)	10.13	304
fruits	4kg  x P60 (banana)	8	240
cooking oil	2 liters x P106	7.07	212
sugar	2kg x P56.25	3.75	112.5
soy sauce	1 liter P42	1.40	42
vinegar	1 liter P34.50	1.15	34.50
fish sauce	1 liter P53	1.77	53
coffee	2 (100g) x P76.25	5.08	152.50
milk	3 (900g) x P282	28.20	846
Utilities			3,358	8.53
electricity	200kwh (P10.90/kwh)	72.67	2,180
water	20cu.m. (P23.95/cu.m)	15.97	479
LPG	1 cylinder	23.30	699
House rental			6,000	15.25
	1 month rent	200	6,000
Toiletries			1,027.05	2.61
soap	6 bars (135g) x P40.50	8.10	243
shampoo	2 (180ml ) x P101.90	6.79	203.80
sanitary napkins	3 (packs of 8) x P42.75	4.28	128.25
toothpaste	2 (150ml) x P77.50	5.17	155
laundry soap	24 (70g pack) x P5.50	4.40	132
deodorant	2 (40ml) x P82.50	5.50	165
Education			5,170.83	13.14
miscellaneous fees	3 pax x P750 = P2250/schoolyear	6.25	187.50
school allowance	100 x 2 pax & 50 x 1 pax/day x 22 days x 10 months = P55,000/yr	152.78	4583.33
theatre tickets	1 ticket x P200/grading x 4 periods x 3 pax/schoolyear = P2,400	6.67	200
school projects	2 subjects x P100 /grading x 4 periods x 3 pax = P2,400/schoolyear	6.67	200
Health			450	1.14
ascorbic acid	5 (1 tablet ascorbic acid generic) X P3	15	450
Communications			1,500	3.81
phone or cellphone	at least P25/day load x 2	50	1,500
Transpo expenses			4,400	11.18
fare to and from work	2 pax x P100/day x 22days	146.67	4,400
Total		P1,311.77	P39,352.38

October 25, 2018