The labor group Partido
Manggagawa (PM) asked the government to implement a wage hike, cash aid and
jobs program in response to the spike in food prices. “Price control is an
initial step that falls short of the total package needed. To ensure that price
control works, grassroots organizations deputized to monitor prices and
violators must be heavily penalized,” asserted Rene Magtubo, PM national chair.
A few weeks ago PM had
demanded a P100 across-the-board salary increase together with a new round of
ayuda amounting to P10,000 for the informal sector and the unemployed. The
group is also supporting the labor coalition Nagkaisa’s call for an emergency
jobs creation program called unemployment support and work assistance guarantee
or USWAG.
“Even if food prices are
frozen now, the purchasing power of workers’ wages have already depreciated by
P100 in Metro Manila and elsewhere. Workers, both formal and informal, are
suffering from the double whammy of high prices and mass layoffs. The
government itself admitted that half of the 400,000 workers reported as
retrenched last year were fired in the last quarter. This means the economic
crisis is still worsening and the government should act fast,” Magtubo added.
He furthered that “In the
long-term, support for farmers must be accelerated, food sovereignty must be
promoted and land conversion must be stopped. Local programs that connect
farmers to consumers and workers’ communities must be encouraged.”
February 2, 2021
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