A popular protest symbol against the
zero covid policy and censorship in China found its way into the Philippines
during the workers’ celebration of Andres Bonifacio’s 159th birthday.
The Nagkaisa Labor Coalition said the
‘Blank Paper’ protest is the Filipino workers’ adaptation of the symbolic
protest to press for a Labor Agenda that the group finds sorely lacking in the
Marcos administration.
“Bonifacio Day is always a day of
protest for Filipino workers, but today is the first time that most of our
placards bear no slogans. It is because the blank papers themselves convey the
message that a labor agenda remains blank or missing under this new administration,”
said Nagkaisa Chairman and Federation of Free Workers President Sonny Matula.
Nagkaisa staged the ‘Blank Paper’ and
‘die-in’ protest at Liwasang Bonifacio before joining the United Labor together
with Kilusang Mayo Uno and Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino in a march to
Mendiola.
Matula said workers want a Labor
Agenda as a basis for continuing engagements with the government as the lack of
it implies disregard if not outright neglect of labor in the face of soaring
prices, deteriorating quality of jobs, and chronic unemployment problems, among
others.
“Our proposed Labor Agenda embodies
the workers’ most urgent concerns as well as reforms in labor policies to
decisively address poverty, inequality, and injustice in the country,” stressed
Matula.
The Nagkaisa Labor Agenda includes
demands for a wage hike, public employment program, labor rights and an end to
contractualization, affordable and quality public services, and mechanisms for
a continuing policy dialogue on structural reforms.
Reiterating their call for a P100
wage hike, Partido Manggagawa Chair Renato Magtubo, stated: “The amount is
merely to recover wages lost to inflation. It’s a relief for a minimum wage
that remains at starvation level but still way too far from achieving living
wages and improvements in workers’ standard of living as provided under the
Constitution.”
On his part, Sentro ng Nagkakaisa at
Progresibong Manggagawa (Sentro) Secretary General Josua Mata, attributed the
prevailing regime of low wages to the unresolved problems of unemployment and
contractualization.
“Contractualization, both in the
private and public sector, significantly weakens the exercise of other labor
rights such as freedom of association and collective bargaining, thus, keeping
the life of ‘endo’ workers to the barest minimum,” explained Mata.
He added that without a robust public
employment program in key sectors of the economy, including in climate and
environment, the army of unemployed will just continue to crowd the market of
cheap labor.
Moreover, inadequacy and high cost of
services aggravates this problem, said Public Services Labor Independent
Confederation (PSLINK) leader Jillian Roque, who also warned that the Marcos
administration’s massive rightsizing plan would only lead to further
deterioration of public services.
In protecting labor rights, Nagkaisa
demands a solid renunciation of the previous administration’s policy on
extra-judicial killings, the scrapping of anti-union laws as well as the
abolition of anti-union bodies involved in red-tagging like the NTF-ELCAC and
the Joint Industrial Peace and Concern Office (JIPCO).
The coalition is likewise campaigning
for the ratification and effective implementation of ILO Convention 190 to
protect women from violence and harassment in the workplace.
NAGKAISA Labor Coalition
30 November 2022
