Militant youth ask for apology on lewd act in LP event

Press Release

October 2, 2015

Partido Manggagawa-Kabataan (PMK)

The Partido Manggagawa-Kabataan, the youth wing of the militant Partido Manggagawa, asked for a formal apology from the politicians involved in the use of sexy performers in a political event in Laguna.

“We challenge MMDA Chair Francis Tolentino and Laguna Rep. Benjie Agarao to issue categorical apologies. Their insincere denials are worthless and lame excuses are even worse. We want to hear Tolentino and Agarao declare that the performance was offensive to women, say they are sorry for it and promise not to have similar acts in their upcoming political events,” averred Erika Isaias, PMK spokesperson for Cavite.

A sexy dance group called Playgirls performed lewd acts in an oath-taking of new Liberal Party members in Laguna presided by presidential candidate Mar Roxas. The performance was allegedly a “surprise gift” from Tolentino to birthday celebrant Agarao. Children and minors were in attendance at the LP event.

“If there is any truth at all to the daang matuwid platform of LP, then such lewd dances have no place in a political gathering. Trapos frequently talk of family values, women’s rights and child welfare. But their use of sexy or lewd performances as entertainment in political meetings exposes such as lip service if not blatant lies,” insisted Isaias, a 23-year old young worker in an ecozone in Cavite.

PMK is composed of out-of-school youth, students and young workers who advocate issues such as education for all, regular jobs, decent wages, affordable housing and community involvement of working class youth.

BPO workers group challenges candidates on issues

Press Release

August 14, 2015

Inter-Call Center Association of Workers (ICCAW)

A BPO workers group today challenged presidential candidates to commit to a platform of demands and issues of employees in the sector. The challenge came a day after news came out on an hour-long meeting that Mar Roxas had with some BPO workers in Cebu City.

“We hope that candidates Mar Roxas, Jojo Binay and Grace Poe, even if she had not yet announced formally, will seriously engage with BPO workers on their demands and not be content with shallow photo-ops. And the dialogue with BPO workers should lead to a firm commitment to concrete policy and executive actions, rather than end in vague promises that will be easily forgotten once the elections are over,” argued Rosie Hong, Inter-Call Center Association of Workers (ICCAW) president.

ICCAW is one of only a few workers associations in the BPO industry. It was founded in Cebu in late 2012 as a result of the fight of workers of Direct Access, a call center that unceremoniously shutdown and left its 600 employees without jobs and with unpaid wages and benefits. ICCAW has since expanded nationwide with organizing groups in Metro Manila, Iloilo City and Bacolod. With a full-pledged chapter in Cebu, ICCAW sits as the labor representative in the Cebu City tripartite body on the ICT industry.

“A case in point is candidate Mar’s ‘charm offensive’ with BPO workers in Cebu City’s IT Park. He was very concrete in promising a ‘caravan’ of government offices for faster processing of work-related requirements but in contrast he was obviously ambiguous and non-committal on the issue of workers security of tenure,” Hong elaborated.

“Security of tenure is not contradictory to the volatile nature of outsourced accounts. Contracts with overseas clients may come and go but the BPO company remains so it cannot deny security of tenure to its employees whose skills are portable and usable to different accounts,” Hong insisted.

Among ICCAW’s platform is the demand for industry-wide standards for wages, benefits and entitlements that must be well above the minimum mandated by law and commensurate to profitable dollar-earning nature of the BPO industry. ICCAW seeks to be an industry-wide organization for employees in the call center and business process outsourcing sector, and be a voice for industry workers’ concerns, grievances, demands and interests.

Hong ended with “Instead of a charm offensive and photo-ops, we prefer to engage with candidates on a policy debate and issue discussions. For example, we are interested to hear if any of them believe that contractualization is good for the BPO sector and we are more than willing to discourse with them on such issues.”

Labor groups to declare Aquino-Roxas tandem “Enemy of the Working Class” if they continue siding with tycoon Lucio Tan

PRESS RELEASE

30 September 2011

Organized labor would declare the Aquino-Roxas tandem an “Enemy of the Working Class” if the two leaders continue to side with tycoon Lucio Tan in the escalating labor dispute between the management of Philippine Airlines (PAL) and its union, the Philippine Airlines Employees Association (PALEA).

According to the labor group, Partido ng Manggagawa (PM), this is in response to President Aquino and DOTC Secretary Mar Roxas’ threat of filing a case of economic sabotage against PALEA members who participated in Tuesday’s peaceful protest action that led to the cancellation of PAL flights.

“PNoy and Mar, who were both out of the country at the height of the labor dispute and the devastations of typhoon Pedring, came back looking only at the culpabilities of PALEA for that few hour of peaceful action, but not of Lucio Tan who had been battering the rights of PAL workers for more than a decade now,” stated PM chair and co-chair of Church Labor Conference (CLC) Renato Magtubo.

Magtubo said that instead of throwing their weight against the “capitalist wang-wangs”, PNoy and Roxas did not even dare to ask Lucio Tan why PAL significantly reduced its flights even prior to the Tuesday protest and the implementation of outsourcing plan in October 1, and why it shut down the system which effectively locked out the PAL workers beginning 1:30 PM of September 27, 2011.

“Pnoy did not even ask his labor officials who have prior knowledge of what aggravating factors transpired at PAL’s work stations few days before PALEA took defensive actions against the management on Tuesday,” added Magtubo.   

The veteran labor leader said the crime of economic sabotage, he understands, pertains to illegal recruitment, syndicated estafa, and operation of black market, among others, and not for actions related to labor disputes. And if flight cancellations is a form of sabotage, then PAL is guilty of this crime

“We can only think of one explanation why President Aquino and Mar Roxas maintain a hostile attitude towards the workers despite the ligitimacy of their demands.  They both came from the country’s landed and elite capitalist class and who, in their lifetime, have never suffered the harsh conditions of life that confront ordinary laborers,” said Magtubo.

The Partido ng Manggagawa and the Church Labor Conference led today’s solidarity action for PALEA.  Some 300 members of PM-Cavite held a Lakbayan from Zapote Road in Bacoor to the Inflight Center near the gates of Centennial Terminal 2 where PALEA members are camping out.  Contigents from other labor and human rights groups have also joined the solidarity action.

Magtubo explained that the whole labor movement, the Church and human rights groups have all expressed their unequivocal support for PALEA’s struggle against mass layoff and contractualization.  He said the planned outsourcing defied the spirit of the Constitution, violates the Labor Code and ILO Convention’s guarantee on security of tenure, and undermines the PAL-PALEA CBA povision on prohibition of outsourcing.

The outsourcing plan will demote regular workers into contractuals, will cut their wage and benefits into half, and their security of tenure replaced by ‘fire-at-will” policy. 

The labor group said Pnoy ang Mar simply ignored these facts in dealing with the PAL labor dispute.

PALEA calls on PAL to resolve dispute as the outsourcing plan is a failure

Press Release

September 30, 2011

The Philippine Airline Employees Association (PALEA) holds a big protest at the airport today, the last day of work for 2,600 employees affected by the outsourcing plan of Philippine Airlines (PAL). PALEA challenged PAL to open talks in order to resolve the dispute in the face of continuing flight disruptions which the union claims is due to the failure of the outsourcing plan.

“It is as clear as day that the outsourcing plan is a failure and PAL does not have the manpower to normalize its operations. We call on PAL to end the lockout of its employees and halt the premature implementation of the outsourcing plan pending the final decision of the courts,” stated Gerry Rivera, PALEA president and vice chair of Partido ng Manggagawa.

PALEA is calling on its members to report for duty at the protest campout at the gates of the PAL In-Flight Center. The protest will start with a 3:00 p.m. march from the Our Lady of the Airways Parish (OLAP) to the In-Flight Center. Labor and church groups supporting PALEA will join the protest at OLAP. At 5:00 pm a mass will be officiated then leaders of PALEA and allied groups will speak about the problem of contractualization.

In response to the claim of Transportation and Communications Secretary Mar Roxas that PALEA reneged on a promise not to hold a protest during typhoon, Rivera once more clarified that they only agreed to coordinate street rallies in advance so that traffic can be managed. “As to a protest at our workplaces, of course we will not coordinate it with them. If we did that, then PAL and the police will not even allow us to enter the airport and offices. Look at what they did during our protest, they forcibly evicted employees and hurt some in the process,” he elaborated.

Rivera added “But it must be remembered that we repeatedly warned the public that PALEA will hold a protest that will paralyze PAL’s operations. Apparently nobody believed our warning especially since PAL kept on assuring passengers that no flight disruption will happen. So now who is to blame for the inconvenience?”

PALEA announced that more protests are scheduled and that today’s big protest is not a “last hurrah.” Rivera insisted that “The protest is already spreading to the outlying stations with rallies to be held today in Bacolod and Davao, and the tomorrow in Cebu. The fight against layoff and contractualization will continue until PAL’s lockout is ended and PAL employees return to their regular jobs. The protest will take different forms in the coming days such as another PALEA family day to involve our spouses and children in the issue. We will be campaigning too in the campuses to inform the youth about the pernicious impact of contractualization on our nation’s future.”