Workers reaction to SONA 2025

 PRESS STATEMENT

Partido Manggagawa

SONA 2025

Ref: Renato Magtubo

Chairperson

 

The President’s candid admission of underperformance in the past three years set a promising tone for a better second half of his term. However, that hope was soon buried under a lengthy checklist of departmental functions—routine matters expected of any administration.

 

What was glaringly absent were bold policy declarations addressing the nation’s most urgent concerns: a substantial wage hike, an end to contractualization, the creation of decent and secure jobs, and decisive action to rein in inflation.

 

Workers keep on pressing for  a legislated wage hike of P200 as well as the passage of the security of tenure bill, but to no avail. Katulad sa baha at bagyo, kailangan ang Presidente sa pagharap sa krisis na ito.

 

The President also acknowledged energy and water supply issues but failed to confront the root causes—particularly the long-standing failures of privatization.

 

The SONA could have been more meaningful if it had tackled core policy failures and laid out concrete reforms for the remaining three years. The country doesn’t need a report card of government activities—it needs a clear roadmap for change. ###

 

https://web.facebook.com/partidomanggagawa/posts/pfbid0sjPyQc63ewsuuoyvdXtWBzettZYgnv3GMrq6FJr8yw993KAwGGyoeUnX1YVo5njfl

Women Workers United on IWD demands

WAGES, DIGNIFIED WORK, PUBLIC SERVICES, AND FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION: THE DEMANDS OF WOMEN THIS INTERNATIONAL WORKING WOMEN’S DAY

Women Workers United (WWU) marks the 112th year of the International Working Women’s Day, when we reaffirm our fight against poverty, injustice, inequality, and exploitation of women in all forms. WWU is currently composed of six major organizations: Kilusan ng Manggagawang Kababaihan (KMK), Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU), Federation of Free Workers (FFW), Partido Manggagawa (PM), Public Services Labor Independent Confederation (PSLINK), and GABRIELA.

Filipino women find themselves in a time of crisis today. Joblessness is at an all-time high: 7 in 10 Filipinos—mostly women—are being driven into informal, precarious work; inflation is soaring at 9.3%; and violence against women (VAW) has seen a dramatic rise with 1 woman every 20 minutes becoming a victim of rape, physical abuse, lasciviousness, and other forms of VAW. 

Since the ILO High-Level Tripartite Mission (HLTM), in which we participated and submitted a subreport on women workers, we have developed a 15-Point Labor Agenda, within which we have expanded on the plight of women in the world of work.

This International Women’s Day, we reassert our call to (1) protect women workers’ rights to freedom of association and their rights to collective bargaining and negotiation; (2) close the gender wage pay gap and institute a national minimum wage closer to the living wage which is at PHP 1,100; (3) ratify ILO Convention 190; (4) strengthen legal framework and policies to address VAWC; and (5) pass the Magna Carta for Workers in the Informal Economy, among others.

This International Working Women’s Day, we remember the historic role women have played in advancing the people’s vision for a world free from exploitation. Today, we march on and carry the torch of the millions of working women throughout history who overcame society’s impositions on women and asserted their rightful place in the struggle for social justice.

Our fight for justice and equality in all forms continues. This International Working Women’s Day, the women workers of the Philippines march on. Women workers rise. Women workers strike. Women workers stand united.#

References:

GABRIELA Vice Chairperson Joms Salvador

Partido Manggagawa Judy Ann Miranda

Federation of Free Workers Women’s Network Vice President Arta Maines

Public Services Labor Independent Confederation (PSLINK) Jillian Roque

Kilusan ng Manggagawang Kababaihan (KMK) Spokesperson Jaq Ruiz

Women Workers United

PRESS STATEMENT

08 March 2023

MEDIA ADVISORY: Women workers protest on IWD

MEDIA ADVISORY

for March 8, 2023

Reference: Trish Muli, 0917 865 8720

INTERNATIONAL WORKING WOMEN'S DAY

Women Workers United

1. Women workers dialogue & protest at DOLE

8:00AM assembly at Round Table, Intramuros

8:40AM March to send-off leaders to DOLE

9:00AM–10:00AM Program outside Round Table

10:00AM - Unveiling of WWU challenge, then March to Liwasang Bonifacio

Several women's groups under Women Workers United (WWU) will meet with DOLE officials to get DOLE's support for the ratification of ILO Convention 190, Women in the World of Work, on International Women Workers' Day (IWWD). The groups will also forward cases of labor rights violations against women workers and reiterate ILO-HLTM's recommendations to the PH government.

During the dialogue, around 200 women workers gathered outside will hold a protest action to highlight their issues and demands. WWU will conclude the program with the reveal of the latest unity among the broadest rank of Filipino women workers—their most urgent challenge to the Marcos government.

2. Filipino Women SALUBONGAN

10:30AM at Liwasang Bonifacio

Filipino women workers led by WWU and all other sectors of women will converge at Liwasang Bonifacio. Women leaders from various sectors will hand out roses to women workers to honor their leading role throughout history in the emancipation of women across the world, while women workers will offer bread to women leaders to symbolize the fruits of their labor that feed the peoples of the world.

3. IWWD Program: Women Workers Unite for Wage Hike, Decent Jobs, Accessible Quality Social Services, and Freedom of Association

10:30AM–12:30PM Program at Liwasang Bonifacio

Thousands of Filipino women from several major women's and sectoral organizations will gather for the IWWD program that will register the united call of women for wage, jobs, services, and rights amid severe economic and political crisis in PH. The program will highlight the severe hits suffered by women and Filipinos due to unabated price hikes, anti-people policies that massacres jobs, and the incessant attacks on rights and freedoms led by no less than the highest officials of the land.

4. Filipino Women take the IWWD protest right at the foot of Malacañang

12:30PM March to Mendiola

12:30PM–1:30PM Program at Mendiola

1:30PM Symbolic presentation of Filipino Women's Message to President Marcos Jr.

Women will march to Mendiola to implore Marcos Jr. to finally respond to the crises hounding Filipinos under his reign. Protesters will issue their condemnation of the government's anti-people and pro-foreign capitalist indulgences while Filipinos drown in massive poverty, mounting debts, and growing fascism and militarism.

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MEDIA COVERAGE IS REQUESTED.

PHOTO OPPORTUNITIES AND INTERVIEWS WILL BE FACILITATED.#

More Filipinos are back to work but in bad jobs—Partido Manggagawa

 

In reaction to news that unemployment has dipped to just 4.2% in November 2022, Rene Magtubo, chair of the labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) stated that “Indeed, more Filipinos are back to work but in bad jobs.” Magtubo insisted that “Quality as much as quantity of jobs is a concern using the International Labour Organization’s decent work framework as a lens.”

 

PM referred to the fact that while unemployment decreased from 4.5% in October, underemployment increased to 14.4% in November from 14.2% in October. Also, the average weekly hours worked of an employed person in November 2022 went down to 39.3, from 40.2 in October 2022 and from 39.6 in November 2021.

 

Magtubo explained that “Government is boasting of the return of employment figures to pre-pandemic levels. Unfortunately, there is no comparable data for November 2019. But by October 2022, unemployment was at 4.5%, exactly the same rate as in October 2019 before COVID-19 struck. But while the quantity of jobs may have returned, the quality of jobs worsened.”

 

According to PM, more people were working part-time instead of full-time. Underemployment—or the people wanting more hours of work—jumped from 13.0% in October 2019 or 5.62 million Filipinos to 14.2% in October 2022 or 6.67 million. This translates to more than a million Filipinos working as casual, contractual or informal in 2022 or a rise of 19% compared to pre-pandemic levels of underemployment.

 

“As part-time employees working as casual, contractual or informal, they would be suffering from lower remuneration, not enough benefits, less job security, lack of social security and unsafe working conditions. In other words, these employed but vulnerable workers in the post-pandemic context are still harmed by decent work deficits,” Magtubo expounded.

 

PM pointed out that a reflection of this phenomenon is the plight of delivery riders. “No doubt, there were more of them as essential workers during the pandemic. But an upsurge of protests among delivery riders express the decent work deficits of Filipinos working as independent contractors rather than as full-time regular employees. Almost all of these protests originated from grievances over steep declines in incomes as apps arbitrarily cut their ‘commissions’ while the cost of fuel rose continuously,” Magtubo argued. He pointed to the protest last week of Shopee riders and to last year’s mass actions of Grab riders in General Santos, Cebu and Pampanga, together with Grab cyclists in Metro Manila. Iloilo Grab riders also formed a union last November 2022. 

January 7, 2023

Partido Manggagawa

Foodpanda riders protest harassed by police, 1 arrested

 

 

Some 700 riders of the food delivery app Foodpanda held a “unity ride” today to seek redress of their grievances. However the peaceful protest at the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) was marred by an altercation with police from the Intramuros station. Jack Vergara of the Food Panda Riders Association was arrested while the cellphone of Romeo Maglunsod of the Kapatiran sa Dalawang Gulong (KAGULONG) was confiscated by the police.

 

“We condemn the harassment by the Manila police of a peaceful concerted action by workers that is a constitutionally guaranteed right. We ask Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello to ensure that workers’ right to redress of grievances is observed at the DOLE area. That is traditionally a site of protest but police are now using the pandemic as an excuse to suppress the right to peaceful assembly,” stated Rene Magtubo, national chair of Partido Manggagawa which is supporting the Foodpanda riders.

 

The Foodpanda riders assembled at the Film Center/Cultural Center of the Philippines area before proceeding to the DOLE to seek an audience and deliver a letter addressed to Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello.

 

The groups are asking the DOLE to conduct an inspection for the purpose of resolving the grievances of the Foodpanda riders. Riders are discontented over recent changes in Foodpanda policies that have negatively affected their pay and working conditions.

 

“Pay is tied to bookings which are affected by so-called ‘grades.’ But the grading system is opaque. Grades have fallen due to changes in the system which penalize riders. Pay has also been reduced per delivery due to a new system,” explained Don Pangan of KAGULONG.

 

Further, a policy called “undispatch” forces riders to rush in order to pick up an order, thereby putting their safety at peril. The groups are demanding the removal of “undispatch,” and transparency and fairness in policies, including the computation of the pay for deliveries.

 

Pangan added that “Food Panda riders are called delivery partners but in reality are employees of the company owning the app. Food Panda riders are subject to control and supervision of the company as shown by the impact of policy changes on pay and condition. Foodpanda riders are not independent contractors but ordinary employees of th company owning the app.”

 

The groups are calling on the DOLE to act on their request for dialogue and inspection. “This is only the start of our advocacy for the rights and welfare of Foodpanda rider and other gig workers. Ang laban ng Foodpanda riders ay laban ng lahat ng gig workers,” insisted Pangan.

Food Panda Riders Association

Kapatiran sa Dalawang Gulong (KAGULONG)

November 18, 2020

 

Women workers welcome EML's passage in the House

The Partido Manggagawa (PM) welcomes the passage of HB 4113 or the Expanded Maternity bill that entitles working women to a 100-day paid maternity leave.

The House version is 20 days shorter than the 120-day provision passed by the Senate last year. Thus women groups are still hopeful that the small gap can still be worked out in the bicameral conference committee.

"We commend the sponsors of the bill for the hard work spent in ensuring that this bill reaches this stage. And of course to the chairperson of the women committee, Rep. Bernadette Herrera (PL BH), for steering this measure into its final enactment," said PM Secretary General Judy Ann Miranda.

Miranda said the HOR version is just above the 98-day maternity leave recommended by the International Labor Organization (ILO) but far lower than the levels in ASEAN.

She added that "We know it can still be worked out in the bicam level. The longer the maternity leave, the better for mothers, their children, and their family members.”

Miranda noted that LPGMA partylist Rep. Arnel Ty tried to derail the passage of the EML during the debates by taking the position of employers who are all opposed to the bill.

"We were aware of Rep. Ty's position as he truly represented the interests of business in Congress. It is this kind of representation that defined his opposition to EML. He, of course, cannot stand as a businessman and a worker at the same time. This measure is for workers, especially women," concluded Miranda.

4 September 2018

Youth group asks: Are there decent jobs for OFW’s going home plus new graduates?

In reaction to President Rodrigo Duterte’s call for some 260,000 OFW’s in Kuwait to come home, the youth group Partido Manggagawa-Kabataan (PMK) asked if there are decent jobs awaiting them in the Philippines.

“We welcome our parents coming home from Kuwait so families can be reunited. But are there regular jobs paying living wages for them and the 600,000 new graduates plus thousands more finishing K-12 that won’t go to college? The reason OFW’s go to Kuwait and elsewhere is because of lack of decent jobs in the Philippines,” asserted Kim Dolojo, PMK spokesperson and a PUP student.

Last week, PMK held a protest at the offices of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) to highlight its call for decent jobs for young workers.

“President Duterte is again making a personal promise, this time of providing jobs for OFW’s. But he has yet to deliver on his campaign promise two years go to end endo the moment he assumes the presidency. Mr. President, not another broken promise,” Dolojo warned.

She added that “So this Labor Day, PMK members are joining Nagkaisa, KMU and other labor groups is uniting to denounce the administration’s broken promises and demanding regular jobs for Filipinos.”

Dolojo insisted that “In 2016, 78% of the jobless were 15 to 34 years old. Half of them were aged 24 years old or below. A diploma is no antidote to unemployment as 34% of the unemployed had actually gone to college and 20% were college graduates!”

PMK is raising a red flag as the World Bank recently released a report about the lack of quality jobs in the country and the worsening inequality as a result. The group is likewise questioning ECOP for the Jobstreet data that only 24% of employers are willing to hire K-12 graduates.

“An employers organization, the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry earlier questioned that the minimum number of hours required of senior high school students are not enough to train and qualify them for entry-level work,” Dolojo explained.

She cited the International Labour Organization (ILO) report titled “Global Employment Trends for Youth 2017: Paths to a better working future,” that stated that youth unemployment rate for Southeast Asia and the Pacific is seen to rise from 11.7 percent in 2016 to 12 percent in 2017, and to 12.2 percent in 2018.

Partido Manggagawa-Kabataan

April 29, 2018

Workers’ march at Ayala calls on pols to address wages & jobs

Press Release

October 7, 2015

Several hundred workers from labor groups under the coalition Nagkaisa are marching this afternoon along Ayala Ave. to dramatize the call for job security and a living wage as their way of commemorating World Decent Work Day. The marchers will assemble at the Makati Fire Station at 3:00 pm and then will march by 4:00 pm around the country’s premier business district.

The militant Partido Manggagawa (PM) is challenging politicians to spell out platforms addressing voters’ urgent concerns on the erosion of wages due to inflation and the generation of regular jobs.

“Everyday we see candidates declaring their intent to run but we hardly hear their platform for workers and the poor. Para lumawak ang tuwid na daan, manggagawa naman! Para walang maiiwan, manggagawa naman! Ang Makati, hindi lang dapat paraiso sa mga negosyante, manggagawa naman! We dare the national candidates to state what concrete steps they will do to resolve the problem of wages and jobs,” averred Rene Magtubo, PM chairperson.

 “Concretely, we are asking candidates to make a stand on the security of tenure bill meant to regulate the abusive practice of contractualization. And also their commitment to achieving a living wage through a combination of wage hikes, basic goods discounts, tax exemptions and social security subsidies,” Magtubo clarified.

For this year, the World Decent Work Day has a theme of “End Corporate Greed.” The call for decent work is given a local flavor by a recent survey that reveals the most pressing issues of Filipino voters are inflation, wages and employment.

“What is the use of economic growth if wages are frozen, and jobs are not enough and contractual in status? Para sa totoong pag-unlad, manggagawa naman! Handa ba ang mga kandidato na salubungin ang Apat na Dapat?,” Magtubo argued.

He listed the Apat na Dapat as “1. Mababang presyo, 2. Sapat na sweldo, 3. Regular na trabaho,  at 4. Matinong serbisyo publiko.”

“In PAL, more than 5,500 workers have been retrenched in a series of mass layoffs since 1998 and they were all replaced by agency contractuals in a brutal outsourcing scheme meant to bust unions. Yesterday contractuals, called talents, in GMA-7 won their regularization case. This followed a similar move in 2010 by ABS-CBN talents for recognition as regular workers. From malls to factories to offices, contractuals are supplanting regulars. So we ask the candidates, ok ba silang endo pa more?,” Magtubo ended.

Advisory: Workers to march along Ayala Ave

MEDIA ADVISORY

October 7, 2015

Contact: Wilson Fortaleza @ 09158625229, 09432843919

To observe Decent Work Day and dare pols on wages & jobs:

Workers to march along Ayala Ave

WHAT: March by hundreds of workers under the Nagkaisa labor coalition

WHEN: Today, October 7, 2015; Assembly 3 pm, March 4 pm

WHERE: Assembly @ Makati Fire Station, March along Ayala Ave.

DETAILS: Both to commemorate the global day of decent work and to challenge national candidates on the urgent issues of wage hikes and regular jobs, several hundred members of labor groups under the coalition Nagkaisa will march on Ayala Ave., the country’s leading business district.

Among those marching are contingents from Partido Manggagawa (PM) and PALEA which has launched renewed protests as a result of another mass layoff at Philippine Airlines.

Today's global day for decent work is organized annually by the International Trade Union Confederation and has a theme of “End Corporate Greed” for this year. The call for decent work is given a local flavour by recent survey that the most urgent concerns of Filipino voters are the erosion of wages due to inflation and the generation of regular jobs.

“Enough of motherhood statements and hollow slogans. We dare the presidential candidates to spell out concrete steps in their platforms on addressing the issue of wages and jobs,” insist Rene Magtubo, PM chairperson. ###

Engage people’s organizations in Yolanda rehab

Press Release

August 3, 2015

PM Region 8

Informal workers associations in Leyte are asking the government to engage with people’s organizations in the implementation of the Yolanda rehabilitation in the face of criticism of the pace and scale of work done.

“The delay in the release of funds for the Yolanda rehab is just part of the problem. The participation of the people themselves is vital in the success of the Yolanda rehab plan. Yolanda survivors should not just be passive recipients of aid but active stakeholders in the reconstruction process,” asserted Judy Torres, chair of the Tacloban City tricycle federation (TAFEMDO) and coordinator of Partido Manggagawa (PM) in Region 8.

Torres averred that “People’s organizations can also serve as watchdogs against graft and corruption in the rehab process. Even more than the problem of temporary shelter, the input of the people is crucial in the issue of permanent housing. We insist on in-city relocation and climate-resilient socialized housing program for informal settlers.”

PM and TAFEMDO had earlier criticized the overpriced and substandard bunkhouses when it was exposed in 2014. For two years, the groups have been campaigning for decent employment, social protection and people’s participation as pillars of Yolanda rehabilitation plan.

In December of 2013 TAFEMDO held in Tacloban a motorcade of a hundred tricycles which were garbed in tarp posters with the message “Make jobs a priority in Yolanda rehab.” Last year, the Tacloban tricycle federation together with drivers associations in Hilongos and Baybay, Leyte issued a manifesto calling for decent employment to be a priority in the rehab plan. It also held a motorcade

The demand echoes reports by the United Nations and the International Labor Organization that more need to be done to provide decent work in the Yolanda affected areas that includes ensuring minimum wages, sound occupational safety, skills development and social protection.

“Decent jobs are a necessity since it is a guarantee to a person’s long-term security and a life of dignity” Torres argued.

War vs. "King of labor-only contracting" in today's World Day of Decent Work

Press Release

NAGKAISA!

October 07, 2014

 

AROUND 200 members of labor coalition Nagkaisa picketed the Asiapro main office in Barangay Kapitolyo in Pasig City this morning to condemn the pseudo-manning agency for its gross violations of workers’ rights to mark the World Day of Decent Work observed worldwide today.

 

Below is the Nagkaisa labor coalition statement issued today:

 

“We, the Nagkaisa! (United!), join arms in condemning in highest and strongest terms the illegal practice being perpetrated by the Asiapro Multi-purpose Cooperative against thousands of vulnerable Filipino workers in its employ as we commemorate today the World Day of Decent Work along with other labor unions and progressive labor groups around the world.

 

We are enraged by Asiapro’s unfettered and multiple grave violations of international conventions on decent jobs and serious abuse of Philippine labor statutes that upholds the rights and interests of Filipino workers.

 

Behind its mask and by its pretense as a multi-purpose cooperative, Asiapro is a grand structure of deceit and an organized syndicate with a multi-billion peso profiteering from the blood and sweat of hapless Filipino workers.

 

The people running Asiapro are with pedigree, deeply-experienced and widely networked to camouflage and further entrench their labor-only-contracting fleecing operation. They are not just modern day labor slavery drivers, they are also rapacious and brutal not only for not giving the right wages and benefits for is workers but for skirting the laws and statutes by not paying millions of pesos of taxes that a responsible manning agency does to government.

 

As we join fellow workers in fighting for decent work, the Nagkaisa labor coalition today vows to make life difficult for Asiapro and promises to make its greedy high people running the organization be brought to justice.

 

In observance of the World Day of Decent Work, Nagkaisa today swears to uncover the Asiapro masterminds and make sure they will be made to account including all of the conspirators of the syndicate to pay for their abuse and injustice they have committed against thousands of its workers and their families.”

Advisory: Picket at biggest illegal “labor-only contractor”

Media Advisory

06 October 2014

Contact: Edsil Bacalso

09155386308              

REQUEST FOR COVERAGE

 In observance of “Global Day for Decent Work”

Picket at biggest illegal “labor-only contractor”

Tomorrow, 7 October 2014

10:00 AM

Assembly @ Kapitolyo gate, Pasig City

Then march to nearby Asiapro Building

The Nagkaisa labor coalition will hold a picket at Asiapro to demand a stop to the illegal operations of Asiapro which in the guise of a “workers cooperative” of some 34,000 members is in reality a labor-only contractor. A coordinated picket of Asiapro’s satellite office in downtown Cebu City will also be held tomorrow by Nagkaisa’s member groups. A labor dispute at the giant Carmen Copper mine in Toledo City, Cebu involving Asiapro remains pending to this day. The action tomorrow follows on the heels of an earlier picket that led to Asiapro’s filing of libel and public scandal cases against leaders of Nagkaisa. 

Leyte groups: Engage people in Yolanda rehab

Press Release

January 10, 2014

Informal workers associations in Leyte are asking the government to engage with people’s organizations in the planning and implementation of the Yolanda rehabilitation in the face of allegations of overpriced and substandard bunkhouses.

“Aside from the opinions of experts, the participation of the people themselves is vital in the success of the Yolanda rehab plan. Yolanda survivors should not just be passive recipients of aid but active stakeholders in the reconstruction process. We demand transparency and people’s participation,” asserted Judy Torres, chair of the Tacloban City tricycle federation and coordinator of Partido ng Manggagawa in Region 8.

Last December 30, Torres’ group held a motorcade around Tacloban of a hundred tricycles which were garbed in tarp posters with the message “Make jobs a priority in Yolanda rehab.” The motorcade signalled the launch of the campaign for decent employment, social protection and people’s participation as pillars of Yolanda rehabilitation plan. A representative of the International Labor Organization (ILO) observed and documented the campaign launch.

Torres averred that “People’s organizations can also serve as watchdogs against graft and corruption in the rehab process. Even more than the problem of temporary shelter, the input of the people is crucial in the issue of permanent housing. We insist on in-city relocation and climate-resilient socialized housing program for informal settlers.”

Some of the controversial bunkhouses are being built near Torres’ home and he does not believe they can cost almost a million each. He also attests to the fact that the contractors are not locals and even the laborers came from Mindanao.

He added that “Every cent of the USD 8.17 billion Reconstruction Assistance of Yolanda must be spent to meet the immediate and long-term needs of survivors. We also ask that locals be employed as workers with decent jobs as a guideline.”

The Tacloban tricycle federation together with drivers associations in Hilongos and Baybay, Leyte have issued a manifesto calling for decent employment to be a priority in the rehab plan. The demand echoes an ILO report that stated that more need to be done to provide decent work in the Yolanda affected areas that includes ensuring minimum wages, sound occupational safety, skills development and social protection.

“Decent jobs are a necessity since it is a guarantee to a person’s long-term security and a life of dignity” Torres argued.

Group calls for transparency, people’s participation in Yolanda rehab plan

Yolanda bunkhouse

Press Release

January 6, 2014

Amidst reports and allegations of overpriced and substandard temporary shelters for Yolanda survivors, the Region 8 chapter of Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) called for transparency and people’s participation in the implementation of the rehabilitation and reconstruction plan.

“We are victims of disasters not once but twice. First of climate change-spawned supertyphoon Yolanda and now of the greed-induced calamity of corruption,” said Judy Torres, PM regional coordinator and chair of the Tacloban City federation of tricycle drivers and operators associations.

Torres has seen the controversial bunkhouses since some are being built near his home and he does not believe they can cost almost a million each. He also attests to the fact that the contractors are not locals and even the laborers came from Mindanao.

He added that “Every cent of the USD 8.17 billion Reconstruction Assistance of Yolanda must be spent to meet the immediate and long-term needs of survivors. The participation of people’s organizations should be institutionalized in the plan and they can serve as watchdogs against graft and corruption.”

Torres called on the Philippine government, international aid groups and donor countries to dialogue with grassroots labor and people’s organizations. He also asked that locals be employed as workers with decent jobs as a guideline.

Led by Torres, the tricycle drivers of Tacloban are spearheading a campaign demanding decent jobs, social protection and people’s participation as bedrocks of the Yolanda rehabilitation plan. To signal the launch of the campaign, last December 30 a motorcade of a hundred tricycles garbed in posters with the message “Make jobs a priority in Yolanda rehab,” went around Tacloban and were warmly received by typhoon survivors. A representative of the International Labor Organization observed and documented the campaign launch.

In a manifesto of the tricycle and trisikad drivers in Tacloban, Hilongos and Baybay, the groups explained that prior to the onslaught of Yolanda, they already were living poor, miserable lives since transporting people through motorized and non-motorized vehicles for hire was their only source of income. The groups’ priority demand is decent jobs because it is a guarantee to a person’s long-term security and a life of dignity.

Torres declared that that since current extreme weather systems are the awful outcome of climate change caused by unrestrained economic activities of industrial countries thus more than the humanitarian aspect, developed countries have the historical, moral, and social responsibility to come to the aid of Yolanda survivors.

Ping asked to dialogue with groups calling for role in Yolanda rehab

Press Release

December 31, 2013

The Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) called on Yolanda rehabilitation czar Panfilo Lacson, agencies involved in the reconstruction plan and international aid groups to dialogue with workers associations in Leyte demanding decent jobs and people’s participation.

Yesterday a motorcade of a hundred tricycles garbed in tarp posters with the message “Make jobs a priority in Yolanda rehab,” went around Tacloban City and were warmly received by typhoon survivors. The motorcade signaled the launch of the campaign for decent employment, social protection and people’s participation as bedrocks of Yolanda rehabilitation and reconstruction plan.

“Yolanda survivors should be treated as citizens not beggars. It behooves Ping, rehab agencies and donor countries to engage with the Leyte informal workers in the reconstruction plan. Inclusive growth is mere lip service, people empowerment is just a buzz word without the actual participation of organized groups at the grassroots,” insisted Wilson Fortaleza, PM spokesperson.

Before the motorcade, the tricycle drivers attended a noon mass at the Sto. Nino Church. A gathering and small salu-salo followed the motorcade at the church’s social hall where family members and other Yolanda survivors gathered to hear the groups’ manifesto and affirm their commitment to the collective struggle of rebuilding their lives and their communities.

“In the rehabilitation and rebuilding process, we do not want to just revert back to where we were before Yolanda. We want a new community–a better community,” declared Judy Torres, PM-Region 8 coordinator and chair of the Tacloban Federation of MCH (Motor Cabs for Hire) Drivers and Operators Associations, Inc. (TAFEMDO).

The campaign came days after the government announced the US$8.17-billion or P361-B plan under the so-called Reconstruction Assistance on Yolanda (RAY) which will be completed in four years.

In a joint manifesto signed by TAFEMDO, Trisikad Operators and Drivers Organization of Hilongos, Leyte, Rebolusyonaryong Alyansang Makabansa-Region 8 and PM, the groups explained that prior to the onslaught of Yolanda, they were already living miserable lives since transporting people around the city through motorized and non-motorized cabs for hire was their only source of income. 

“Our priority demand is decent jobs because it is a guarantee to a person’s long-term security and a life of dignity,” said Torres, adding that while everybody was devastated it is the poor that suffered most.

He added that “Today’s extreme weather systems are the awful outcome of climate change caused by unrestrained economic activities of industrial countries. Thus, we believe that more than the humanitarian aspect, developed countries have the historical, moral, and social responsibility to come to our aid.”

Workers in Region 8 demand employment, people’s participation in Yolanda rehabilitation and reconstruction plan

PRESS RELEASE

30 December 2013

Declaring they won’t beg and live on relief and aid forever, several associations of workers in the informal sector in Region 8 today launched a campaign demanding employment, social protection and people’s participation as bedrocks of Yolanda rehabilitation and reconstruction plan to address not just the immediate but also the long term needs of Pepe and Pilar.

The campaign came days after the government announced the US$8.17-billion or P361-B plan under the so-called Reconstruction Assistance on Yolanda (RAY) which will be completed in four years or by 2017.

Held in Tacloban City, the campaign launch was spearheaded by tricycle and trisikad drivers and operators (TODA’s) in Tacloban, Hilongos and Baybay, in coordination with the labor group Partido ng Manggagawa (PM). 

After attending a twelve noon mass at the Sto. Nino Church, TODA members held a motorcade around Tacloban City with posters bearing the call, “Make jobs a priority in Yolanda rehab”, wrapped around their trikes.  A gathering and small salu-salo followed the motorcade at the Church’s Social Hall where family members and other Yolanda survivors gathered to hear the groups’ manifesto and affirm their commitment to the collective struggle of rebuilding their lives and their communities.

In a joint Manifesto signed by the Tacloban Federation of MCH Drivers and Operators Associations, Inc. (TAFEMDO), the Hilongos-based Trisikad Operators and Drivers Organization (TODO), and Partido ng Manggagawa-Region 8, the groups explained that prior to the onslaught of Yolanda (Haiyan), they already were living poor, miserable lives since transporting people around the city through motorized and non-motorized cabs for hire was their only source of income. 

The Rebolustonaryong Alyansang Makabansa (RAM) in Leyte also signed the manifesto in solidarity with the workers.

“Because income is irregular in this nature of work, we earn less than what we need.  This condition likewise explains why many of us, together with other poor people, live in urban poor communities where we face recurrent and extreme vulnerabilities from both man-made and natural calamities.  In other words, we are poor, defenceless and were unprepared to face the strongest typhoon in history,” read the manifesto.

Jobs as priority

According to Judy Torres, regional coordinator of Partido ng Manggagawa, this was the main reason why they were urging the government and donor agencies to make jobs a priority in Yolanda rehabilitation and reconstruction plans.  

“We want jobs because it is a guarantee to a person’s long-term security and a life of dignity,” said Torres, adding that while everybody was devastated it is the poor that suffered most.

“We want to rebuild our lives.  We want to rebuild our communities.  Hence, in the rehabilitation and rebuilding process, we do not want to just revert back to where we were before Yolanda.  We want a new community – a better community,” added the manifesto.

Torres, who also chairs TAFEMDO, added that aside from providing employment, “the State must also provide victims of Yolanda a broad range of social protection to enable them to live a more secure life in the face of the ‘new normal’ and the worsening climate crisis.”

The workers’ groups also called on the government, both national and local, to put their act together in formulating a new type of rehabilitation and rebuilding plan, saying people at this point in time are not interested in squabbles and personal plans among politicians.

“What you owe us is immediate, climate-resilient, inclusive, and empowering rehabilitation and rebuilding program,” said the groups, stressing further that in the rebuilding process, direct participation by the people is far more important than private consultants and contractors.

International responsibility

The groups likewise urged donor countries and international aid agencies that once the relief and life-saving stage is over, “we enjoin you to help us build a new model community out of the ruins of Yolanda.” 

They further stated: “While we clearly understand that it was Nature’s wrath that made our lives more miserable now, we are also aware that today’s extreme weather systems are the awful outcome of climate change caused by unrestrained economic activities of industrial countries. Thus, we believe that more than the humanitarian aspect, developed countries have the historical, moral, and social responsibility to come to our aid.”

Specific demands

The TODA groups in Tacloban have come up with specific demands addressed to concerned government agencies, international donors, as well as the Church and civic groups.  These include:

§        Jobs for displaced TODA members and for unemployed Taclobanons.

§        Moratorium on payment of fees, specifically the renewal of business permits for FY 2014.

§        Financial assistance for motor/cab repairs or for acquisition of new units.

§        Fuel subsidy for registered TODA members.

§        Mandatory SSS and Philhealth coverage for TODA members through national government or local government sponsorship programs.

§        In-city relocation and climate-resilient socialized housing program for informal settlers.

§        Participation in the rehabilitation and rebuilding process.

Except for some specific items, the same set of demands will be pursued by workers associations in Hilongos and Baybay. 

The groups said they are making this appeal not as mere victims of Yolanda but as Filipino citizens who are entitled to the broadest social protection possible from the State.

“Finally, we believe that everything is possible as long as everyone considers the task of rehabilitation and rebuilding a collective mission and the dream for a new community rising out of Yolanda ruins a common vision,”  concluded the manifesto.

Updated Briefing Paper on PAL-PALEA Dispute

Last October 29 Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz released a decision that allows Philippine Airlines (PAL) to outsource its airport services, in-flight catering and call center reservations and layoff more than half of its workforce. The Halloween order will lead to the massacre of some 3,000 regular jobs and the death of the oldest union in the country.

The decision sets a dangerous precedent for it will open the floodgates to massive contractualization. Regular employees of PAL will be retrenched and then rehired as contractual workers in so-called third-party service providers. The work done at the service providers will be exactly the same but for cheaper wages, fewer benefits, no security of tenure and no protection of a union.

Moreover the decision disregards the specific provision of the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) that prohibits management from contracting out regular jobs and that restricts management prerogative. Also the decision accepted management’s blackmail that it will go bankrupt if not allowed to outsource work. However the financial statements and disclosures of PAL reveal that its business condition is improving and not deteriorating, thereby negating the necessity for retrenchment.

Baldoz engages in doublespeak when she claims that none of the PAL employees affected will be jobless. All the employees to be retrenched by PAL will indeed be absorbed by the service providers but only as contractuals. Not even Baldoz can assure that the employees hired by the service providers will become regular workers. In fact since the service providers can lay off the ex-PAL workers after only a few months, Baldoz ruling provides that PAL guarantee the wages of those affected for one year. As contractuals, ex-PAL workers would enjoy no security of tenure and thus can be legally fired at the whim of the service providers. Without a union, ex-PAL workers will have no protection and no voice as employees in the service providers.

The euphemistically termed “transition benefits” enumerated in the Baldoz ruling are mere artificial sweeteners to the bitter pill of contractualization. They may well be above the separation pay mandated by law and the CBA but it nonetheless cannot provide for a decent life to those facing the prospect of long-term unemployment.

A regular job that provides decent wages, substantial benefits, security of tenure and the protection of a union should not be an impossible dream. It is simply the best way for PAL to share the fruits of its employees’ labor. It is the kind of best practice a national flag carrier must adopt.

Philippine Airlines Employees’ Association (PALEA) calls on the President uphold his promise of change by reversing the Baldoz decision even as it plans to file a case at the Court of Appeals.

PALEA to Malacanang: Can’t do a Pontius Pilate on PAL labor row

Press Release
November 3, 2010

The Philippine Airlines Employees’ Association (PALEA) today disputed Malacanang’s pronouncement that it must keep its hands off Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz’ ruling allowing the mass layoff of some 3,000 employees.

Gerry Rivera, PALEA president and Partido ng Manggagawa vice chairperson, said that “Malacanang cannot do a Pontius Pilate on the mass layoff. Government put its hands deep into the labor row when former Labor Secretary Marianito Roque assumed jurisdiction (AJ). Sec. Baldoz kept government’s hands in the dispute since she did not lift the AJ and later affirmed the previous ruling permitting the mass layoff. In fact Baldoz used the same power to intervene by imposing another AJ order on the impending flight attendants’ strike.”

Nonetheless Rivera welcomed news reports that President Benigno Aquino III intends to review Baldoz’ ruling. “If indeed PNoy sent a text message to that effect then it is a welcome development. We challenge PNoy to uphold his promise of change by reversing the ruling. Also he better reprimand Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte for speaking from the hip for it is worse than tweeting undiplomatic messages. Valte may have read Baldoz’ decision as she alleges but she apparently did not understand it,” he explained.

Rivera added that Valte cannot recommend that PALEA file a motion for reconsideration (MR) since Baldoz’ ruling is in fact a denial of their MR. He stated that Valte moreover cannot use the argument that Malacanang must keep its hands off because the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) is part of the executive and not a co-equal body like the judiciary.

PALEA also slammed DOLE for alleging that the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) recognizes management’s prerogative to exercise the mass layoff. “While the PAL-PALEA CBA upholds management prerogative in general, this exercise is restricted by a separate provision explicitly banning the company from contracting out existing positions, jobs, divisions and departments presently occupied by present or future regular employees within the collective bargaining unit. DOLE prefers to turn a blind eye to this specific provision protecting job security,” Rivera elaborated.

Further, Rivera dismisses as lies PAL’s claims that it is losing money and will go bankrupt if not allowed to outsource work. He asserted that “Jurisprudence allows retrenchment as a measure of last resort which should only be undertaken in case of serious and imminent losses. The financial statements and disclosures of PAL reveal that its business condition is improving and not deteriorating, thereby negating the necessity for retrenchment.”

PALEA also announced that their lawyers are already preparing the case to be filed at the Court of Appeals. The union believes that while the Baldoz’ ruling is under appeal then PAL is prohibited from undertaking the mass layoff.