Workers have lost P82 in value of wages due to inflation

Photo from ING

 

The labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) declared that the real value of wages of workers in Metro Manila have been reduced by P82 due to worsening inflation. Yesterday, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) announced that headline inflation has risen to 6.9% for September 2022. “We call on Congress to raise wages by P100 across-the-broad so that workers can recover their lost purchasing power,” asserted Judy Ann Miranda, PM secretary-general.

 

Based on the computations of the labor coalition Nagkaisa, the P570 minimum wage in Metro Manila is only worth P488 due to increases in prices of food, electricity and other basic commodities. The PSA noted that inflation for electricity and gas were among the highest.

 

In 2018, PM had already estimated that the daily cost of living is around P1,300. “Obviously we need to update this figure as inflation has ratcheted up in the past four years. Whatever the exact number, we need urgent action from the government and Congress. Thus, our call for a P100 wage hike within the first 100 days of the new government,” Miranda insisted.

 

She added that ““The focus now is on worsening inflation that has eroded workers' nominal wages. But we have not even tackled 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.”

 

Aside from the specific wage hike demand, PM also asked for a comprehensive government response on the worsening economic crisis and other covariate shocks—man-made disasters that affect whole communities—that has led to mass layoffs. Some 4,000 garment workers were retrenched at Sports City in the Mactan Cebu export zone and a few thousand workers also lost their jobs due to the temporary closure of Coca-Cola plants in Iloilo, Bohol, Davao, Cavite, Zamboanga, and Camarines Sur. 

 

“The government must set in place social protection systems that mitigate the impact on jobs, income, health and well-being of people. Mass layoffs and strong typhoons are all covariate shocks and the new normal in our lives. Social protection is one response to this challenge,” Miranda explained.

 

PM is pushing for public employment, preferably in climate jobs, for unemployed workers over a period of 100 days to nine months at minimum wages or P10,000, whichever is higher. The group is also calling for wage subsidies equivalent to 75% of the prevailing minimum wage to save jobs of workers in micro, medium and small enterprises. 

October 6, 2022

“Wag kang kuripot”—labor group to Joey Concepcion

Photo from Manila Bulletin 

 

The labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) called out presidential adviser for entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion for opposing the demand for a wage hike. “Wag kang kuripot! Workers have been waiting for two to three years already for a minimum wage hike. Asking them to wait for the possible suspension of the excise tax betrays the greedy capitalist in Joey Conception,” stated Rene Magtubo, PM national chair and Marikina City councilor.

 

The group asserted that even small businesses can afford to give their workers a pay increase. “Before the pandemic, businesses, both big and small, accumulated revenues and profit without sharing the productivity gains to their workers. From 2001 to 2016, the economy doubled in size and productivity increased by 50% but real wages remained stagnant. The pie became larger but the slice of workers remained the same. Employers pocketed the productivity gains accruing from the blood and sweat of workers,” explained Magtubo.

 

PM had earlier called for a P100 legislated wage hike even as Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello asked the regional wage boards to review the possibility of a minimum pay hike. The group is asking that the proposed emergency session of Congress tackle a legislated wage hike.

 

“Numerous studies suggest that minimum wage hikes do not lead to increases in unemployment nor prices. Inflation and retrenchments are just convenient bogeys for government and employers to scare the public against a wage hike,” Magtubo clarified.

 

He added that “P100 is just a wage recovery not a real increase in salaries. From 2018 to the present, real wages have declined by a significant amount of 8%. The National Wages and Productivity Commission’s own data shows that as of February 2022, the P537 minimum wage in Metro Manila is worth only P494 due to inflation since 2018.”

 

“The economic slump is not an argument against a pay increase. Instead it is a reason to provide money to consumers through a wage hike. Boosting the purchasing power of consumers—especially lowly paid workers who spend most of their take-home pay compared to high income earners—will pump prime the economy and lead to the revival of MSMEs,” Magtubo averred.

 

PM pointed out that a MSME with 10 workers, will only incur an additional P1,000 in daily wage costs which translates to 10% of its P 3 million asset size. “This will definitely not bankrupt an MSME. But a lack of market because of low consumption will kill an MSME. A wage hike will create a virtuous cycle in the economy. Capitalists just do not want to share the profit they have accumulated through a decade and a half of sustained economic growth,” Magtubo expounded.

March 14, 2022

Fight against inequality is continuation of Bonifacio’s struggle—Partido Manggagawa

The labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) called on workers to fight inequality as the continuation of the struggle of Andres Bonifacio. On the occasion of this year’s commemoration of Bonifacio Day, thousands of workers from different labor groups are coming together to a big rally at Mendiola.

Members of PM are joining the major mobilizations in the cities of Manila, Cebu, Bacolod and Davao. Chapters of PM and groups Aguila, National Federation of Labor, Pwersa and Kilos Maralita from Metro Manila, Calabarzon and Central Luzon are gathering at Blumentritt along Espana at 9 am. The groups will then link up with the Nagkaisa labor coalition march from Welcome Rotonda to Mendiola where they will hold a program up to noon.

Yesterday PM unveiled what it called “Panalo ang Pinas” and “Laban ng Pinoys” medals to express its message of fighting social inequality amidst economic growth. Scores of PM members trooped to Liwasang Bonifacio yesterday wearing symbolic medals that parodied the issues facing workers such as rampant contractualization and low wages, and the people such as government corruption and rice importation.

“For the last decade, the economy has doubled but real wages have remained stagnant. This means workers have not shared in the wealth that labor has produced and instead capitalists have monopolized it. If Bonifacio were alive today, he will be leading a new revolution against worsening inequality,” stated Judy Ann Miranda, PM Secretary General.

She added that “Endo and regional wages are among the key instruments by which government in collaboration with capitalists have kept workers from partaking in the fruits of their labor. Thus the campaign of workers to end endo and abolish regional wages are major struggles of the labor movement at present.”

PM is also condemning the repression of labor strikes that are breaking out as contractual workers demand regularization. The group also denounced the government for the slow action in resolving the killing of union organizer Dennis Sequena last June. The group reiterated its demand that the government allow the International Labor Organization to conduct a High Level Mission to probe the killings of labor activists and the suppression of freedom of association and collective bargaining. ###

Photos of the activity yesterday can be accessed at https://www.facebook.com/partidomanggagawa/posts/10157637737124323?__xts__[0]=68.ARAn6-GMxwARR7qpY1oScEC3ekZbxGpX5IrLSegz0XHYB2CyraT4YSP0hKOdWPClp--TcQdtTe9raovNypx2qx7grv30G_34JfRBD7g1ITPn3sid-1Of2C9XtjX4j7NPaka9Q1sNY0K2IevrDpR52FOSp_KSmyXD6vyUAmc8sj5Ln9VNgKBwAPrfJTsUlaZQxNQXj0iRfmLveuLuSldbgAnCbdxLPZtAGI3p7zuxbNAootVv7Xh2haUKlXTcX61sB8NHDZyMll5x_PjUMnczvMSsTKUyNy40AG4rhJ6RD36eZFwD_qIgTEhDHEK1GWrK-qRaoeappLTVtV7fK7Wq&__tn__=-R   

November 30, 2019

Cigarette workers protest at DOLE today as strike nears

Workers of Philip Morris-Fortune Tobacco Corp. (PMFTC) picketed today the Intramuros office of the Department of Labor and Employment while mediation was ongoing between management and the union. Members of the Philip Morris-Fortune Tobacco Corp. Labor Union (PMFTCLU-NAFLU) and their supporters carried placards that said “Job security not redundancy” and “Welga sagot sa tanggalan.”

The union is set to hold a strike vote in a few days. A strike can then be held seven days after a majority of union members vote yes. Yesterday the union held a general assembly in preparation for the strike vote.

The labor dispute at the leading cigarette manufacturer is part of a rising wave of workers unrest. Scores of notices of strike have been filed and strikes are erupting in various companies. This morning, employees of the big Japanese pharmaceutical firm Takeda Healthcare Philippines in Rockwell, Makati went on strike over a deadlock in collective bargaining negotiations.

The leading cigarette manufacturer shut down its Vigan, Ilocos Sur redrying plant affecting 90 workers and also laid off 220 workers (a third of the 600 workforce) at its Marikina factory early this month. In response the union filed notice of strike last August 9 and immediately started protests.

“The Constitution mandates that workers receive their fair share of the fruits of production. But at PMFTC, retrenchment was the company’s reward for increased labor productivity and workers meeting key performance indicators. What kind of system is this?,” argued Rene Magtubo, chair of Partido Manggagawa and former president of the Marikina union.

This month the Lucio Tan Group announced a P3.63 billion total income for the first quarter of this year. Some P2.35B or 65% of the total income of the Lucio Tan Group came from its tobacco business.

The PMFTCLU is alleging unfair labor practice over the closure and retrenchment. The union slammed the bad faith and deceit attending the so-called right-sizing plan of management. The group believes that union busting is the real agenda as the non-union sister factory in Sto. Tomas, Batangas just regularized 100 contractual employees. In contrast, the Marikina and Vigan plants are both unionized factories.

“Management told the union that the Vigan plant will be closed and sold to another entity. No other details were given. This raises the suspicion that this is another outsourcing program similar to the contractualization scheme at Philippine Airlines,” declared Gerry Rivera, president of the Philippine Airlines Employees Association (PALEA-TUCP) and head of the newly formed Kapatiran ng mga Unyon at Samahang Manggagawa. Both PALEA and PMFTCLU are members of the Kapatiran.

He declared that “We express support for the fight of PMFTCLU for job security and against union busting. Ang laban ng isa ay laban ng lahat.”

“PMFTC management has been absolutely opaque behind the misnamed right-sizing plan. When management first discussed the plan before the union, they withheld the names of workers affected, they did not disclose how the termination process will proceed and finally they did not give any solid basis for the closure and redundancy. And then just hours after the meeting with the union, management unveiled its surprise gift to unsuspecting workers who were cajoled into signing separation without the presence of union officers who barred from entering the factory,” Magtubo elaborated.

Photos of the protests can be accessed at PMFTCLU’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/zpipsamonte/

28 August 2018

Asean is not pro-labor

Asean is now the fastest growing region in the world in terms of creating economic wealth. But the real creators of this wealth, the working class, do not reap the benefit of this growth.

During the past 50 years, serious inequality and democracy problems hound the region with its people plunging under dictatorial regimes, one after another, with some living under military juntas. The region in other words was far from being democratic, not even today. And the region's working class are the victims of dictatorships and authoritarianism.

This is mainly the reason why the trade union movement is one of the weakest in the world. There is in fact one country in Asean that has yet to define its labor laws.

Asean is also home to hundreds of export zones where violations of labor rights are rampant. Likewise, migrant workers, particularly women domestic workers from sending countries are into cheap labor and routinely suffer discriminations at work in receiving countries of Asean and in other parts of the world.

Economically, Asean is divided between rich and poor nations, creating in effect a wide income disparity between people in terms of GDP share per capita. Asean is now home to billionaires, landing the Forbes Magazine's list of World's richest people.

But most, if not all of these billionaires, are being deplored by their workers for violating core labor standards such as workers' rights to security of tenure and freedom of association.

Many people in the region also do not enjoy universal social protections thus, were left to live a life of chronic poverty and therefore vulnerable to shocks.

Fifty years of Asean, therefore, is half a century of sufferings and struggles for the region's working class.

Justice for Asean workers!

29 April 2017

EDSA’s epic fail engendering throwback to dictatorship—youth group

Ahead of the anniversary of the people power uprising, a youth group said that the failed promise of EDSA has laid the fertile ground for the revival of authoritarianism and a revision of history. “As working class millennials—community youth and young workers—we are witness to, nay victims of, the disaster of three decades of EDSA democracy,” declared Ryan Bocacao of PM-Kabataan, the youth wing of the militant Partido Manggagawa.

Tomorrow members of PM-Kabataan together with workers from PM are joining a mass at the La Salle Greenhills sponsored by the AMRSP and iDefend, and then later the rally at the People Power Monument. Meanwhile the PM chapter in Cebu is participating in a multisectoral rally at downtown Gaisano Metro tomorrow afternoon.

Both PM and PM-Kabataan expressed apprehension at the suppression of political dissent with the arrest of Sen. Leila de Lima. “Workers defend civil liberties because political freedom is a necessity in fighting for and winning labor demands,” Bocacao explained.

He added that “To those living in the purgatory of the EDSA democracy, the hell of martial law is little comfort. No surprise then that purveyors of fake news, creative imagination and alternative facts are having a field day. EDSA’s epic fail created a vacuum that is being filled by an authoritarian throwback.”

“Poverty, inequality and injustice have persisted and plagued our country since 1986. True these were a pestilence even during the Marcos dictatorship despite recent attempts to prettify the thingy called martial law. The infamous infrastructure projects of Marcos which keeps popping up on social media were no more than just opportunities to rob the people while pushing generations of Filipinos deep into debt. The plunder of the national treasury and the systematic    human rights violations by the state still have no parallel during the post-EDSA regimes. Abuse of power is necessarily worse under a dictatorial regime which does not have to bother with the niceties of due process, civil liberties, press freedom or a political opposition,” the group insisted.

Bocacao averred that “All those political—and social, we should not forget—contradictions during the 14 years of the Marcos dictatorship finally exploded in that historic event called the people power uprising. While the yearning for democracy was central to EDSA, the cause of social justice—the demand of workers for rights, of peasants for land, of students for reform, among others—was no less a key impetus. Yet under the leadership of the Dilawan, to be exact the elite faction opposed to the Marcos dictatorship, the democracy built after EDSA was only a caricature.”

“The EDSA democracy is a skeleton without flesh. The formality is there but the substance is lacking. Elections are a farce. Instead of an exercise in democracy, it is a rigodon for dynasties and warlords. Regime after regime played deaf to the cry for social justice as globalization dictated by the IMF and WTO was embraced. Cheap labor was used as come on for foreign investors. Farmers buckled under the onslaught of cheap imports. Social services suffered as the national budget was decimated by debt outlays, a big part of which was to pay loans taken out by Marcos. With a bleak future in the country, millions of Filipinos migrated despite all the sacrifices and difficulties,” Bocacao stated.

He ended “Is a return to the past the answer to the misery of the present? We say no, as young Filipinos who wish the best for our country. Is it time to move on instead of celebrate EDSA as the Duterte administration say? We say no, for we believe the real alternative is to level up EDSA. People power is hollow without democratizing power. Empowering the people—providing economic security to the masses and also their participation in policy decisions—will pull the rug from underneath historical revisionists and wannabee dictators.”

Partido Manggagawa-Kabataan

February 24, 2017

EDSA’s epic fail engendering throwback to dictatorship

On the 31^st anniversary of the EDSA uprising, it is time to admit the bitter truth that its failed promise has laid the fertile ground for the revival of authoritarianism and a revision of history. As working class millennials—community youth and young workers—we are witness, nay victims, to the disaster of three decades of EDSA democracy.

Poverty, inequality and injustice have persisted and plagued our country since 1986. True these were a pestilence even during the Marcos dictatorship despite recent attempts to prettify the thingy called martial law. The infamous infrastructure projects of Marcos which keeps popping up on social media were no more than just opportunities to rob the people while pushing generations of Filipinos deep into debt. The plunder of the national treasury and the systematic human rights violations by the state still have no parallel during the post-EDSA regimes. Abuse of power is necessarily worse under a dictatorial regime which does not have to bother with the niceties of due process, civil liberties, press freedom or a political opposition.

All those political—and social, we should not forget—contradictions during the 14 years of the Marcos dictatorship finally exploded in that historic event called the “people power uprising.” While the yearning for democracy was central to EDSA, the cause of social justice—the demand of workers for rights, of peasants for land, of students for reform, among others—was no less a key impetus. Yet under the leadership of the Dilawan, to be exact the elite faction opposed to the Marcos dictatorship, the democracy built after EDSA was only a caricature.

The EDSA democracy is a skeleton without flesh. The formality is there but the substance is lacking. Elections are a farce. Instead of an exercise in democracy, it is a rigodon for dynasties and warlords. Regime after regime played deaf to the cry for social justice as globalization dictated by the IMF and WTO was embraced. Cheap labor was used as come on for foreign investors. Farmers buckled under the onslaught of cheap imports. Social services suffered as the national budget was decimated by debt outlays, a big part of which was to pay loans taken out by Marcos. With a bleak future in the country, millions of Filipinos migrated despite all the sacrifices and difficulties.

To those living in the purgatory of the EDSA democracy, the hell of martial law is little comfort. No surprise then that purveyors of fake news, creative imagination and alternative facts are having a field day. EDSA’s epic fail created a vacuum that is being filled by an authoritarian throwback.

Cory Aquino made agrarian reform a centerpiece program but almost three decades hence, Hacienda Luisita remains controversial and the most fertile lands in Negros and Mindanao are still in the hands of capitalist landlords and multinational companies. Since EDSA’s let-down is plain to see, memes of a Marcos golden age look like fact rather than fiction.

Is a return to the past the answer to the misery of the present? We say no, as young Filipinos who wish the best for our country. Is it time to move on instead of celebrate EDSA as the Duterte administration say? We say no, for we believe the real alternative is to level up EDSA.

People power is hollow without democratizing power. Only a decisive resolution to the demands of workers for decent jobs, of farmers to control of land, of the poor for social protection and of the people for national sovereignty will rid the country of the plaque of destitution and inequity. Empowering the people—providing economic security to the masses and also their participation in policy decisions—will pull the rug from underneath historical revisionists and wannabee dictators.

Partido Manggagawa-Kabataan (PMK)

February 24, 2017

Advisory: “WALK THE TALK” for A LIFE OF DIGNITY FOR ALL

7 December 2016

MEDIA ADVISORY

Buhay na may Dignidad para sa Lahat (DIGNIDAD)

85-B Masikap Street Ext., Barangay Central, Diliman, Quezon City | Tel. # 7097833

 

Requests press coverage of its event on the occasion of HUMAN RIGHTS WEEK

“WALK THE TALK” for A LIFE OF DIGNITY FOR ALL

A community workshop and walk with messages

addressed to the Duterte Administration

 

D E C E M B E R  8, 2016

2:00 - 4:30 PM - WORKSHOP at SAN ROQUE CHAPEL

along Sebastian Street Barangay San Roque (North Triangle), Quezon City

(from Agham Road, across Philippine Science High School, enter the community through

“talipapa” near the tri-bike and tricycle terminal. From there, about 8min. walk to the chapel)

               

4:30 pm - WALK

from the Chapel to Agham Road then to Bantayog ng mga Bayani

 

5 - 5:30 pm - NOISE BARRAGE and CANDLE LIGHTING at Bantayog ng mga Bayani

 

 

Contact: Teody Gacer @ 09297181427; Ana Vitacion @09175584657

 

On the occasion of the International Human Rights Week, DIGNIDAD Coalition will hold on December 8 a community workshop and walk dubbed as “WALK the TALK” to raise people’s awareness on human rights including social and economic rights. It will also highlight people’s calls addressed to the present administration to fulfill these rights.

 

There will be a discussion with about 100 women, men, and youth in the urban poor community in North Triangle. Then participants will breakout to make a poster or any visual representation of their appreciation of human rights (placard, drawing, etc.). By 4:30pm, the workshop participants and other people in the community – carrying their outputs from the workshop (drawing, placard, etc.) – will walk from the chapel going to Agham Road, then to Bantayog ng mga Bayani. The event will culminate with a noise barrage and candle lighting.

 

For Dignidad, the biggest war of the Duterte administration should be the war against poverty and inequality. This war is crucial in eliminating drugs, criminality, and terrorism.  Many believe that his electoral victory is hugely a protest vote by the masses against the Luzon-based oligarchy and incidentally a vote to end chronic poverty, unemployment, and the social injustice stemming from the people’s lack of access to the essential requirements for a humane life. However, the development blueprint of his administration still looks sketchy. Until now, the people have yet to see a clear development program that will address the economic and social ills in the country.

 

Dignidad Coalition is a broad platform composed of 32 grassroots organizations, labor groups and other sectoral coalitions, movement‐based party‐lists and multi‐sectoral issue-based coalitions, church‐based organizations, human rights groups and academics advancing an agenda towards the realization of a life of dignity for all Filipinos. It aims to raise people’s awareness on social and economic rights and to promote programs through the campaign for a Universal, Comprehensive, and Transformative Social Protection and its eight specific demands. These demands are on work and livelihood, social/public services, food, and social security.  Among its members are: Kilos Maralita, WomanHealth, Freedom from Debt Coalition, PATAMABA, KABAPA, Coalition of Services of the Elderly, Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates, NASSA, SENTRO, Partido ng Manggagawa,, Alab Katipunan, ARYA, Kilusan, Rights Network, IRDF, PKMK)

Workers most affected but the richest 1% got all of APEC gains

People walk to Baclaran from NAIA Road (MB Photo by Ali Vicoy)

Lost income, travel ban, road closures and clamp down on protests are all that workers will get this week while APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) VIPs and delegates travel in comfort, ensured of total security, and their agenda heard and advanced during high level meetings.

 

According to the partylist group Partido Manggagaw (PM), this contrast is a mere continuity of the sharp divide that characterizes APEC history – “workers doing the great sacrifice while APEC leaders and the capitalist class take control of enormous wealth and appropriating it among themselves and the region’s 1%.”

 

Members of Partido Manggagawa and the Philippine Airlines Employees Association (PALEA) have a scheduled protest against the scourge of contractualization along the Airport Road and Roxas boulevard tomorrow but the total shutdown of the area is preventing many participants, including those coming from Cavite, from linking in.

 

“APEC will neither pay for workers’s lost wages nor care about their lost hours in traffic.  APEC also won’t bother curtailing workers’ rights to protest. These are all because APEC is all for business, its agenda is all about free trade and free market,” stated PM chair Renato Magtubo.

 

Magtubo said that for almost three decades, APEC was nothing but an exclusive gathering of business leaders whose agenda for trade and investments are guaranteed by aligning governments’ legal frameworks on economic policies. 

 

“Workers who created APEC’s USD 31 trillion GDP and facilitated 47% of world trade have never been made part of this Summit.  All of APEC’s agenda come from the top CEOs under the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC),” said Magtubo.

 

According to PM, part of APEC policies that have been pushed by business is labor flexibilization that takes a major form in outsourcing/contractualization programs.  “PAL’s outsourcing program is hailed by its bosses, as well as the Philippine President, as ‘global best practice’, indicating a major shift in the country’s industrial relation,” added Magtubo.

 

“Worldwide labor contractualization has become a plague – a policy that killed trade unionism, destroyed workers’ security of tenure, depressed wages, killed small and medium businesses, and driven millions of workers to unemployment and precarious working conditions in the informal economy,” explained Magtubo.

 

With a population of 2.8 billion people, the APEC economies are also home to the most number of billionaires, while some 750 million poor people live on less than USD 1.25 a day.

 

The Asian Development Bank has in fact noted that Asia’s rising inequality has denied the benefits of growth to many millions of its citizens “as the regions rich get richer much faster than the poor.”

16 November 2015

Group slams P13 wage hike in Metro Cebu as starvation wage

Press Release

September 16, 2015

The militant Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) slammed the P13 wage hike for workers in Metro Cebu and called it “starvation wage.” Last week the Region 7 Regional Tripartite and Productivity Board announced the salary increase that excluded workers in the region outside of Metro Cebu.

“The wage board must be joking if it thinks it can dupe workers with an exclusionary and measly pay increase. It is an insult to the groups ALU and Living Wage Coalition which petitioned for P92 and P145 wage increases respectively,” insisted Dennis Derige, PM-Cebu spokesperson.

PM is calling on ALU and the Living Wage Coalition to jointly campaign in protest at the wage board decision and rejection of their wage petitions. The campaign should pressure the National Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board which has to approve the Region 7 wage board decision.

Derige argued that “Did the workers in the rest of Cebu province and Bohol not also suffer from erosion of purchasing power? Don’t they have the same difficulties as workers in Metro Cebu in feeding their families and sending their children to school due to inflation? The wage board’s reason for granting a salary increase in Metro Cebu also holds for all workers in the region.”

“PM’s own study shows that the cost of living in Metro Cebu is around P1,000 for a family of five and yet the new minimum wage adds up to only P353, which will not even buy half of the basket of goods and services,” Derige said.

PM proposes the abolition of the wage boards and their replacement by a Wage Commission. “The mandate of the National Wage Commission will be to fix wages based on the single criterion of cost of living. This is different from the wage boards which are bogged down by convoluted and contradictory 10-point criteria in fixing wages. The Wage Commission should raise the minimum wage to the level of the living wage by a mix of mechanisms such as direct pay increases, tax exemptions, price discounts and social security subsidies for workers,” Derige stated.

He assailed the argument of the wage board that wages outside of Metro Cebu are already too high in comparison to other cities and regions. “Wages in Region 7 are not too high but salaries in other areas are too low. The solution is not to freeze wages outside of Metro Cebu but to provide generous salary hikes to workers in other regions,” he averred.

Derige continued that “This is the ugly reality of inequality in our country. The Philippines is one of the fastest growing economies in Asia yet only a few, the capitalist class, is benefiting from the increased wealth created by the working people. The assets of the ten richest Filipinos amount to some US$50 billion, which is equivalent to the yearly wages of 20 million minimum wage earners.”

Inequality, jobless growth are PNoy’s legacies—labor group

Press Release

July 27, 2015

With President Benigno Aquino III expected to dwell on his legacies in today’s SONA, the labor party Partido Manggagawa (PM) insisted that worsening inequality and jobless growth are the enduring legacies of his administration.

“Walang naituwid at walang naitawid si PNoy sa kanyang panunungkulan. Economic growth has not tricked down to the masses as unemployment, poverty, contractualization, low wages and lackluster social services persist. Worse, GDP growth has been monopolized by big capitalists as the wealth of the richest 50 Filipinos has ballooned in the last few years thus the chasm between rich and poor swelled even more,” explained Rene Magtubo, PM national chair.

Hundreds of PM members joined the SONA protest launched by the labor coalition Nagkaisa and various multisectoral groups. Ahead of the main afternoon counter-SONA rally, some 50 members of PM-Kabataan, its PM’s youth organization, held a flash mob in front of the TUCP/PGEA compound to dramatize the sorry state of the youth. Other PM-Kabataan members held giant placards that spelled the message: “5 Taon ni PNoy: Kabataan NGA-NGA!” Counter-SONA protests were also held by PM chapters in Cebu at downtown Colon and in Davao in front of the city hall.

Magtubo added that “Even as PNoy focuses on his unique achievements in his SONA, his administration is essentially no different from past regimes in sacrificing the workers and the poor in the altar of globalization. The state of the workers is best illustrated by the industrial tragedy at Kentex and the plight of OFW Mary Jane Veloso. Sweatshops and cheap labor are the norm not just in Valenzuela but everywhere. No wonder, Filipinos choose to go abroad in a futile search for greener pastures, only to fall victim to criminal syndicates, abusive employers and lack of labor rights and social protection in other countries.”

PM’s Magtubo averred that Aquino’s good governance record is at best spotty, as many critics have pointed out that the so-called anti-corruption campaign has only targeted well-known opposition leaders. The group also argues that poverty reduction is dependent on the massive funds allocated to the nationwide dole out program of CCT that remains hobbled by patronage system at the ground. Finally PM also claims that a big chunk of the jobs generated under Aquino is mainly due to the emergency work program.

“By itself, dispensing emergency work is positive but ours pales in comparison to similar programs in other countries. In the Philippines, emergency work in the form of DOLE’s TUPAD lasts only for 15 days for every year while in India, the law called NREGA guarantees 100 days of wage employment for every rural family annually,” Magtubo described.

P700/plate for SONA merienda highlights persisting inequality in the country

News Release
July 23, 2015

The menu for merienda and the cost per plate is out in the news.  It’s P700 per plate for 2,750 guests. So perhaps the last State of the Nation Address (SONA) of President Aquino is best graded according to this practical subject, the labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) said in a statement.

PM is one of the many groups joining the anti-Sona protests on Monday.

According to PM, food is a good benchmark in measuring poverty and inequality and therefore is a solid indicator on whether inclusive growth had been achieved by the Aquino administration.  Food makes up more than 50% of household expenditure.  And many Filipinos are considered as “food poor.”

In the first semester of 2014, the monthly average food threshold for a family of five is estimated at PhP6,125 and a total of PhP8,778 to cover the non-food requirements.   In other words, a poor family needs at least PhP204 per day or PhP41 per capita to meet their food requirements alone.  Poverty incidence (the measure of population who cannot meet their food and non-food requirements) among Filipinos during this period was estimated at 25.8%, according to the Philippine Statistics authority.

“For lawmakers and VIP guests, the SONA menu for merienda may look ordinary or even cheap. But for a jobless person and for the many families living in subsistence level, a P700/plate merienda made of black angus and shrimp rolls, among others, is lavishly alienating and, of course, insulting,” said PM Chair Renato Magtubo.

This is just for the government side alone, said the group.  The country's Richest 50 got the biggest and juiciest slice of our GDP.

Magtubo, who is a former partylist representative, said workers in sweatshops who earn P200 a day, like in the case of Kentex, can squeeze that PhP700 for a week’s survival.  It can also cover a life liner’s monthly electricity bill of 70 kWh, or at least 25 day of crushing MRT ride.

He added that there are many other issues that can be raised against the failure of the Aquino administration to address the fundamental problems that really block the road towards inclusiveness.  But there is no more time to argue these things in the remaining last two minutes of his term.

“At least here in the P700/plate merienda, the persisting inequality in Philippine society is best understood.  And it will be good for the people to know that for those who will be inside the Batasan Complex on Monday, fine dining is most memorable than listening to PNoy’s last SONA,” concluded Magtubo. ###

No dialogue with PNoy on May 1 – labor coalition

NEWS RELEASE

NAGKAISA!

27 April 2015

President Aquino has failed the workers during the last five years and nothing more can be expected from the remaining 14 months in office for this administration.  For this reason, Nagkaisa, the country’s largest coalition of trade union federations and labor organizations, is terminating its regular dialogue with the President being done every Labor Day since 2012.

“No more breakfast or luncheon meeting with the President this coming May 1. The last three years of engagement satisfied the form but produced no substance,” declared Nagkaisa in a press conference held Monday in Manila. 

On Labor Day the group will rather concentrate all its forces for the big March to Malacanang to seek justice for the 40 million workers whose fight for jobs and job security, living wage, trade union rights and decent working and living conditions remain unheeded.  A cry for justice, which they say, will extend until the next regimes.

Women leaders who composed Nagkaisa’s main panel for the press conference shared the group’s general assessment of the Aquino administration that was held the other day and declared “walang naituwid at walang naitawid” during PNoy’s five years in office.

Open doors but close minds

Nagkaisa said that since 2012, the group has sincerely pursued dialogues with the Palace, hoping that issues brought directly to the President might speed up the resolution of age-old problems besetting labor. 

“We have proven otherwise that while the Palace doors are open for dialogue, the people in power inside maintains a close mind with regard to proposed changes on policies being pursued by labor,” explained the group.

These include Nagkaisa’s demand for the President to certify as urgent the Security of Tenure bill to address the plague of contractualization that destroys job security and union rights. 

The Palace played deaf on this demand while maintaining a ‘kid gloves’ policy in dealing with big companies as well as the proliferation of manpower agencies and cooperatives involved in outsourcing and labor-only contracting activities.

Starvation wages

The government has also failed to raise workers’ wages from the barest minimum despite record growth in the economy.

“The combined wealth of the country’s richest businessmen has grown by ten-fold yet workers’ wages remained at starvation levels,” said Nagkaisa.

The real value of the NCR minimum wage of P466 is P354 only while a family of five need more than a thousand pesos living wage to enjoy a decent life.

Nagkaisa likewise demanded a reduction in power rates with concrete proposals on how to do it.  But Malacanang stood powerless in the face of private power. Had the Supreme Court not issued a TRO for the P4/kWh spike in prices last year, the Philippines could have stolen the record of having the highest electricity rates in the world.

City lands for developers

The Aquino government has adopted a program for socialized housing that entertains housing projects through a “people’s proposal”.  But Nagkaisa said the program is very selective and limited while most of city lands were appropriated not for socialized housing but for the real estate business of giant land developers.

Urban development are not for the urban poor but virtually a fight between the Ayalas, Henry Sy, Lucio Tan, Gokongwei, Andrew Tan, Consunji, George Ty and Manny Villar.

Mary Jane

According to Nagkaisa, the sad fate of Mary Jane Veloso represents an individual tragedy resulting from the country’s chronic unemployment problem. 

“Her story is an added statistics to the long list of OFWs who braved the challenges of foreign lands in search for jobs but suffered tragic ends either from the cruel hands of employers or from the treacherous hands of organized syndicates or get caught in between wars of conflict,” said Nagkaisa.

There is no dramatic change in the unemployment rate under PNoy, said Nagkaisa. In fact, the unemployment rate of 7.5% in 2014 is higher than the unemployment rates of 5.2% in 1976, 6.7% in 1986, and 7.3% when PNoy assumed office in 2010.

Unemployment is also highest among youth (52% in SWS survey) while participation rate of women in the labor force remained flat for half of its population of 15 years and above.

Poor state, high prices of goods and services

Besides problems of unemployment and precarious working conditions, the poor state and high prices of basic goods and services such as power and water, transportation, healthcare and education weigh heavily on the lives of millions of workers.

And in the face of this generalized condition of the toiling masses, Nagkaisa said the only thing the Aquino administration can do for the workers is to mobilize its powers in organizing nationwide job fairs on Labor Day.