Press Release
January 19, 2010
In probably the first time for the call center industry, a group of employees launched a mass action in protest at violations of their company ranging from delayed salaries to illegal suspension of workers. “The call center business is called a sunshine industry but why are we working in conditions resembling the Dark Ages,” asserted Junnie Montag, an employee at BTS Staff for Less Philippines.
The BTS workers held a press conference today at the office of the Partido ng Manggagawa in Mandaue City. After the press conference, the call center employees proceeded to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) office in Cebu City to file a complaint.
Montag said that “We have brought our plight to the attention of the public and the DOLE after a series of complaints and petitions to the management brought no results. Christmas has come and gone but we have yet to receive our December salaries and 13th month pay.”
The call center workers are alleging that aside from delayed wages, BTS has not been remitting deductions for SSS, Philhealth and Pag-ibig, and has not forwarded their tax refunds for two years running.
Last week the aggrieved employees found out that BTS is not registered with the DOLE and neither is the apprenticeship program enlisted with both the DOLE and TESDA as required by law. “BTS is guilty of theft of our wages and benefits,” insisted Montag.
Finally the workers are complaining of the company practice of suspending for 10 days, without due process, employees who have not met the target quota of calls. “We explain to management the reason for not reaching the quota but our arguments fall on deaf ears. The problem lies not in the performance of the employees but in system trouble and the lackluster market,” argued Montag.
BTS is a three-year old company located at Datag, Barangay Maribago, Lapu-Lapu City and handles accounts for insurance policies from abroad and also local companies like Smart. There are around 200 employees but only 60 are regular and the rest are apprentices.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Solidarity message to the RSP Conference
The Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) salutes the Revolutionary Socialist Party of Australia in its Marxist Education Conference for 2010. A conference to assess, enrich and deploy Marxist ideas to the situation of the world in the 21st century is utterly relevant at the beginning of this new decade.
It is worthwhile remembering now the words of Ka Popoy Lagman, whose brainchild is the establishment of PM as an independent working class party in the Philippines, back in the early days of year 2000. He wrote: “The first decade of the new millennium will be the eve of the socialist revolution in the era of Globalization.”
Looking back over the course of the last decade, it is striking how truly prescient Ka Popoy’s words were. They were borne out in the upsurge of anti-globalization struggles around the world that among others stymied the advance of the corporate project for the WTO, and in the outbreak of the Bolivarian revolution and its extension all across Latin America.
Now as we step into the second decade of the new millennium, the call for a new international amidst the greatest capitalist crisis in a century and the threat of global climate change frames the challenges for the working class and socialist parties and movements of the world.
The need for global solidarity among the working class and socialist groups in different countries rings ever truer now. More than ever it is indispensable to present an alternative to the imperialist and corporate globalization and a solution to the problem of economic recession and climate change.
Despite the vicissitudes of the struggle that confront the various groups—for we also faced similar organizational issues that in Australia led to the founding of the RSP—the task of consolidation is necessary in order to take advantage of the opportunities presented by the developing situation. A Marxist education conference then should keep working class and socialist activists’ feet on the ground as we reach for higher stages in the maturing class struggles of the 21st century.
Partido ng Manggagawa National Executive Committee
It is worthwhile remembering now the words of Ka Popoy Lagman, whose brainchild is the establishment of PM as an independent working class party in the Philippines, back in the early days of year 2000. He wrote: “The first decade of the new millennium will be the eve of the socialist revolution in the era of Globalization.”
Looking back over the course of the last decade, it is striking how truly prescient Ka Popoy’s words were. They were borne out in the upsurge of anti-globalization struggles around the world that among others stymied the advance of the corporate project for the WTO, and in the outbreak of the Bolivarian revolution and its extension all across Latin America.
Now as we step into the second decade of the new millennium, the call for a new international amidst the greatest capitalist crisis in a century and the threat of global climate change frames the challenges for the working class and socialist parties and movements of the world.
The need for global solidarity among the working class and socialist groups in different countries rings ever truer now. More than ever it is indispensable to present an alternative to the imperialist and corporate globalization and a solution to the problem of economic recession and climate change.
Despite the vicissitudes of the struggle that confront the various groups—for we also faced similar organizational issues that in Australia led to the founding of the RSP—the task of consolidation is necessary in order to take advantage of the opportunities presented by the developing situation. A Marxist education conference then should keep working class and socialist activists’ feet on the ground as we reach for higher stages in the maturing class struggles of the 21st century.
Partido ng Manggagawa National Executive Committee
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Justice for the Victims of the Maguindanao Massacre, Break the Warlord Clans, Dismantle the Elite System
The Partido ng Manggagawa condemns in the strongest terms the massacre of more than 50 people in Maguindanao, including 18 media workers and two government employees, by the private army of a local warlord. We condole too with the families of the victims who apparently are the collateral damage in a deadly game of political rivalry between two prominent political clans.
The date of November 23 will now live in infamy as arguably the single bloodiest day in history for media workers. The brazenness of the atrocity absolutely highlights the rule of impunity by warlord political clans in the rural hinterlands.
These modern-day political lords govern over these poor provinces and towns like the fiefdoms of old times. Yet these warlords survive only with the tolerance, nay connivance of the national government in Manila. The corrupt regime in Malacanang and the warlord clans feed off each other in a symbiotic relationship to preserve a rotten social system that oppresses the people, especially the poor.
The political debt of the administration of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to the Ampatuan clan, the principal suspect in the massacre, is common knowledge. In the fraudulent elections of 2004, the Ampatuans delivered an incredible plurality of ballots for Arroyo in Maguindanao to the point where in one town her electoral rivals received no votes. What is less acknowledged is the role played by the armed forces in propping up the warlord rule of the Ampatuans in the guise of battling the Muslim insurgents in Mindanao. The cache of high-powered arms uncovered in the property of the Ampatuans reveal the cozy association between the military and the warlords which can only happen with the blessing of Malacanang.
Justice for the victims of the Maguindanao massacre begins but does not end with bringing the full force of the law on the mastermind (who happens to be the heir apparent to the Ampatuan patriarch), dismantling the private army of the warlord clan and breaking their political stranglehold on the province and towns. But smashing the Ampatuan clan only for it to be replaced by their political rivals would be Pyrrhic victory for the victims of the Maguindanao massacre.
Genuine justice for the victims of the Maguindanao massacre goes beyond destroying the warlord clans and political dynasties such as the Ampatuans and Arroyos. The social and economic basis for the existence of the warlord clans and political dynasties must also be broken up. If not, tearing down one dynasty only to pave the way for a new clan, would be a labor of Sisyphus. The sacrifice of the Maguindanao massacre victims would not have been for nothing if it leads to a fundamental rethinking and radical restructuring of Philippine politics and society.
A real not just formal democracy is the antidote to the virus of warlord domination and elite rule in Philippine politics. A real democracy rests on extending the concept and practice from politics and elections to economics and society.
Elections—however clean, honest and automated it may be—in present society are mere exercises for the people to choose their oppressors. No worker can ever be president in electoral campaigns costing billions to wage. Still real democracy means not just a level playing field between the rich and poor in elections—which is an illusion under a society split between an elite minority and an impoverished mass.
Democracy must be revolutionized by the direct participation of people in the administration of things. Direct not representative democracy is the real exercise of the rule of the people.
The date of November 23 will now live in infamy as arguably the single bloodiest day in history for media workers. The brazenness of the atrocity absolutely highlights the rule of impunity by warlord political clans in the rural hinterlands.
These modern-day political lords govern over these poor provinces and towns like the fiefdoms of old times. Yet these warlords survive only with the tolerance, nay connivance of the national government in Manila. The corrupt regime in Malacanang and the warlord clans feed off each other in a symbiotic relationship to preserve a rotten social system that oppresses the people, especially the poor.
The political debt of the administration of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to the Ampatuan clan, the principal suspect in the massacre, is common knowledge. In the fraudulent elections of 2004, the Ampatuans delivered an incredible plurality of ballots for Arroyo in Maguindanao to the point where in one town her electoral rivals received no votes. What is less acknowledged is the role played by the armed forces in propping up the warlord rule of the Ampatuans in the guise of battling the Muslim insurgents in Mindanao. The cache of high-powered arms uncovered in the property of the Ampatuans reveal the cozy association between the military and the warlords which can only happen with the blessing of Malacanang.
Justice for the victims of the Maguindanao massacre begins but does not end with bringing the full force of the law on the mastermind (who happens to be the heir apparent to the Ampatuan patriarch), dismantling the private army of the warlord clan and breaking their political stranglehold on the province and towns. But smashing the Ampatuan clan only for it to be replaced by their political rivals would be Pyrrhic victory for the victims of the Maguindanao massacre.
Genuine justice for the victims of the Maguindanao massacre goes beyond destroying the warlord clans and political dynasties such as the Ampatuans and Arroyos. The social and economic basis for the existence of the warlord clans and political dynasties must also be broken up. If not, tearing down one dynasty only to pave the way for a new clan, would be a labor of Sisyphus. The sacrifice of the Maguindanao massacre victims would not have been for nothing if it leads to a fundamental rethinking and radical restructuring of Philippine politics and society.
A real not just formal democracy is the antidote to the virus of warlord domination and elite rule in Philippine politics. A real democracy rests on extending the concept and practice from politics and elections to economics and society.
Elections—however clean, honest and automated it may be—in present society are mere exercises for the people to choose their oppressors. No worker can ever be president in electoral campaigns costing billions to wage. Still real democracy means not just a level playing field between the rich and poor in elections—which is an illusion under a society split between an elite minority and an impoverished mass.
Democracy must be revolutionized by the direct participation of people in the administration of things. Direct not representative democracy is the real exercise of the rule of the people.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Workers in 2009: Refusing to Pay the Price of a Crisis Not of Their Own Making
December 30, 2009
The Situation and Struggle of Workers in 2009
The global economic crisis has brought the Philippine economy to the brink of recession. At the onset of the global crisis late last year, the government of Gloria Arroyo initially took the stance that the local economy will be insulated. But despite being in denial and whistling in the dark, the signs are clear of an economy teetering in recession.
There are historic declines in manufacturing and trade. The seasonally adjusted agriculture, fishery and forestry sector contracted by 1.0 percent in the first quarter of 2009 after expanding by 0.9 per cent in the last quarter of 2008. Industry registered its lowest growth for the last twenty years as it sank by 6.6 percent from a 0.1 percent gain in the last quarter.
Even the services sector posted no growth for the first quarter of 2009 compared to 0.2 percent recorded the previous quarter. Investments in fixed capital formation in the first quarter of 2009 plunged to negative 5.7 percent from a growth of 3.0 percent in the same period last year. Investments in durable equipment dropped to negative 17.9 percent from a growth of 9.6 percent a year ago. Total exports dived deeper to negative 18.2 percent from negative 7.7 percent last year. Total imports valued at P530.9 billion pesos at current prices exceeded total exports valued at P528.6 billion pesos, resulting in a trade deficit of P2.3 billion pesos.
The global economic crisis and the slowdown in the local economy had a grave impact on the lives and livelihood of workers in the Philippines. Job losses, mainly in the export sector of the economy, are worsening the unemployment and underemployment rate.
The adult unemployment is more than 20%, the highest since 2005, according to the Social Weather Station survey last June. Some 40,000 workers were laid off since October last year according to the conservative data of the DOLE. At least 120,000 workers affected by layoffs, job-rotation and wage cuts according to the DOLE.
Big multinational firms based in the Philippines have shutdown in the space of one year. The prestigious Intel plant in Cavite closed in December 2008. The German-owned undergarments firms Triumph and Star Performance in Taguig closed this August, laying off 1,600 workers. The Canadian-owned electronics factory Celestica in Cebu also shutdown in August, displacing 900 workers. Meanwhile in September a Taiwanese-owned conglomerate of garments firms called Sports City that produces for world-famous brands Adidas and Reebok retrenched 1,000 workers in Cebu.
Employers are passing the burden of the crisis on the backs of the workers. Capitalists are using the global crisis as an excuse to demolish workers rights and undercut labor standards. Several high profile cases highlight the trend.
Up to 400 retrenched workers of Maitland-Smith Cebu, Inc. have filed cases of illegal retrenchment. Some 1,700 workers produce high-end home furniture and accessories in the Mactan Economic Zone in Lapu-Lapu, Cebu. Its mother company is Maitland-Smith, headquartered in High Point, North Carolina.
Over 200 laid off workers of Lear Automotive have filed cases. Located also in the Mactan Economic Zone, it is an American company that exports electronics parts for cars. The remaining 11,000 workers suffer from reduced workdays.
Some 15 retrenched workers have filed cases against Taiyo Yuden Philippines Inc. It is a Japanese subsidiary that produces spare parts for cellular phones in the Mactan Economic Zone. The remaining 8,000 workers are on reduced workdays.
The workers are refusing to pay the price of a crisis that is not of their own making. Labor unrest is brewing as capitalists attack jobs, wages and working conditions. Although the revival in workers struggle is uneven, the return to militant struggle is taking shape. At the forefront of the new struggles are the workers of Metro Cebu.
The first workers strike against mass layoffs erupted last February in a furniture export firm in Mandaue, an industrial town in Metro Cebu. Hundreds of workers of Giardini del Sole went on strike for two days and paralyzed operations of the company by physically preventing the passage of personnel and goods. Even though illegal, the government vacillated in enforcing the law because of worker militancy and public support.
In April the first ever rally was held inside the Mactan Economic Zone in its decades-long existence. Around 70 workers of Sauna World Inc., a Finnish-owned firm producing sauna and spa heaters for export, marched from their factory to the gates of the export zone.
Last June the first picket line was setup on the gates of the Mactan Economic Zone by the workers of Paul Yu Industrial Corp., one of the biggest factories in the zone that produces lamp shades for export. More than 300 workers went on a month-long work stoppage in protest at the suspension of seven leaders of their workers association. The bitter labor dispute marked the definitive end of the era of the zone as a haven for docile labor where employers can ride roughshod over workers rights and labor standards without provoking a militant response from the workers.
By September of this year the labor unrest had transformed into a revival of unionism at the Mactan Economic Zone. The export zone was so repressive that even the moderate TUCP was complaining against its no-union policy. The workers of Altamode Inc., which makes clothes for the American firm Abercrombie & Fitch, successfully formed a union though they lost the certification elections due to management interference in the workers’ exercise of the freedom to organize and the DOLE’s indifference to the unfair labor practice of the company. Yet unlike previous attempts at failed union building which always ended in the termination of union officers and members, in this case the unionists were able to regain work and thus the struggle continues.
The Situation and Struggle of Workers in 2009
The global economic crisis has brought the Philippine economy to the brink of recession. At the onset of the global crisis late last year, the government of Gloria Arroyo initially took the stance that the local economy will be insulated. But despite being in denial and whistling in the dark, the signs are clear of an economy teetering in recession.
There are historic declines in manufacturing and trade. The seasonally adjusted agriculture, fishery and forestry sector contracted by 1.0 percent in the first quarter of 2009 after expanding by 0.9 per cent in the last quarter of 2008. Industry registered its lowest growth for the last twenty years as it sank by 6.6 percent from a 0.1 percent gain in the last quarter.
Even the services sector posted no growth for the first quarter of 2009 compared to 0.2 percent recorded the previous quarter. Investments in fixed capital formation in the first quarter of 2009 plunged to negative 5.7 percent from a growth of 3.0 percent in the same period last year. Investments in durable equipment dropped to negative 17.9 percent from a growth of 9.6 percent a year ago. Total exports dived deeper to negative 18.2 percent from negative 7.7 percent last year. Total imports valued at P530.9 billion pesos at current prices exceeded total exports valued at P528.6 billion pesos, resulting in a trade deficit of P2.3 billion pesos.
The global economic crisis and the slowdown in the local economy had a grave impact on the lives and livelihood of workers in the Philippines. Job losses, mainly in the export sector of the economy, are worsening the unemployment and underemployment rate.
The adult unemployment is more than 20%, the highest since 2005, according to the Social Weather Station survey last June. Some 40,000 workers were laid off since October last year according to the conservative data of the DOLE. At least 120,000 workers affected by layoffs, job-rotation and wage cuts according to the DOLE.
Big multinational firms based in the Philippines have shutdown in the space of one year. The prestigious Intel plant in Cavite closed in December 2008. The German-owned undergarments firms Triumph and Star Performance in Taguig closed this August, laying off 1,600 workers. The Canadian-owned electronics factory Celestica in Cebu also shutdown in August, displacing 900 workers. Meanwhile in September a Taiwanese-owned conglomerate of garments firms called Sports City that produces for world-famous brands Adidas and Reebok retrenched 1,000 workers in Cebu.
Employers are passing the burden of the crisis on the backs of the workers. Capitalists are using the global crisis as an excuse to demolish workers rights and undercut labor standards. Several high profile cases highlight the trend.
Up to 400 retrenched workers of Maitland-Smith Cebu, Inc. have filed cases of illegal retrenchment. Some 1,700 workers produce high-end home furniture and accessories in the Mactan Economic Zone in Lapu-Lapu, Cebu. Its mother company is Maitland-Smith, headquartered in High Point, North Carolina.
Over 200 laid off workers of Lear Automotive have filed cases. Located also in the Mactan Economic Zone, it is an American company that exports electronics parts for cars. The remaining 11,000 workers suffer from reduced workdays.
Some 15 retrenched workers have filed cases against Taiyo Yuden Philippines Inc. It is a Japanese subsidiary that produces spare parts for cellular phones in the Mactan Economic Zone. The remaining 8,000 workers are on reduced workdays.
The workers are refusing to pay the price of a crisis that is not of their own making. Labor unrest is brewing as capitalists attack jobs, wages and working conditions. Although the revival in workers struggle is uneven, the return to militant struggle is taking shape. At the forefront of the new struggles are the workers of Metro Cebu.
The first workers strike against mass layoffs erupted last February in a furniture export firm in Mandaue, an industrial town in Metro Cebu. Hundreds of workers of Giardini del Sole went on strike for two days and paralyzed operations of the company by physically preventing the passage of personnel and goods. Even though illegal, the government vacillated in enforcing the law because of worker militancy and public support.
In April the first ever rally was held inside the Mactan Economic Zone in its decades-long existence. Around 70 workers of Sauna World Inc., a Finnish-owned firm producing sauna and spa heaters for export, marched from their factory to the gates of the export zone.
Last June the first picket line was setup on the gates of the Mactan Economic Zone by the workers of Paul Yu Industrial Corp., one of the biggest factories in the zone that produces lamp shades for export. More than 300 workers went on a month-long work stoppage in protest at the suspension of seven leaders of their workers association. The bitter labor dispute marked the definitive end of the era of the zone as a haven for docile labor where employers can ride roughshod over workers rights and labor standards without provoking a militant response from the workers.
By September of this year the labor unrest had transformed into a revival of unionism at the Mactan Economic Zone. The export zone was so repressive that even the moderate TUCP was complaining against its no-union policy. The workers of Altamode Inc., which makes clothes for the American firm Abercrombie & Fitch, successfully formed a union though they lost the certification elections due to management interference in the workers’ exercise of the freedom to organize and the DOLE’s indifference to the unfair labor practice of the company. Yet unlike previous attempts at failed union building which always ended in the termination of union officers and members, in this case the unionists were able to regain work and thus the struggle continues.
Monday, December 28, 2009
Party-list group pickets Comelec against disqualification of Danny Lim
Press Release
December 28, 2009
The labor party-list group Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) joined other supporters of Danny Lim in a rally in front of the Comelec main office today. PM and other groups are protesting the Comelec’s disqualification of senatorial candidate Danny Lim.
“We ask the Comelec to reconsider its decision since it is simply not true that Danny Lim is a nuisance candidate. Gloria Arroyo is more of a nuisance candidate than Danny Lim if we base it on public opinion,” asserted Judy Ann Miranda, secretary-general of PM, one the groups that have openly endorsed and are supporting the rebel general’s electoral bid.
Members of PM trooped to the Intramuros, Manila office of the Comelec at 8 am for the rally. “Danny Lim is not a decoration in this election; he is instead a decorated officer. While Danny Lim is not a candidate of the elite, he is the leader of the elite group of the armed forces,” argued Miranda.
The labor group is appealing to the Comelec to give due recognition to Lim’s motion for reconsideration and reverse its decision “lest the poll body be charged of politically motivated decisions and being an apparatus of the GMA regime in suppressing its political enemies.”
Miranda added that “Danny Lim is not adopting to trapo politics that is why he ran as an independent, and he is being adopted the mass movement and the forces fighting for social change.”
PM was one of the several national groups that accompanied Lim when he filed his certificate of candidacy last November 27. The labor group also filed on the same day its manifestation to participate in the party-list elections.
December 28, 2009
The labor party-list group Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) joined other supporters of Danny Lim in a rally in front of the Comelec main office today. PM and other groups are protesting the Comelec’s disqualification of senatorial candidate Danny Lim.
“We ask the Comelec to reconsider its decision since it is simply not true that Danny Lim is a nuisance candidate. Gloria Arroyo is more of a nuisance candidate than Danny Lim if we base it on public opinion,” asserted Judy Ann Miranda, secretary-general of PM, one the groups that have openly endorsed and are supporting the rebel general’s electoral bid.
Members of PM trooped to the Intramuros, Manila office of the Comelec at 8 am for the rally. “Danny Lim is not a decoration in this election; he is instead a decorated officer. While Danny Lim is not a candidate of the elite, he is the leader of the elite group of the armed forces,” argued Miranda.
The labor group is appealing to the Comelec to give due recognition to Lim’s motion for reconsideration and reverse its decision “lest the poll body be charged of politically motivated decisions and being an apparatus of the GMA regime in suppressing its political enemies.”
Miranda added that “Danny Lim is not adopting to trapo politics that is why he ran as an independent, and he is being adopted the mass movement and the forces fighting for social change.”
PM was one of the several national groups that accompanied Lim when he filed his certificate of candidacy last November 27. The labor group also filed on the same day its manifestation to participate in the party-list elections.
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