Several
thousand workers are marching in key cities tomorrow to commemorate Bonifacio
Day, demand a ban on contractualization and protest the hero’s burial of
Marcos. Meanwhile the militant Partido Manggagawa (PM) today slammed the
Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) for a statement that foreign firms will
pull out if contractualization is banned.
“The DTI is
just parroting the usual capitalist blackmail when workers make demands that
dent their profit. Firms, foreign or local, want contractualization because it
is a way to cheapen labor costs by denying them job security and the
opportunity to unionize and bargain for better wages and benefits,” argued Rene
Magtubo, PM national chair.
The
nationwide Bonifacio Day rallies by the labor coalition Nagkaisa are billed as
a “National Day of Action Vs. Endo.” PM together with other labor groups are
rejecting the so-called “win-win” solution on contractualization and pushing
for “end endo” formula of prohibition of subcontracting of regular jobs.
“The
misnamed win-win scheme of the employers and DTI will not end endo. It is a scam
that will lead to the utter proliferation of outsourcing and contracting out of
regular jobs by the principal employers,” explained Magtubo.
Member
groups of Nagkaisa will assemble tomorrow 8:00 a.m. at the Welcome Rotonda and
then march to Morayta where it will hold a program. Militant workers will then
join advocacy groups for another rally around noon at Mendiola to register
labor’s condemnation of the surprise hero’s burial for Marcos.
To express
labor’s twin demands tomorrow, PM is highlighting the slogan “Ilibing ang
kontraktwalisasyon hindi ang kasalanan ni Marcos.” Magtubo averred that
“Students have already made their stand known. Tomorrow workers will voice out
their position on the burning issues of our country.”
PM and
Nagkaisa are also holding mobilizations in key cities tomorrow. In Cebu City,
workers will march from downtown Colon to Plaza Independencia. Industrial and
sugar workers are going to rally at the Bacolod marker Araneta. In Davao City
tomorrow, workers are marching from the Freedom Park to the Bonifacio Monument.
PM also expressed doubt on the announcement the Department of
Labor and Employment (DOLE) that 25,000 contractual workers have been made
regular. Instead PM revealed that the DOLE has not been able to enforce
regularization of workers in numerous instances. The militant group said that
there is a Japanese-owned electronics factory in the Cavite ecozone that has
refused to regularize hundreds of its agency workers despite an order from the
DOLE. It cited the case of the PALEA 600 who have not been reinstated by
Philippine Airlines as regular workers despite a settlement agreement that
provides for it. Finally PM also pointed out the case of 149 Pizza Hut
contractual workers who were retrenched when they sought regularization but
have been reinstated only as agency workers. “It seems that the news of 25,000
newly regularized workers is fake similar to posts in Mocha Uson's
controversial blog,” Magtubo said.
November 29, 2015
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