The Church-Labor Conference (CLC) comprised of
different labor and church groups joined the protest action on National Heroes
Day dubbed as Martsa ng Manggagawa at Mamamayan Laban sa Karahasan at Pagbagsak
ng Kabuhayan.
“Filipino workers, our modern day heroes, will
condemn the Duterte government, for further legitimizing contractualization,
pressing down wages through the TRAIN Law, and violent curtailment of basic
trade union and human rights,” asserted Rene Magtubo, chair of Partido
Manggagawa and also co-chair of CLC.
The CLC assembled along UST, España at 9:00 am.
After holding a short program, the group marched with the contingent from
Welcome Rotunda towards Mendiola for the main program.
“We welcome the solidarity of various church groups
and their support for the workers demand for lower prices, higher wages,
regular jobs and labor rights in the rally today,” averred Magtubo.
He observed that inflation rose from just 3% last
December to more than 6% in Metro Manila since the implementation of TRAIN in
January. “In the face of this, wage boards in nine regions gave paltry salaries
hikes. Duterte’s promise of abolishing regional wages is just as broken as his
end endo pledge,” Magtubo added.
The groups warned the government to heed workers legitimate demands lest
it further leads to the escalation of labor unrest. Notices of strikes and
actual strikes are on the rise, especially in the last several months.
Workers of the leading cigarette firm Philip Morris Fortune
Tobacco Corp. (PMFTC) are on the verge of a strike because of a dispute over
the closure of its Vigan, Ilocos Sur redrying plant and the mass layoff at its
Marikina factory. Some 90 and 220 workers were affected respectively by the shutdown
and retrenchment. After the Martsa ng mga Manggagawa, the PMFTC labor union convened
a general assembly this afternoon to unite its membership for a strike vote
planned in the next few days.
“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 Magtubo, who is a former
president of the Marikina union.
The Lucio Tan Group recently 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 PMFTC labor union 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.
August 27, 2018
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