Fund service contracting along with pantawid pasada--labor group

 

The labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) asserted that the government should provide funding for service contracting of jeepneys aside from the pantawid pasada program. The budget for pantawid pasada or fuel subsidies for jeepney drivers was raised to P5 billion in the 2023 national budget but only P1.285 billion was set aside for “libreng sakay” or service contracting of buses and jeepneys. However, news reports state that the P1.285 billion may all be used to fund “libreng sakay” in the EDSA busway.

 

“The better formula is public funding of both fuel subsidies and service contracting for jeepneys. Higher fuel prices are not the only problem of jeepney drivers and operators. Just as bad is the uncertainty brought by the public utility vehicle modernization program of the government. Service contracting will allow jeepney cooperatives who undertook the difficult transition to survive and hopefully thrive,” explained Rene Magtubo, PM national chair and a Marikina city councilor.

 

Magtubo also stated that no funds for the public utility vehicle modernization program has been set aside for this year. This means that no funds are allotted for the P 160,000 state subsidy for operators of traditional jeeps to transition to modern jeeps. Jeepney organizations are calling for the subsidy to be raised to P 500,000 since the cheapest modern jeep now costs P 2 million.

 

Under the service contracting scheme implemented in late 2020, jeepney operators are paid by the government to ply their routes and commuters get to ride for free. This is the same scheme applied in the EDSA busway. Service contracting of both buses and jeepneys was allotted P 5.5 billion under the Bayanihan 2 and then another P 3 billion was budgeted in 2021.

 

The group Move As One Coalition, of which PM is a member, is campaigning for service contracting to shift from being a form of pandemic assistance to being the better normal of public transportation. The group assert that service contracting benefits all actors: commuters through a safe and convenient transport system; jeepney drivers who will gain status as employees of jeepney cooperatives and thus enjoy the rights and benefits of formal workers; and jeepney operators organized in cooperatives who will have guaranteed source of income from service contracts of several years in duration.

January 23, 2023

Partido Manggagawa

Wage hike needed asap to solve rising hunger and poverty

Photo from Time

 

The labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) called for a wage hike across the country in response to the rising incidence of hunger and poverty revealed in the latest Social Weather Station survey. “A legislated P100 nationwide across-the-board wage hike is a key component of a set of solutions to worsening hunger and poverty in our country. Kailangan pa bang i-memorize yan,” stated Rene Magtubo, PM national chair and a Marikina city councilor.

 

The latest Social Weather Station (SWS) survey showed that hunger incidence in December 2022 rose to 11.8% which is equivalent to 3 million families, up from 11.3% in October 2022 or 2.89 million families experiencing involuntary hunger. The same SWS survey also uncovered that poverty incidence climbed to 51% from 49% which translates to 12.9 million families rating themselves as poor, an increase of 300,000 families from October to December 2022.

 

“It is definitely not rocket science to understand that increasing household incomes by raising the wages of family breadwinners will mitigate hunger and poverty. Wage hikes together with ayuda and forms of social protection like universal pensions and employment guarantees will radically decrease hunger and poverty in the face of a cost of living crisis expressed by runaway prices of onions, eggs and other essential necessities,” Magtubo explained.

 

He added that “The only roadblock to a salary increase is employer resistance and government insensitivity. Their argument that wage hikes only benefit formal workers to the detriment of informal workers who are the vast majority is fake news. Research by the ILO and others find that minimum wage hikes have negligible effect on unemployment and instead have a lighthouse effect. Meaning, minimum wage hikes increase the wages even of the informally employed since it becomes socially unacceptable to pay lower salaries.”

 

In early December, a P100 “wage increase for wage recovery” petition was filed by the Kapatiran ng mga Unyon at Samahang Manggagawa and PM before the NCR Wage Board. No action has yet been taken on the wage petition.

 

“We call on Congress to legislate a P100 across-the-board salary increase for all workers as relief from the inflation shock,” declared Magtubo. PM stated that P81 has been eroded from the P570 minimum wage in Metro Manila as a result of the continuous rise in prices. 

Inflation in December 2022 reached 8.1%, slightly higher than the 8.0% in November. Notably, inflation is higher in areas outside Metro Manila. The consumer price index for December 2022 in Metro Manila was 116.6 while areas outside it was 120.1 according to statistical tables released today by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). PM’s demand for a wage hike is based on a computation by the group using the PSA data. 

January 20, 2023

Partido Manggagawa

Workers welcome return of libreng sakay but oppose planned EDSA busway privatization

Photo from Inquirer

The labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) welcomed the return of the “libreng sakay” program of the government but expressed opposition to the planned privatization of the EDSA bus carousel.

 “Free rides on EDSA is good news for workers and commuters. But privatizing the EDSA carousel will mean higher fares without better service once implemented. We should have learned our lessons from the epic fail of electricity and water privatization. Electricity rates in the country are the highest in Asia and water concessionaires cannot even provide 24/7 service,” stated Rene Magtubo, PM national chair.

The labor leader said workers won’t accept the template of outright privatization as a cure to mismanagement, corruption, and bad governance by those in power. He also countered reports that DOTR’s proposal to privatize the Edsa busway has the support of trade unions.

Magtubo added that “The labor movement’s stand is that privatization is not a panacea to our public transportation problems, and we don’t subscribe to the idea that a privatized transport system is a global standard. Mass transport systems in many economies remain publicly run and efficiently managed.”

PM said that the free ride was beneficial to the working people in terms of saved income and travel time. “Transforming the system into a cooperative-run busway may create an alternative economy, as well as synergy to both the coop workers and the commuting public instead of the typical ‘seller-buyer’ relationship under the privately-run utilities that we had over the past several decades,” Magtubo insisted.

Likewise, Magtubo stressed that the government must retain control of international airports, and may opt to consider other models like cooperatives for the operation of the EDSA busway carousel.

“There are many examples of successful public transportation systems and airports around the world that are owned and controlled by the state, such as those in Japan, Switzerland, Germany, Singapore, and Canada. Even the US hasn’t embraced privatization for running its 5,000 public airports, while our neighbor Hong Kong maintains the world’s best in mass transport system. These systems and airports provide affordable and efficient transportation options for the public, while also serving as a vital source of public income and employment,” Magtubo explained.

PM urged the government to listen to the concerns of the people and to prioritize the needs of the public over private interests.

“We stand with the working class and the people in calling for an efficient and equitable transportation system that serves the needs of all Filipinos. What the country needs is a strong, accountable, comprehensive, responsive, effective, and democratic public services,” Magtubo concluded.

13 January 2023
Partido Manggagawa

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

Labor coalition rejects outright privatization of NAIA and Edsa Busway

The NAGKAISA Labor Coalition expressed opposition to customized proposals to privatize everything like the Ninoy Aquino International Airport and the EDSA busway carousel.

“We believe that privatization is not a panacea or an all-out solution to our public transportation problems, and we don’t subscribe to the idea that a privatized transport system is a global standard,” emphasized Nagkaisa Chair Atty. Sonny Matula, saying the state of mass transport systems even in advanced economies remain publicly run and efficiently managed.

The labor leader said workers won’t simply accept the template of outright privatization as cure to mismanagement, corruption, and bad governance by those in power, and to counter reports that DOTR’s proposal to privatize the Edsa Busway has the support of both business groups and trade unions.

The government, he stressed, must retain control of our international airports, and may opt to consider other models like cooperatives for the operation of the EDSA busway carousel.

“There are many examples of successful public transportation systems and airports around the world that are owned and controlled by the state, such as those in Japan, Switzerland, Germany, Singapore, and Canada. Even the US hasn’t embraced privatization for running its 5,000 public airports, while our neighbor Hong Kong maintains the world’s best in mass transport system. These systems and airports provide affordable and efficient transportation options for the public, while also serving as a vital source of public income and employment,” said Matula.

As in the case of the Edsa Busway carousel, the group said the free ride was very beneficial to the working people in terms of saved income and travel time. “Transforming the system into a cooperative- run busway or tramway may create alternative economy, as well as synergy to both the coop workers and the commuting public than the typical ‘seller-buyer’ relationship under the privately-run utilities that we had over the past several decades,” added Matula.

Matula said the coalition is raising this point as regular dialogues with the government on important policies and programs is part of Nagkaisa’s 5-Point Labor Agenda. The others include wage hike and reforms in the country’s wage-fixing mechanisms, end to endo and the full exercise of trade union rights.

“We want the government to avoid fixation with privatization as there are other alternatives to it, especially when mechanisms for genuine people’s participation in policy decisions are activated.  We believe that by working together, we can find a solution that benefits everyone, rather than just select tycoons,” said Matula.

NAGKAISA urges the government to listen to the concerns of the people and to prioritize the needs of the public over private interests.

“We stand with the working class and the people in calling for an efficient and equitable transportation system that serves the needs of all Filipinos. What the country needs is a strong, accountable, comprehensive, responsive, effective, and democratic public services,” concluded Matula.

07 January 2023
NAGKAISA LABOR COALITION

P81 have been shaved off the P570 minimum wage in NCR due to December inflation

Photo from Inquirer.net

The labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) stated that P81 has been eroded from the P570 minimum wage in Metro Manila as a result of the continuous rise in prices. “We call for a new round of wage hikes to recover the lost purchasing power of workers not just in Metro Manila but in the whole country due to the surge in inflation. We call on Congress to legislate a P100 across-the-board salary increase for all workers as relief from the shock of rising prices,” declared Rene Magtubo, PM national chair and a city councilor of Marikina.

 

Inflation in December 2022 reached 8.1%, slightly higher than the 8.0% in November. The December inflation figure was the highest recorded since December 2008, which was in the context of the onset of the global financial crisis. Notably, inflation is higher in areas outside Metro Manila. The consumer price index for December 2022 in Metro Manila was 116.6 while areas outside it was 120.1 according to statistical tables released today by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). PM’s demand for a wage hike is based on a computation by the group using the PSA data.

 

“The P570 minimum wage in NCR is actually just worth P489 by December 2022. P81 has been shaved off the real value of the minimum wage. Meaning, not only has the P33 minimum wage hike in June 2022 been effectively wiped out by runaway inflation, workers’ real wages have pushed back even further,” Magtubo explained.

 

He insisted that “Thus, we reiterate the call we made in May 2022—before the recent round of minimum wage hikes in June 2022 by different regional wage boards—for a P100 wage increase. This should be for all workers, not just those at the minimum salary level, since all have suffered from wage erosion.”

 

The group clarified that the wage hike demand is merely wage recovery. “We are not yet even talking of workers claiming a just share in the fruits of their labor. From 2001 to 2016, real wages stagnated but labor productivity increased by 50% and the GDP doubled,” Magtubo maintained.

 

“Of course, employers will again create horror scenarios of closures and bankruptcy against the workers' demand for a wage hike. They will cry that they are suffering from the economic crisis even though they monopolized the gains of the decade and half-long business boom. Not only does the government owe workers due to unabated inflation but also employers are obligated to share the wealth created by the labor of the working class,” Magtubo expounded.

January 5, 2023

Partido Manggagawa