Thursday, April 27, 2023

Women workers decry high prices and low wages

 


Women members of the militant labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) today called for a wage hike and government aid as they decried the high prices of goods. In a buildup activity for the coming Labor Day commemoration, women PM members bought daily necessities at the Pritil Market out of a budget of P570, which is the minimum wage in Metro Manila.

 

“Kakalog-kalog ang basket of goods na mabibili ng P570 minimum wage. The minimum wage is a libing not living wage,” asserted Judy Ann Miranda, PM secretary general.

 

The group stated that the impending rice crisis is not just the looming shortage of the staple food but also price inflation. Miranda explained that the recent P2 to P3 per kilo increase in the prices of rice alone has eroded workers’ wages further by another P71 to P106 per month based on an average 8.9 kilo rice consumption per week for a family according to the government’s Family Income and Expenditure Survey.

 

“But things are yet to become worse as the price of rice is expected to increase by up to P6 due to the supply and demand imbalance. Anyare sa pangakong P20 na bigas? Dagdag P2 ang nangyari!” Miranda continued.

 

A wage hike, along with demands for a stop to contractualization and respect for labor rights, will be the highlight of the Labor Day rally led by the All Philippine Trade Unions (APTU) next Monday. The APTU is a coalition of the major labor groups in the country and is spearheading the Labor Day march from Espana to Mendiola in Manila.

 

The Labor Day protest will be nationwide as counterpart workers’ mobilizations by PM and allied organizations will be held in the cities of Cebu, Iloilo, Bacolod, Iligan, Tagum and General Santos.

 

PM affiliated groups in Metro Manila, Calabarzon, Cebu and Iloilo have filed petitions for a P100 minimum wage hike. The wage boards have yet to hold any hearings on the petitions. The group estimates that P100 has been eroded from the purchasing power of wages as a result of inflation.

 

“The P100 wage increase is a demand for wage recovery. It is just a stepping stone for a call for a living wage or for a just share in labor productivity gains,” Miranda elaborated.

 

Tomorrow, PM and other women workers’ groups are holding an assembly at the University of the Philippines Diliman School of Labor and Industrial Relations for a whole-day of discussions, art workshops and a press conference to reiterate their demands for wage hikes and ayudang sapat together with specific women issues such as gender-based violence in the workplace.


April 27, 2023

Partido Manggagawa

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