“Logo lang ang nagbago sa SONA ni BBM”--labor group

  

The militant labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) asserted that only the logo has changed as President Bong Bong Marcos is set to deliver his second State of the Nation today. “Walang bago sa Pilipinas. Logo lang ang nagbago. All the social problems—poverty, inequality, low wages, high prices, unemployment and insecure jobs—remain unresolved and without any clear solutions under this administration,” stated Rene Magtubo, PM national chair and Marikina city councilor.

 

Hundreds of PM members will join other workers organizations under the Nagkaisa labor coalition in assembling around 9:00 am today at Philcoa. By 11:00 am, the group will merge with more labor groups and other civil society organizations along Commonwealth Avenue and in front of the Commission on Human Rights. They will march to Tandang Sora where the People’s SONA will have a program from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm.

 

In Cebu City, PM along with groups SENTRO and Akbayan will assemble in Plaza Independencia at 8:00 am today. Then they will march onto the Cebu City Freedom Park and finally merge with other organizations for the main program in Metro Colon. In Iloilo, PM is joining other workers organizations for the counter-SONA rally today under the coalition United Labor.

 

Magtubo cited the loss of more than 4,000 jobs as two big garment factories are shutting down in the Mactan Export Processing Zone as an example of the failures of the Marcos Jr. administration, along with the price of rice that remains double the promised P20 per kilo. He insisted that “Dahil walang trabahong regular and walang murang bigas, bigo ang Pilipinas sa pamumuno ni BBM.”

July 24, 2023

Reinstate fired Foodpanda riders--rights group

 

The motorcycle riders’ rights group Kapatiran ng Dalawang Gulong (Kagulong) called for the reinstatement of 43 riders based in Davao City who were suspended for 10 years by food delivery company Foodpanda. The app suspended about a hundred “accounts” attached to the riders for planning a protest concerning the diminution in their income per delivery. Some riders were later reinstated after they allegedly provided information about the scheduled protest.

 

Don Pangan, Kagulong secretary-general, said that “We are one with the members of Davao United Delivery Riders Association Inc. whose members are Foodpanda riders from Davao City in their struggle for just pay and against the suspension of 43 riders for 10 years because they are exercising their right to express their grievances.”

 

The group also welcomed the move by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to call Foodpanda and the 43 riders to a dialogue to thresh out the issue. “We are also calling on the DOLE to deliver its commitment to convene the Technical Working Group represented by rider’s groups, trade unions, worker’s organizations and concerned government agencies to start the research and investigation that would lead to creating policy standards to protect the gig workers,” Pangan insisted.

 

Food panda riders turned offline for two days and staged a 500-strong unity ride last July 16 to protest the app’s wage policy because they noticed they had been earning less lately from each delivery.

 

Grievances and protests by food delivery riders are increasing amidst their high profile as frontliners and essential workers amidst the pandemic. Last November 18, 2020 Kagulong led some 700 Foodpanda riders in Metro Manila in a protest motorcade that ended in the DOLE main office in Intramuros. The riders aired their grievances about reduced pay, imposed penalties and the lack of transparency in their working conditions.

 

Pangan averred that “What happened with our brothers and sisters in Davao City clearly manifested the need to probe the employment status of gig workers to ensure just pay, benefits and job security,” Pangan insisted.

 

In a global study (http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/iez/16880.pdf), labor researchers found out that food delivery riders launched the greatest number of protests among app or platform workers. The most prominent grievance concerned pay although employment status also figured as a secondary issue. In Asian countries such as Indonesia and India, gig workers have formed associations or unions. Similar organizing and struggles by food delivery riders in Europe, Australia and Latin America was also revealed in the study. 

Kapatiran ng Dalawang Gulong (Kagulong)

July 20, 2021

 

Workers demand "stop to chacha, shift to chicha"

In response to the latest survey on people's concerns, the militant labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) today called on the administration to drop charter change and shift it focus to poverty eradication.

“The pervasiveness of poverty as a result of low wages, high prices of goods and services, unemployment and lack of quality jobs cannot be swept under the rug by a more sensational war on drugs, the ambitious plan to build-build-build, or by shifting our form of government into federalism,” argued Rene Magtubo, PM national chair.

Among the group's demands for the coming Labor Day rally is opposition to the charter change initiative of the government.

"Workers say chicha hindi chacha. For three consecutive years now, working class issues such as wage hike, controlling inflation, reducing poverty and job creation remained as Filipinos top concerns while charter change or chacha is at the bottom of the list," insisted Magtubo.

Chicha is a Filipino slang for food, but for the labor group, its meaning expands to other rights and entitlements that enable workers to raise their standard of living.  

The other day dozens of PM members among workers, women and youth led a picket at the Department of Trade and Industry office in Makati to assail government's inaction on inflation and its pro-endo policy. The protest was a buildup to the massive labor unity mobilization planned on May 1 to push for workers' demands such as regular jobs and a living wage.

According to Magtubo, poverty concerns had always been in need of immediate action and unless addressed in a holistic manner, these issues will continue to hound any administration. He added that the failure of President Duterte and his Congress to stop contractualization, abolish the regional wage boards, and to control the rising prices of goods and services due to the imposition of new taxes will always’s be viewed by the working class as a regression rather than an improvement in their quality of life. 

The most recent Ulat sa Bayan report by Pulse Asia revealed that the first three concerns remained to be the issues that most Filipinos want the Duterte administration to address. The survey conducted between March 23-28, 2018 showed that wage hike, controlling inflation and reducing poverty were the top three concerns while charter change landed last in the list with only 3% of Filipinos demanding immediate action for it from the President.

Survey respondents were asked by Pulse Asia the following questions: 

“Sa mga sumusunod na isyung pambansa, pakisabi ang tatlong isyung dapat aksyunan agad ng administrasyon ni Presidente Rodrigo R. Duterte. Maari kayong magbanggit ng iba pa na wala sa listahan. Alin po ang unang isyung dapat aksyunan agad ng kasalukuyang administrasyon? Ano ang pangalawa? Ano ang Pangatlo?” 

Magtubo said the same sentiments will surely be expressed by workers who will be mobilizing themselves nationwide in the coming Labor Day celebration.

April 25, 2018

Group slams P13 wage hike in Metro Cebu as starvation wage

Press Release

September 16, 2015

The militant Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) slammed the P13 wage hike for workers in Metro Cebu and called it “starvation wage.” Last week the Region 7 Regional Tripartite and Productivity Board announced the salary increase that excluded workers in the region outside of Metro Cebu.

“The wage board must be joking if it thinks it can dupe workers with an exclusionary and measly pay increase. It is an insult to the groups ALU and Living Wage Coalition which petitioned for P92 and P145 wage increases respectively,” insisted Dennis Derige, PM-Cebu spokesperson.

PM is calling on ALU and the Living Wage Coalition to jointly campaign in protest at the wage board decision and rejection of their wage petitions. The campaign should pressure the National Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board which has to approve the Region 7 wage board decision.

Derige argued that “Did the workers in the rest of Cebu province and Bohol not also suffer from erosion of purchasing power? Don’t they have the same difficulties as workers in Metro Cebu in feeding their families and sending their children to school due to inflation? The wage board’s reason for granting a salary increase in Metro Cebu also holds for all workers in the region.”

“PM’s own study shows that the cost of living in Metro Cebu is around P1,000 for a family of five and yet the new minimum wage adds up to only P353, which will not even buy half of the basket of goods and services,” Derige said.

PM proposes the abolition of the wage boards and their replacement by a Wage Commission. “The mandate of the National Wage Commission will be to fix wages based on the single criterion of cost of living. This is different from the wage boards which are bogged down by convoluted and contradictory 10-point criteria in fixing wages. The Wage Commission should raise the minimum wage to the level of the living wage by a mix of mechanisms such as direct pay increases, tax exemptions, price discounts and social security subsidies for workers,” Derige stated.

He assailed the argument of the wage board that wages outside of Metro Cebu are already too high in comparison to other cities and regions. “Wages in Region 7 are not too high but salaries in other areas are too low. The solution is not to freeze wages outside of Metro Cebu but to provide generous salary hikes to workers in other regions,” he averred.

Derige continued that “This is the ugly reality of inequality in our country. The Philippines is one of the fastest growing economies in Asia yet only a few, the capitalist class, is benefiting from the increased wealth created by the working people. The assets of the ten richest Filipinos amount to some US$50 billion, which is equivalent to the yearly wages of 20 million minimum wage earners.”

Youth from working class families speak out: #No more Mary Janes!

Press Release

April 30, 2015

Some 200 members of Partido Manggagawa’s youth wing, the Partido Manggagawa sa Kabataan (PM-K) trooped to Mendiola on the eve of Labor Day to demand an end to policies that drove many Mary Janes to suffer the harsh world of human trafficking and exploitation abroad.

 The group said that while the youth were happy that Mary Jane Veloso was spared from execution in Indonesia, the existing government policies, if not rectified, will recurrently produce more Mary Janes as long as chronic unemployment and low wages prevail in the country. 

 Ryan Bocacao, PM-K spokesperson, said the youth, especially those coming from working families, can easily identify with the story of Mary Jane because it is abject poverty that drove her to bravely face the harsh world of work here and abroad.

 “Until her supposed final moments on earth, we saw from Mary Jane the courage typical to all our OFWs.  They are all risk takers.  Some of them may have fallen victims to syndicates and cruel employers, but all these came from their decision to save their families from chronic poverty which they believed is a long failed agenda of the government,” said Bocacao.

 The youth of today, he explained, is suffering from the same predicaments, of finishing school and landing a good job, because of unsound policies of the government both on education and employment.

 “The youth cries for justice for Mary Jane. We cry the same for the 20 million youth whose dreams for a better life is crumbling along the way because of bad government policies,” added Bocacao.

 PM-K members who participated in the Mendiola action and a vigil afterwards at the Holy Trinity Parish Church in Sampaloc include young workers who have attended job fairs but remain unemployed; youth working in sweatshops in NCR; young workers in factories of Calabarzon; college students enduring high cost of education and graduating high school students who cannot afford college education.

 They are demanding free education, living wage, regular employment and an end to the contractualization policy.

 “Many poor students drop out of school during high school and college because of financial constraints on the part of their parents.  This problem imposes a devastating impact on the youth’s transition to the world work as lack of higher education relegates them to low paying unskilled jobs or worst, to chronic unemployment,” said Bocacao.

 It was reported that Mary Jane did not finish her high school because of poverty.  And in most cases, risky domestic works abroad are the only jobs available to poor women coming from the Philippines. Hundreds of PM-K members are joining the Labor Day march tomorrow.

KEPCO workers protest low pay, union repression

Photo by Allan DEfensor of Sun Star Cebu

Press Release

April 16, 2015

Workers of KEPCO-Salcon Power Corporation today held a noisy but peaceful protest action at its Naga City plant. In a show of force and expression of solidarity, members of both the rank-and-file and supervisory unions jointly participated in the protest.

“We call on the management KEPCO-Cebu to heed their workers just demands. We say enough of low wages that do not keep up with the rising costs of living. We say enough to harassment and intimidation of workers exercising their right to join unions,” asserted Alex Ponce, President of the rank and file union Kepco Cebu Employees Association - Workers Solidarity Network (KCEA - WSN) .

As workers protested in Naga, the National Conciliation and Mediation Board conducted another mediation hearing between union and management. The two KEPCO unions both filed notices of strike for union busting and unfair labor practice last April 8.

“There is an anomalous disconnect between pay and productivity in our industry. According to a survey on labor productivity, every worker in the energy sector generates P4.1 million in earnings annually but in comparison we are paid a meager about 5% yearly. Is this inclusive growth?” explained Lowell Sanchez, President of supervisory union Kepco Cebu Supervisors Association - Workers Solidarity Network (KCSA - WSN).

The two KEPCO unions, both affiliated to Workers Solidarity Network-SENTRO, are also demanding a stop to the harassment of union members and the reinstatement of two supervisory union officers who were fired for union activities.

The unions denounced management for “being intransigent” and even refusing to attend the mediation hearing with the supervisors union. “Apparently KEPCO’s tactic is be hardline in negotiations as it expects the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to prevent a strike through its assumption of jurisdiction powers. We appeal to the good sense of DOLE Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz against falling prey to KEPCO’s dirty play. We hope she stands true to her declaration that government intervention in labor disputes is now a thing of the past,” Sanchez declared.

The International Labor Organization along with local labor groups have previously criticized the abuse of the government’s power to assume jurisdiction as a suppression of the right to strike.

“KEPCO employees call on our fellow Filipinos for understanding and our fellow workers for solidarity. Our fight for fair wages is also the fight of Filipino workers who suffer low pay. Our fight for labor rights is also the fight of all workers who deserve a voice in the workplace. Ang laban ng KEPCO workers ay laban ng lahat,” explained Ponce.