Labor groups unite for May 1, denounce elite-led sham commemorations

April 28. 2005
Labor groups from the largest formations in the major industries of the country have banded together to bring to highlight their concerns and grievances to the government.

But the broad coalition of the workers' unions, associations and federations refused to dovetail their grievances along the narrow and self-serving interests of the elitist factions who have enticed other groups into joining their sham commemorations on May 1. The coalition enjoined all workers, both from the public and private sectors, to see through the trappings of the said commemorations: a pathetic and opportunistic attempt of the elites to solicit support from workers in the course of their selfish and narrow infighting.

The real issue on May 1 is not the intramurals between personalities, but the very real and urgent concerns on wages, employment and workers' rights.

With skyrocketing prices in oil, electricity and food, workers everywhere are finding it harder and harder to live a decent life. We decry the proposal by Secretary Pat Sto. Tomas for a P30 wage increase for private sector workers, since the cost of living is now pegged at P663 as of March 2005 in NCR. Workers are demanding a basic pay that would bring their minimum wage approximately to the level of the living wage. For the public sector workers, this would mean an additional P3,500 monthly increase, which the government, if not for the massive graft and corruption, could have granted. A legislated, nationwide and across-the-board wage increase is indeed long overdue.

We do not need crumbs falling off from the greedy capitalists' tables, but a truly humane wage level that responds to the needs of the workers as well as encourages productivity. It is the living wage of workers that forms the basis of a sound and stable economy. To reject the workers' demands for a more equitable share from the fruits of their own labor is to put the selfish interests of private greed and profit over the overriding interests of workers, particularly their right to security of tenure, improved livelihood and dignity in life.

With almost 5 million unemployed and nearly a million more entering the labor force every year, a very real crisis in employment confronts the government, and yet it continues to brandish high growth rates, conveniently ignoring the part that OFW remittances play in propping up the economy.

According to the Labor Code, "The State shall afford protection to labor, promote full employment, ensure equal work opportunities… and regulate the relations between workers and employers. The State shall assure the rights of workers to self-organization, collective bargaining, security of tenure and just and humane conditions of work." It is a duty that has often been neglected and invariably twisted and distorted for the supposed long-term goal of economic growth and the demands of a competitive local economy.

Workers now come together from the broadest ranks possible to demand that such abuse -- this oppression – be ended with the end view of realizing workers' rights in an environment of economic growth tempered by justice and equity.

The socialist vision of a society in which the principles of human rights form the core of governance, in which workers' interests are not only upheld but protected and promoted, a society in which oppression would not be a burden workers and other marginalized and powerless sectors of society have to contend with. This is the battlecry of workers everywhere on May 1. Enough is enough. It is time to chart this destiny in which workers are finally freed from the bondage of elitist avarice and capitalist excesses.


BAWI – Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL), Automotive Industry Workers Alliance (AIWA), AGLO, Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP), Confederation of Independent Unions in the Public Sector (CIU), Liga ng Manggagawa, KPMP, Katipunan, League of Independent Bank Organizations (LIBO), MAKABAYAN, National Alliance of Broadcast Unions (NABU), Partido ng Manggagawa (PM), Postal Employees Union of the Philippines (PEUP), Philippine Metalworkers Alliance (PMA), Philippine Cement Workers Council (PCWC)