Workers belonging to the Alliance of Progressive Labor staged a picket today at Congress to protest the filing of a motion for reconsideration of the HB345 or the P125 wage increase bill.
“Your congressman wants you, the working class people, to stay poor, because that’s all you deserve to be,” said APL Deputy Secretary-General Edwin Bustillos during a picket today in Congress, “or at least those congressmen who are allied with the corrupt and tyrannical regime of GMA.”
This was the stinging rebuttal of the Alliance of Progressive Labor to the House of Representatives’ attempts at reconsideration of HB345 providing for a staggered P125 wage hike increase.
“It is very clear that this government relies on big business to remain in power,” added Bustillos, “it has to keep wage levels scandalously low in order to keep investments pouring in, investments that will eventually be lost to corruption and malfeasance to line the pockets of these same people who are vehemently against the wage hike.”
“There is no reason nor rhyme to take the ECOP line that wage levels will force companies to close shop,” explained Bustillos, “for it is not the wage levels that keep investors away but political instability and uncertainty, the violence all around we see with the continued killing of journalists, peasants and activists, and the lingering political crisis hounding an illegitimate government.”
“The likes of Nograles and Boying Remulla are capitalist lapdogs who would rather see their constituents suffer than actually help alleviate the plight of poor workers everywhere,” added the veteran labor leader.
“We call on the minority in the House to exert all efforts in thwarting hte evil scheme of the majority and continue to expose them for their anti-worker stance,” said Bustillos, “and in the coming polls the labor vote will take care of these congressmen who have displayed arrogance and utter drunkenness with power in denying workers the pittance offered by a measly P125 wage hike.”
APL denounces DOLE position against wage hike
Jan 22, 2007
The Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL) today trooped to the Department of Labor and Employment to denounce the position taken by the agency against the proposed P125 wage hike bill now pending with the Senate.
“This only goes to show where the true loyalty of the department lies,” said APL Deputy Secretary-General Edwin Bustillos,“instead of protecting workers’ interests, it is instead capitulating too easily to the scare tactics being peddled by the likes of ECOP.”
“We have warned against the appointment of Art Brion as DOLE Secretary from the very beginning,” added Bustillos, “and this position he has now taken is a monumental disappointment and a complete betrayal of the mandate of his department.”
“Clearly the DOLE refuses to listen to workers’ argument that the wage boards are useless,” said Bustillos. “Brion and his boss in Malacañang are using the boards as an excuse against any wage hike when they fully know well how easily we lose out whenever we petition the regional wage boards for pay increases.”
“We maintain that it is still a legislated wage increase, nationwide in scope and cuts across the board which is the first crucial step in truly uplifting the welfare of workers,” added Bustillos. “To make such legislation even more effective, industry-wide and CBA-based pay hikes would be ideal and most beneficial, but the government lacks the political will to pursue such policies.”
“An embattled administration will doubtlessly cave in to business pressure and sell out workers in the process,” pointed out Bustillos. “but there is still a chance to carry out the P125 wage hike if the Hosue and Senate can muster enough will to override any threatened veto.”
“A wage hike is the only available relief to workers everywhere and it is high time that such relief be made available,” Bustillos added. “The DOLE’s pro-capitalist position is defeatist and immoral and should be exposed as merely part and parcel of the rottenness and utter elitism of GMA’s corrupt and malevolent administration.”
Jan 15, 2007
On the Proposed Wage Hike and the Needed Policy Prescriptions for Labor Rights
The Alliance of Progressive Labor and the National Wage Alliance believes it is about time that government provide concrete relief to poor workers who toil to keep the economy afloat. The P125 hike is a far cry from the needed adjustment to meet a living wage, but it is a start.
The Senate should adopt HB345 now. The Senate’s timely and immediate action on the House approved measure reflects the chamber’s sensitivity and its recognition of the fact that current wage levels are insufficient to meet the basic needs of workers.
The passage of HB345 is not the solution to workers’ problems, which we believe goes way deeper than just wage levels and compensatory issues. While its passage will go a long way in alleviating hunger among the working class, it is the very nature of labor relations that has to be changed in the end. More tangibly, it is not merely the provision of a wage hike that will solve workers’ woes in and of itself, but the passage and enactment of a whole set of policies that defend and promote our rights as a marginalized and dis-empowered sector.
APL believes that ideally, workers’ wages should be set through collective bargaining. Meanwhile, there should only be one national minimum wage set by a tripartite commission such as the National Wages and Productivity Commission. An industry minimum wage should also be determined by industry wage boards. We cannot live forever with the current set-up where it is easy for government and business representatives to collude against workers’ petitions for wage increases through the regional wage boards. The wage boards now turn out wage increases that are too little and too riddled with exemptions that workers end up with almost nothing.
Thus we need more political will to truly promote and protect workers’ rights. Workers’ and trade union rights are denied the working class by an anti-worker Labor Code (a remnant of the Marcos dictatorship), a rabid anti-union culture among employers and local government officials, by the abusive use of contractualization, subcontracting, and other forms of labor flexibility.
Collective bargaining is ineffective as unions are encumbered by restrictive strike laws, if not by political repression. Widespread unemployment due to flawed economic policies undermines worker’s right to organize.
We thus push for a systemic solution including the amendment of the Labor Code to strengthen trade union rights, particularly the rights to organize, security of tenure, collectively bargain, and hold strikes. WE also demand that government, instead of toying with figures and definitions, make full employment a centerpiece of policy-making, instead of driving more and more Filipinos out of the country and putting them in harm’s way. We also demand that the regional wage boards be abolished and replaced with industry wage boards and a singular national minimum wage setting.
Contrary to the lies being peddled by some sectors, it is not the cost of labor that forces companies to close shop, but the high cost of electricity, transportation because of fuel prices, corruption, unbridled liberalization, smuggling and political instability brought about by opaque and unaccountable governments such as Arroyo’s.
A wage hike is timely and necessary but we demand that more reforms in the political and economic arena be pursued before we can say that government has become truly effective in looking after its citizens’ rights. This requires a government that is genuinely dedicated to workers and interested in uplifting the lives of the poor and marginalized.
Posted by mabini at 1/15/2007 04:34:00 PM 0 comments Links to this post