Filipino workers will have to face worsening working conditions under President Benigno S. Aquino III as labor and economic policies of the present administration remain very much the same if not even worse than that of the previous administrations, the Church Labor Conference (CLC) said in a statement

In a Labor Day Mass officiated by Bishop Broderick Pabillo at the foot of historic Mendiola Bridge, labor and church groups representing the CLC were unanimous in airing their disappointments with President Aquino, even equating his first year in office to a “year of suffering” for labor.

“P-Noy assumed the Presidency without a clearly stated labor policy so that some groups even viewed it as an open arena for struggle.  But when he ruled on the PAL dispute in favor of Lucio Tan, P-Noy proclaimed the primacy of ‘management prerogative’ effectively reversing the long held principle of the primacy of labor over capital provided under the Constitution and international conventions,” said CLC co-chair and Partido ng Manggagawa head Renato Magtubo.

Meanwhile, the Church which today is also celebrating the beatification of Pope John Paul II reiterated the values contained in its social teachings affirming the dignity of labor over capital and land.   In his 1981 encyclical Laborem Excercens, Pope John Paul declared that “man is more important than things, and labor is to capital”, thus society must be organized in a way that promotes human dignity and rights of labor.

Organized labor and the Church asserted that giving management or owners of capital unlimited discretion or prerogative to do things that undermine labor rights is both illegal and immoral and therefore should be strongly opposed.

P-Noy’s March 25 decision gave Lucio Tan the green light to layoff at least 2,600 regular workers in PAL and transfer them as contractual employees to third party service providers in clear violation of their existing CBA and their security of tenure. The ruling, the CLC said, would open the floodgates for retrenchments and unlimited contractualization of labor.

The CLC lamented that with P-Noy’s decision on PAL, every labor rights guaranteed under the Constitution and international conventions such as the right to form a union and to collectively bargain as well as security of tenure are effectively wiped out with the interest of capital reigning supreme under his administration.

The CLC was formed in 2008 in the midst of the global financial crisis.  Church and labor leaders then agreed to the necessity of defending and upholding labor dignity more especially during crisis.  As such, it paid close attention to the PAL issue, the deplorable working conditions at the Hanjin Shipyard, the mass dismissal of workers at Hotel Dusit, the fight for job security at the export zones, and the worsening unemployment problem, among others, as they represent the deteriorating labor situation in the country.

Aside from the call to reverse P-Noy’s ruling on PAL, the CLC is also demanding for the scrapping of labor contractualization policy; the enactment of the Security of Tenure Bill; and a list of several immediate relief measures such as wage increase, the scrapping of oil deregulation law; reduction in the cost of electricity and water; moratorium on demolitions; and repeal of automatic appropriations law on debt servicing.

PRESS RELEASE
Church Labor Conference
01 May 2011
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