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[Video] Watch now! LIVE – SILANG MGA KALASAG. Pagkilala.Pagkumusta.Pakikiisa sa mga #frontliners sa gitna ng #CoVid19 -iDEFEND & PAHRA

Posted on May 2, 2020 by Human Rights Online Philippines Leave a comment

SILANG MGA KALASAG.
Pagkilala.Pagkumusta.Pakikiisa sa mga frontliners sa gitna ng CoVid

iDEFEND Live

May 2, 2020, 4:00PM/ SEE LINKS.
SILANG MGA KALASAG

Kasama sina:

Dr. Faith Mesa Gaerlan
Emergency Room Consultant

Dr katerina Abiertas
Municipal Health Officer , Motiong, Samar
President, Samar AMHOP

Dr. Ela Romano
Psychiatrist ,
Bicol Medical Center

Dr. Nemuel Fajutagana
Chairperson,
Medical Action Group

Video

[Video] Laban Manggagawa! Discussion ng mga lider-manggagawa sa Araw ng Paggawa -iDEFEND & PAHRA

Posted on May 1, 2020 by Human Rights Online Philippines Leave a comment

Discussion ng mga lider-manggagawa sa Araw ng Paggawa

Kasama sina:

Val Vibal
Aniban ng Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (AMA)

Judy Ann Chan-Miranda
Partido Manggagawa

Atty. Luke Espiritu
Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino

Joshua Mata
Sentro ng mga Nagkakaisa at Progresibong Manggagawa

Ellene Sana
Center for Migrants Advocacy

Primo Amparo
Workers for Peoples Liberation

Tagapagpadaloy:
Joseph Purugganan
Focus on the Global South

Video

[Statement] Workers fight dictatorship, defend human rights! -PAHRA

Posted on May 1, 2018 by Human Rights Online Philippines Leave a comment

Workers fight dictatorship, defend human rights!

Workers fight dictatorship, defend human rights!

The Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates (PAHRA) is one with the working class in commemorating Labor Day. We add our voices in solidarity with the toiling masses specifically in demanding for the end of contractualization in the country and the respect, protection and fulfilment of workers’ rights.

The Duterte administration’s failure to end contractualization after almost two years in power, reveals even more its inability to heed the sentiments of the workers, to protect their rights and promote their interests. Its pronouncements have been mere rhetoric, devoid of sincerity and substance. Its commitment to advancing the right to decent work and to just and favourable working conditions remains to be empty promises as illustrated by the national government’s rejection of labour –related recommendations during the 3rd cycle of the Universal Period Review in 2017. These include its refusal and/or lack of political will to end contractualization, implement a national minimum wage, address gender wage gap, and sexual harassment of women in the workplace.

Furthermore, the Philippine government has refused to take concrete measures to address exploitation and abuse of women migrant workers, and to promote the trade union rights of migrant workers.

While unemployment and underemployment continue to plague the labour sector, increases in the prices of basic commodities have consistently taken its toll on the lives of majority of the Filipinos who are minimum wage earners. Experts say that actual minimum wage of Php512 is just 43.8% of the Php1,168 family living wage needed.

We reiterate that contractualization is a violation of human rights because it denies and limits access to decent work.

That contractualization has violated the right of workers to organize and bargain for higher wages, social security, and among others. It has also put workers into situation of accepting unfair labor practices and violations of their political rights.

PAHRA enjoins the defenders of workers’ rights not only to lead the people in demanding for decent job opportunities for all so that migration for work becomes one of choice and not of necessity, an immediate wage increase, for the government to ensure job security and accessible social services to assist workers and their families in providing their basic needs instead of its anti-human rights policies and actions espousing culture of violence in the country. But also help intensify the resistance against the resurgence of another dictatorship.

We also reiterate our call for justice for workers’ rights defenders who have fallen victims of killings and various forms of injustice.

Workers fight dictatorship, defend human rights!

PAHRA
May 1, 2018

Statement

[Statement] On 2nd Labor Day of President Duterte, Regime not only miserably failed on Ending ‘Endo’, but intensified workers’ rights violations – CTUHR

Posted on May 1, 2018 by Human Rights Online Philippines Leave a comment

On 2nd Labor Day of President Duterte, Regime not only miserably failed on Ending ‘Endo’, but intensified workers’ rights violations – CTUHR

As the Duterte administration marks its 2nd Labor Day in power, it is no longer facing the hopeful workers and trade unions that trusted him, but a seething dismay of betrayed people. The regime did not only miserably fail in ending labour contractualization, getting national equal wage for workers all over the country, but paved the intensification of the attacks on workers and trade union rights, says labour rights organization, Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR). The group also argues that the statement circulated that the President may still issue an EO on Endo on May day, could be an attempt to extract some hope from people whose only option left to them is perennial unemployment or long-term contractualization.

CTUHR also underscored that cases of trade union and human rights violations` dramatically increased during Duterte’s nearly two years in office. It cited 28 victims of extrajudicial killings in the labor sector primarily from agricultural workers, and 3,317 more suffered from arbitrary arrests, harassments, physical assault and false accusation of criminal charges.

It added that it has recorded complaints involving 9,919 workers over non-recognition of union, union-busting and other forms of violence against unionists in the workplace. At the same time, it also noted that both the government and capitalists have failed to protect workers from accidents that led 76 deaths (recorded) mostly in workplace fires. Companies and corporations rabid anti-union policies that prevail in workplaces went unchecked, and workers’ right to organize was drowned by government promises of financial assistance when they are dismissed from work.

CTUHR also slammed the continuous militarization in unionized plantations in Mindanao and forcing trade unionists affiliated with Kilusang Mayo Uno, for instance, to surrender as NPA supporters. Harassments and threats that something bad will happen against unionists and their families from Shin Sun Tropical Fruits, SUMIFRU Packing Plants, Fresh Max banana plantations in Compostela Valley persist, and being justified by Martial Law in Mindanao. Likewise, it denounces the so-called security forums held in companies, but in fact to conduct anti-union seminars, as a clear affront to rights to freedom of association.

While the condition in workplaces has gone from bad to worse, the regime’s campaign to rid the country `from what is considers as embarrassment’ and damaging to its image’ create more embarrassments in fact. The persecution of human rights defenders like Sr. Patricia Fox who is more than a Filipino than those Filipinos who profess to be pro-poor but doing extremely opposite, is case in point.

“We stand in solidarity with the workers in their continuing fight to reclaim their rights, for job security, national minimum wage, dignity and justice. We add our voice in demanding stop the killings, stop violence in the workplace and hands off human rights defenders”, the group concluded.

Reference:
Daisy Arago
CTUHR Executive Director
Tel # 0916248 4876 / 4110256

Statement

[Statement] Human Labor – Not a Commodity! -VISAYAS CLERGY DISCERNMENT GROUP

Posted on May 2, 2015 by Human Rights Online Philippines Leave a comment

VISAYAS CLERGY DISCERNMENT GROUP

Human Labor – Not a Commodity!

Statement for Labor Day 2015
April 29, 2015

Bishop Gerardo A. Alminaza, D.D.
Bishop of San Carlos
Head Convenor, Visayas Clergy Discernment Group

Pope Francis, in his homily on the Feast of St. Joseph, the Worker on May 2013, reminded us, that a society that does not fairly compensate labor, “that does not give work to people and that only looks to its balance books; that only seeks profit is unjust and goes against God.”

Over the years, we have been presenting the Church teachings on labor. We have also
presented on-going analyses of the social situation that affects labor adversely. Perhaps, it
is now time to be PRO-ACTIVE and make CONCRETE PROPOSALS. Moreover, there is a need to
strengthen ORGANIZED LABOR and SUPPORT GROUPS both local and international.

We have elucidated ad nauseam the Church teaching that labor is NOT A COMMODITY.
However, the reality is that CAPITAL still lists labor as one of the OVERHEAD EXPENSES.
When we negotiate for a flat-rate minimum wage, we are still working within the same
INHUMAN PARADIGM of capital that looks on wages as one of the many overhead expenses.

We must get out of the present inhuman box. We must assert that labor is a HUMAN
PARTNER of CAPITAL. Without it, capital cannot produce. In fact, capital was, in the first
place, produced by labor.

In view of the above NEW VIEWPOINT and NEW PARADIGM, we suggest that labor will no
longer be included in the list of overhead expenses. Rather, when the NET PROFIT is in
place, there will be an EQUITABLE division of the collective fruit of the collaboration of
labor and capital. In the existing paradigm, the surplus value of labor goes EXCLUSIVELY to
capital, and labor is just given a pittance. Now is the time to assert that, without labor AND
capital operating TOGETHER, there cannot be profit. So, some kind of PROFIT SHARING is
proposed here.

The above proposal will debunk the claim of some capitalists that high wages will not make
their business profitable. In view of this, the government has exempted some “distressed”
and small businesses from giving the minimum wage. This is not working! Concomitantly,
any UNIFORM and ACROSS THE BOARD setting of a minimum wage will face the unequal
capacity of small and big capitalists.

The Church social encyclical Mater et Magistra exhorted that remuneration of labor “must be determined in accordance with justice and equity” (MM, 71). This means that workers must be compensated according to the fruits of their labor, which “allow them to live a truly human life.”

Another factor is the fear that FOREIGN INVESTMENTS might not come in if wages are too high. The STATUS QUO is that the government has an UNWRITTEN COME-ON TO FOREIGN INVESTORS, “There is more fun and PROFIT in the Philippines because labor is CHEAP and UNORGANIZED!” If labor is A NECESSARY PARTNER in the negotiations of how much foreign capital will share from the net profit, reasonable foreign investors might see a different picture.

There must be a STRATEGIC and COMPREHENSIVE PLAN OF ACTION in view of the above NEW VIEWPOINT and NEW PARADIGM. We suggest that a people’s conference will craft a
proposed LAW embodying the above NEW VIEWPOINT and NEW PARADIGM. Our chances of getting a law passed according to the spirit of the new paradigm are rather slim. But, we
use this opportunity to EDUCATE the people through public debate and education program on our proposed law.

The ULTIMATE PURPOSE is to strengthen labor union organizing. This will include a thorough analysis of the EXTERNAL and INTERNAL FACTORS that hinder and promote genuine labor unions.

Pope Francis said that trade unions are essential for social change. Earlier, St. John Paul II’s Laborem Exercens has supported the right of workers to form labor unions in order to safeguard their vital interests.

WE GO BACK TO THE BASIC PRINCIPLE – GENUINE CHANGE CANNOT COME FROM ABOVE (e.g. a new law); IT CAN ONLY COME FROM BELOW, LED BY THE VANGUARD WORKERS WHO ARE ORGANIZED INTO STRONG LABOR UNIONS; with the support of other sympathetic sectors of society.

On Labor Day, we are one with workers and all people of goodwill in the call, “PEOPLE OVER PROFIT!”

Sicut Christus vivit,

+ Gerardo A. Alminaza, D.D.
Bishop of San Carlos
Head Convenor
Visayas Clergy Discernment Group
visayasclergydiscernment@yahoo.com

Statement

[Press Release] Teachers support workers’ call for wage increase, decent living -TDC

Posted on May 1, 2014 by Human Rights Online Philippines Leave a comment

Teachers support workers’ call for wage increase, decent living

Public school teachers join the celebration and marches today in commemoration of the international labor day that primarily demand for increase in wages and protection for working class.

“Mayday is for all of us- working people to celebrate. This day recognizes our sacrifices and invaluable contribution, not just to the economy but to the entire society.” Benjo Basas, the group’s national chairperson said.
Basas said members of the TDC will be joining the workers under the Bukluran ng Manggagagawang Pilipino (BMP) and the labor alliance NAGKAISA who will march from Welcome Rotonda to Mendiola this morning.

“Teachers bear the agony of low salaries, high prices of commodities, unfair labor practices, heavy workload and contractualization, among others. These are also the everyday sufferings of the Filipino workers, thus our reason to take solidarity with the rest of the working class.” Basas explained.

Basas added that the Aquino administration, so far has not initiated a salary increase proposal for teachers and government workers and the last legislated increase in their salaries was the four-tranche increase in 2009 under the Arroyo administration which was fully implemented two years ago.

“P-Noy, for this day gave us assurance that there will be no increase in the wages of our brothers and sisters in the private sector, the same with us in the government.” Basas added.
TDC calls on Malacanang to provide increase in salaries and other means of benefits for teachers and government employees thru reduction in taxes, increase in productivity enhancement incentive and scrapping of divisive and deceptive performance-based bonus and granting of more benefits under the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS).

“The toils of the working class make the economy revolving and keep the world moving, a caring government should reward them with social recognition, not just jobs fair and free MRT rides. The Filipino workers deserve more.” Basas ended.

TDC vows to initiate protest actions in the remaining weeks of summer vacation for their demands before the classes resume in June. #

Benjo Basas, National Chairperson, 0920-5740241

NEWS RELEASE
May 1, 2014

Press Release

[statement] Labor group slams Baldoz, calls free MRT rides insulting and inciting workers to sedition -BMP

Posted on April 19, 2014 by Human Rights Online Philippines Leave a comment

Labor group slams Baldoz, calls free MRT rides insulting and inciting workers to sedition

“SIMPLY revolting,” this was how a labor leader of a militant labor group reacted to an announcement released by the Secretary of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) yesterday.

On Wednesday, DOLE Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz made the announcement that all public and private sector employees shall be granted free MRT rides on Labor Day. This, only after Department of Transportation and Communication Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya ordered MRT 3 General Manager Al Vitangcol to ensure this year’s Labor Day success.

She also stated that the DOLE is still waiting for a response of the LRTA management for free LRT rides. The DOLE has also organized 150 job fairs nationwide which will run through April to June.

“For the Baldoz who chose honor the Filipino workers with “special privileges” such as free MRT rides on the only day of the year where the true economic engineers and producers of all social wealth is extolled for his back-breaking labor is clearly an insult,” said Gie Relova, Secretary-General of Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino in Metro Manila and Rizal (BMP-NCRR).

The BMP leader likened the free MRT rides of Baldoz as against the workers’ demands to the Christians’ Seven Last Words when Christ, thirsty and crucified on the cross uttered, “I thirst” and a Roman soldiers gave him vinegar instead of water to ease his suffering.

The labor leader explained that the privileges are meager, not a new idea and very limited. “It did not even come from the DOLE but from the DOTC and was not a brand new idea, but was introduced under the term of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and most probably less than a hundred thousand workers based in Metro Manila only can avail of it, out of the 40 million-strong national labor force”.

“Not only is Baldoz insulting our collective work but is also unconsciously inciting the Filipino workers to sedition. She is feeding us with the most excellent justifications for us to rise up against this enslaving system, that she will regret sooner than she thinks, he boldly predicted.

Relova added that, “Free MRT rides for the worker should not even be considered privileges but mere pittance. It is nothing but crumbs from the bountiful feast of shrewd capitalists and the elitist government. This Aquino-led government has done nothing to uplift the lives of the real reasons behind his much-propagated 7.2% gross domestic product growth in 2013”.

There has been no word yet from the Presidential spokespersons if the Palace will announce non-wage benefits besides that already proclaimed by the DOLE Secretary.

Traditionally, President Aquino holds a breakfast dialogue with labor leaders on or a day before Labor Day, where he unveils non-wage benefits for the labor sector and administrative reforms. The President also reports on the development of the work of the agencies attached to the DOLE.

Since past, the BMP together with other labor groups have univocally and consistently demanded government to end contractual employment, provide living wages, the removal of all unnecessary requirements in establishing labor unions and the criminalization of labor violations.

Asked what plans the BMP is hatching for Labor Day, “Come May First, thousands of fuming workers in Metro Manila and other urban centers shall literally paint the town red, Relova responded.

Press Statement
17 April 2014
Contact person: Gie Relova 0915-2862555
Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino- National Capital Region and Rizal
Secretary-General

Statement

[In the news] Activist youth leader bares alleged military surveillance, harassment -InterAksyon.com

Posted on May 5, 2013 by Human Rights Online Philippines Leave a comment

Activist youth leader bares alleged military surveillance, harassment
InterAksyon.com
May 4, 2013

MANILA, Philippines — The chairman of the activist youth group Anakbayan has raised the alarm over what he said were “several incidents of suspected military surveillance and harassment against me.”

In a blog entry in the Philippine Online Chronicles, Vencer Crisostomo said he was preparing to leave his Quezon City home to join Labor Day protests on May 1 when, “at around 9 in the morning, a neighbor reported that a blue van was spotted slowing down in front of our house … seemingly doing surveillance.”

“At least four men were inside the van. (The neighbor) said that at least one wore camouflage pants and military jackets were hanging at the back of the van, visible through the rearview mirror,” he added.

Crisostomo said the neighbor reported the van to security guards of their housing village who confirmed that the driver “identified himself as MSgt Federico Sagun Tambacao, Jr. and presented an military ID card.”

Read full article @interaksyon.com

In the News

[Statement] Pnoy and Private Capital Instituting Pauperism in the Country -Kilusan

Posted on May 3, 2013 by Human Rights Online Philippines Leave a comment

Pnoy and Private Capital Instituting Pauperism in the Country
May 1,2013

The projected economic growth of between 6.7 and 7 percent this year and the rosy international credit ratings for the Philippines do not necessarily translate into the improvement of the people’s lives. Latest figures from the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) show that poverty incidence remain largely unchanged since 2006– from 10.8 percent in 2006, 10.0 percent in 2009 and 10.0 percent in 2012. A Filipino family of five needs P5,458 to meet basic food needs every month. Families earning such amount is considered to be living in “extreme poverty” and this amounts to ten percent of Filipino families. Neo-liberal’s claim of attaining inclusive growth is hollow. In reality, it is a jobless growth.

Rather than developing strategic and capital goods industries, Pnoy’s idea of job generation is by expanding services and further opening up the country’s natural resources for imperialist plunder. The government has pegged tourism, Business Process Outsourcing (BPOs), agribusiness and mining as priority investment areas.

At the same time, the government has gradually abdicated its responsibility of providing social services to the people, through an outright sale of government properties rendering direct services or via the private-public partnership or PPP. For neoliberalism means “rejection of the state of its social functions”.

The push to bring in more private capital into strategic economic endeavors was recently articulated by Mr. Manny Pangilinan, the top executive of telecommunication monopoly, Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT). In fact, PLDT has come under fire recently with its extensive foreign capitalization. For instance, JP Morgan Asset Holdings (Hong Kong), NTT DoCoMo (Japan) and NTT Communication Corp. (Japan) already comprise 40.59 percent, a breach of the 60-40 equity in favor of Filipinos.

If this was not bad enough, the real creators of wealth, which is labor-power, is continuously under attack by capital. In the case of Pangilinan, he has earned a notorious reputation when it comes to dealing with unions and its own employees. He has come out with sophisticated techniques to chip away at union membership and render the union powerless. He has done it before with PLDT’s rank and file union, now he is doing it again, this time with the Digitel Employees Union (DEU), the union of his most recent acquisition, Digitel.

While PLDT profits enjoyed a 12 percent boost courtesy of Digitel’s contribution to the PLDT group, the DEU workers are left jobless, as new owner PLDT has the gall to violate the Supreme Court decision which favored the union and ordered that negotiations for collective bargaining agreement to commence immediately. The management’s offer—a job in PLDT but on a contractual basis.

Neo-liberalism is for unhampered flow of capital and commodities. Impediments are anathema to its operation including the decision of the Supreme Court.

Like other foreign monopoly capitalists and big local businessmen, Pangilinan epitomizes the logic of private capital in pushing the Filipino people especially the workers into an “ever increasing misery” in their own homeland.

After proving himself to be an anti-Filipino by squeezing the Filipino workers dry, Pangilinan “called on Malacañang to include the private sector in mapping out fresh antipoverty programs.” Continuously pushing its former regular workers into the ranks of contractuals, he has long ago lost every inch of a moral ground in combating poverty. He has been doing this in seven heath care institutions or hospitals, four telecommunications companies, one electric provider, one water provider, three BPOs, one cable provider, one mining corporation, one TV network, one investment corporation and one tollway corporation .

As of July last year, the MVP Group had a total market capital of P 1.194 trillion, revenues of P 480.32 billion and core profit of P72.36 billion.

It is a simple case of double talk. In fact, what he meant is for the government to specifically open agriculture and tourism to private capital in the pretext of “creating higher levels of employment and income to our people”.

As the working class celebrates today the International Workers Day, we extend our solidarity with them and are with them in the struggle against the neo-liberal offensives against the working class.

Let us continue to expose the pretensions of Pnoy’s government in ascribing the masses as his “boss”. Let us further build an invigorated broad people’s movement to assert our sovereignty.

Statement

[Press Release] Aquino ‘turning a blind eye’ to workers woes – CTUHR

Posted on May 2, 2013 by Human Rights Online Philippines Leave a comment

Aquino ‘turning a blind eye’ to workers woes – CTUHR

On the 111th International Labor Day, Center for Trade Union and Human Rights criticized the Aquino administration’s responses concerns of Filipino workers saying that the administration is “turning a blind eye” to workers issues and demands.

CTUHR Executive Director Daisy Arago said, “Recent actions and responses of Malacanang and the Department of Labor [and employment] to workers’ clamor for substantial wage hike, decent employment and work security prove that the current government is not promoting ‘inclusive’ growth; rather, it is turning a blind eye to workers’ demands and the root causes of workers woes”

In addressing unemployment and jobless growth, Arago stated that DOLE’s ‘much-boasted’ 400,000 jobs available in job fairs this Labor Day is hardly enough to provide employment to over 4 million unemployed Filipinos. “They do this every year but joblessness in the country cannot be addressed if the government will rely on labor export and the BPOs, construction, and service sector to generate jobs. And these are the kind of jobs being offered in these job fairs,” Arago added.

Increasing working poor

Citing a report of the National Statistics Coordination Board, Arago said that the unchanged poverty incidence is clear indication that Aquino’s economic and labor programs are not pro-workers and pro-poor. “The government still does not have a plan on how it can generate decent jobs and at the same time it refuses to approve significant wage hikes for the workers when it is obvious that these courses of actions could actually improve the situation of Filipino workers.”

Arago also noted that the number of working poor in the country is as much as 10 million while approximately 8 million working Filipinos are living with less than 1 dollar each day.

Shrewd labor policies

Arago also described Aquino’s labor policies as “shrewd” guised in progressive and kind language but are essentially undermining workers’ rights and running counter to workers’ interest. Arago cited several new labor laws and policies namely the strengthening of tripartism, mandatory conciliation in labor disputes, and the two tier wage system to illustrate her point.

“The government is using the concept of tripartism to project that it is democratically discussing with the workers its labor agenda and policies. But can tripartism actually work in our current situation wherein employers and the government collude in promoting capital’s interest at the expense of workers? We fear that this mechanism will only be used by both employers and the government to legitimize anti-workers policies and programs.”

Arago also bucked the mandatory conciliation period as a way to deter workers from filing complaints against abusive employers. Arago explained that with this new law, workers are compelled to ‘negotiate’ first with their employers their complaints for a period of 30 days and only when the conciliation fails can the workers file a formal complaint at a labor court. Arago expressed that this situation is again not favorable to the workers.

“Needless to say, the two tier wage system is an outright attack, even an insult, to the workers demand for significant wage hike. It definitely shows how the government is hell-bent on inviting more investors at the expense of labor,” Arago added.

The two tier wage system introduces two levels of wages, floor wage and productivity-based wage, and practically brings down the minimum wage rates.

Continuing attack on workers

In terms of unionism and workers freedoms, Arago stressed that the situation under Aquino is no better than before.

“Unionism is still in decline because of repressive laws that hinder workers from organizing and also because of ballooning contractualization,” Arago said.

The group said that only around 8 percent of the employed population are unionized and only 230,000 workers are covered by collective bargaining agreement.

Arago also said that harassment on independent unionists has not stopped but has in fact worsened under Aquino. “Union leaders are still being harassed, criminalized and even killed,” Arago added.

The group cited that in their monitoring from June 2010 to Dec 2012, there are 301 cases labor rights violations and violation of civil and political rights committed against some 24,000 workers.

RELEASE
01 May 2012
Reference: Daisy Arago, CTUHR Executive Director, 411.0256

Press Release

[Featured Photo] NAGKAISA! Labor coalition marched from España blvd to Mendiola bridge -PhilRights

Posted on May 2, 2013 by Human Rights Online Philippines Leave a comment

NAGKAISA! Labor coalition marched from España blvd to Mendiola bridge

NAGKAISA! Labor coalition marched from España blvd to Mendiola bridge- Photo by PhilRights

The workers from NAGKAISA! Labor coalition marched from España blvd to Mendiola bridge to challenge candidates for the upcoming 2013 elections and the President of the Republic of the Philippines to uphold the Worker’s Agenda. The workers demands are:

1) Regular Jobs,

2) Living Wage,

3) Labor Rights in the Public Sector and

4) Lower power rates.

For more photos visit and like PhilRights @https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152745158690184.1073741827.398337155183&type=1

[Press Release] KAMP joins Labor Day rally to demand jobs and living wage for informal labor

Posted on May 2, 2013 by Human Rights Online Philippines Leave a comment

KAMP joins Labor Day rally to demand jobs and living wage for informal labor

The Kampanya para sa Makataong Pamumuhay (KAMP) joined NAGKAISA! – the broadest labor coalition in the Philippines to date – to celebrate Labor Day yesterday. KAMP leaders and members assembled at the PLDT Bldg. along España Ave., Manila and marched to Mendiola.

Side-by-side NAGKAISA’s demand for job and employment security and labor rights for formal labor, “KAMP is pushing for employment facilitation at the local level, employment guarantees and employment generation. These are the demands of the vulnerable sectors of labor – the unemployed, underemployed, and unpaid family workers estimated to be 60% to 70% of the labor force,” explained KAMP Head Convenor Ana Maria R. Nemenzo.

“Workers in the informal sector need protection from government. That is why, besides jobs and a living wage, KAMP is also pushing for universal health care, and decent and affordable housing for the poor and marginalized,” Ms. Nemenzo added.

The activity is a start of KAMP’s campaign to push for policies and legislations versus “jobless growth” and poverty that continue to persist, firmly demonstrating that the conditional cash transfer is not sufficient. KAMP wants the government to develop and implement an economic strategy that prioritizes production for domestic needs and consumption, and at the same time is anchored on sound and equitable agricultural and industrial development to generate more jobs for the country’s growing labor force.

PRESS RELEASE
Kampanya para sa Makataong Pamumuhay (KAMP)
1 May 2013

Press Release

[Blog] The Rediscovery and Re-enchantment of Our Humanity: in Honor of the May Day and In Defense of the Global Occupy Movement by Jose Mario De Vega

Posted on May 1, 2013 by Human Rights Online Philippines Leave a comment

The Rediscovery and Re-enchantment of Our Humanity: in Honor of the May Day and In Defense of the Global Occupy Movement

The present times are complicatedly so fast and furious. So fast the pacing that we forget to stop and pause to enjoy the quality time with our family and savor the moment with our friends!

We are so concern with so many pressing issues and material needs that we forgot the importance of silence, of meditation and reflections with are necessary in having conversation with our inner selves. Sadly, we instead push and push and in doing so, we fail to cherish life’s true joys and simple pleasures.

Modern technology has truly revolutionized human life. It has indeed made living hassle-free, easy, and above all, comfortable.

However, I am wondering whether the price that we have to pay for this kind of fast-paced life is worth it? Technology made it possible for us to hook up with anyone that we wish to talk to, yet ironically we spend more time ‘talking’ to our computers rather than our family. The internet has turned the young today as addict, worst than the television. Rather than engaged in actual interaction, our kids today are more interested in an on-line, virtual ‘relationship’. Everybody seems to be so busy with their respective business and duties that we miserably forget the necessary things from the mere pleasurable and fleeting cravings.

We have no time to ourselves and so as to our love-ones. We are so preoccupied with the ways of the modern world that it blinded us from the true, the good, the lasting and the beautiful! Truth hurts! Reality bites!

Sad but true! What went wrong?

It was widely reported that when the Dalai Lama was asked, what surprised him most about humanity, he answered thus as: Man. Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived.

We betrayed our humanism for materialism. The modern way has programmed us for quick results and immediate outcome; yet we completely forgotten that life as a whole does not operate that way, that we cannot forced certain things because they in itself are dependent in time and circumstances. We failed to realize that the most important things in life are those beautiful things, momentous events and vivid experiences that come naturally at their own time. Perfect examples of this would be the fulfillment of a dream, the realization of an objective and moment of critical decision. These acts cannot be made in haste nether can they be force by an instant desire.

The book of Ecclesiastes has taught us that there is always a perfect time for everything:

To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

We all want to help one another and share each other’s happiness; human beings are like that; yet as economic progression has further developed and as we maximized to the maximum all the resources of mother earth; it seems to me that we have lost our way.

Greed has invariably poisoned men’s minds and corrupted their souls. The present global financial system has barricaded the world with individualism, hate, racism, nihilism, selfishness and false consciousness. The prevailing system has reduced man into a machine that is a mere appendage to the whole economic operational chains.

This presently ‘developed’ world has led and goosed us to misery, degradation and widespread bloodshed.

We have developed speed, but we deny the very existence of our fellows; and shut ourselves inside our very selves. Machinery that gives unimaginable abundance and immeasurable wealth has left has in want, hunger and deprivation!

Our knowledge has made us cynical and apathetic; our cleverness turns us into hard and unkind beings! We lost track of what is important in life, such as family, friendship and human solidarity. Instead we replaced them by money, competition and technology.
We think too much, yet we feel so little! It seems that we have already erased from our memory what Ludwid van Bethoven had taught us: Recommend to your children virtue; that alone can make them happy, not gold.

We are not aware, but the system has transformed us into a machine. The system has assumed an invincible power over our own selves, clouded our better judgment and has shattered our independence. We are all victims of this system that tell us what to think, what to feel, what to do, what to prioritize and what to value. Man is forgetting that he is not a machine or an object nor a commodity. He is man, natural, living, independent and free, a social being by nature!

As the great German philosopher Karl Marx said: Humans are urged to live to work, not to work to live!

However, all is not lost! There is always hope and regeneration!
As Charlie Chaplin lucidly expressed in a speech in one of his classical movies:

More the machinery, we need humanity. More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness. Without this qualities; life would be violent and all would be lost.

Knowledge without morality is dead; wisdom without a firm ethical basis is unthinkable and material prosperity is empty if the soul is in shambles and incomplete!

To be a complete man, what we need is not only the dryness of the mind, but also the warmness of the heart and the goodness of the soul!

We can only realize all of this, if we would return to our humanity and share it to our families, friends and the rest of society. No man is an island.

To paraphrase the Greek philosopher Aristotle: Man by nature is a socio-political animal. We will never ever complete our social beings without immersing and bonding with our fellowmen.

Hence, we must not only return to ourselves, but also it would certainly do humanity as a whole a lot of good if we will return to ancient teachings which are based on wisdom, compassion and courage to re-adjust, re-look, re-learn and reform ourselves in all aspects our lives to restore the values, virtues and position of human beings in the world!

It is on this great sense that I firmly believe in the power of the international working classes to transform the rest of humanity from barbarity back to humanity and one of those great popular socio-political vehicle for them to realize that objective is by forging solidarity to the Occupy Global Movement.

As Professor Noam Chomsky said during his talk at the Occupy Boston encampment on Dewey Square on October 22, 2011:

“You can’t achieve significant initiative without a large, active, popular base. Its necessary to get out into the country and help people understand what the Occupy movement is about — what they themselves can do, and what the consequences are not doing anything.

“Organizing such a base involves education and activism. Education doesn’t mean telling people what to believe — it also means learning from them and with them.

“Karl Marx famously said that the task is not just to understand the world but to change it. A variant to keep in mind is that if you want to change the world you’d better try to understand it. That doesn’t mean just listening to a talk or reading a book, though that’s helpful sometimes.

“You learn from participating. You learn from others. You learn from the people you’re trying to organize. We all have to gain the understanding and the experience to formulate and implement ideas as to how to move forward.

“The most exciting aspect of the Occupy movement is the construction of the linkages that are taking place all over. If they can be sustained and expanded, Occupy can lead to dedicated efforts to set society on a more humane course.”

HAPPY INTERNATIONAL LABOR DAY! LONG LIVE THE GLOBAL OCCUPY MOVEMENT!!!

Jose Mario Dolor De Vega

Philosophy lecturer
Polytechnic University of the Philippines
Far Eastern University

Blog

[Press Release] Workers belittle non-wage benefits as “scraps,” job fairs as “farce” -PM

Posted on April 30, 2013 by Human Rights Online Philippines Leave a comment

Workers belittle non-wage benefits as “scraps,” job fairs as “farce”

As President Benigno Aquino III announced non-wage benefits for workers today, the militant Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) belittled it as “scraps meant for slaves.” “Workers are not children that can be pacified with candy. The Constitution mandated a living wage for workers but the State keeps minimum wages at starvation levels,” declared Renato Magtubo.

The group also criticized the job fairs scheduled on Labor Day as a “farce.” “Job fairs are simply job facilitation yet the real issue is employment generation. So-called economic growth has not translated to job creation. Unemployment remains at 7% and even college graduates constitute almost one fifth of the unemployed. The 400,000 jobs available at the job fairs cannot even provide for the 530,000 recent graduates,” Magtubo added.

In a vigil this afternoon at Mendiola, several hundred PM members highlighted the call “Manggagawa Naman” as they demanded that workers’ concerns be a priority in the national agenda. They also brought dozens of boiled eggs to symbolize their critique that President Aquino has not done anything for workers. “Sa ikatlong Mayo Uno niya sa Malacanang, bokya pa din ang mga manggagawa kay PNoy,” asserted Judy Miranda, PM secretary general.

Tomorrow the PM contingent will merge with the labor coalition Nagkaisa in a big Labor Day march from Espana to Mendiola. PM will underscore its “Apat na Dapat” demands which are regular jobs with living wages; housing, education and health care services for all; cheap prices of food and utilities; and equal rights and opportunity for women.

Members of the Philippine Airlines Employees’ Association (PALEA) also attended the vigil as they laid wreaths at the foot of Mendiola for Bienvenido Ruiz, an outsourced Philippine Airlines worker who died of a stroke last Sunday. “The martyrdom of Bien Ruiz, Antonio Enero, Danny Hernandez, Alfredo Limana and Arturo Estrada—who all died during the pendency our struggle against outsourcing—embolden us to fight until victory so that their deaths will not be in vain,” insisted Gerry Rivera, PALEA president and PM vice chair.

PM is leading nationwide protests tomorrow on Labor Day. In Cebu, thousands of PM members will unite with the Nagkaisa contingent for a 7,000-strong rally from downtown Colon to Fuente Osmena. In Bacolod, PM will merge with the labor coalition GAWA for a rally at the downtown area. In Iloilo, PM will have an assembly of construction workers and then initiate a rally march to Plaza Letogay. In Davao, PM and Nagkaisa will have a joint protest at Orcullo Park. In Iligan, PM will link up with a labor unity rally at the public park in front of City Hall.

Press Release
April 30, 2013
Partido ng Manggagawa
Contact Renato Magtubo @ 09178532905

Press Release

[Statement] Urgent Call to Political Candidates: Celebrate Labor Day by Upholding Workers’ Rights and Dignity -VCDG

Posted on April 30, 2013 by Human Rights Online Philippines Leave a comment

Urgent Call to Political Candidates:
Celebrate Labor Day by Upholding Workers’ Rights and Dignity

On behalf of the bishops and priests of the Visayas Clergy Discernment Group (VCDG), I would like to call on government officials and those running for elective positions to meaningfully celebrate the Feast Day of Saint Joseph the Worker and the International Workers’ Day on May 1, 2013, by enacting laws and implementing programs promoting the human dignity of workers.

We are one with Pope Francis who said in his book On Heaven and Earth, “We have to search for equality of opportunities and rights, to fight for social benefits, a dignified retirement, holidays, rest, freedom for trade unions. All of these issues create social justice. There should be no have-nots and I want to emphasize that the worst wretchedness is not to be able to earn your bread, not to have the dignity of work.”

Recently, workers from the different parts of the Visayas and the whole country have shared with us that their rights as workers have been violated due to the following: unemployment, low wages, contractualization, and union-busting. How can they joyfully celebrate May 1?

While May 1 celebrates the victory of the 1886 workers’ strike for an eight-hour workday, we are appalled that some garment workers in factories in the Mactan Export Processing Zone in Cebu are forced to work for more than 16 hours a day until the quota is reached, else they would be “shot by the guard.”

Pope Francis also said, “We live in the most unequal part of the world, which has grown the most yet reduced misery the least.The unjust distribution of goods persists, creating a situation of social sin that cries out to Heaven and limits the possibilities of a fuller life for so many of our brothers.”

What the Holy Father said is also true in our country where amidst so-called “economic growth”, poverty incidence remained the same since 2006, according to the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB). So many of our workers have become jobless, hungry and homeless.

Last February 2013 in an Election Summit of the Archdiocese of Cebu, workers listed the following as their agenda: 1) Employment through developing domestic industries; 2) Decent and living wage: Support legislated wage increase; 3) Regular jobs: Abolish contractualization of labor; 4) Worker’s rights protected: Abolish the power of the Labor Secretary to assume jurisdiction of labor dispute.
We, the electorate must ask the political candidates to heed the Workers’ Agenda. A candidate’s commitment to the fulfillment of workers’ rights and the promotion of the workers’ dignity must be one of the important considerations in voting for him/her. All of us must do our share to address the workers’ plight, as Pope Francis reminded us that failing to do this “is going against the commandment of God which says that we have to transform the world.”

For reference:

Bishop Gerardo A. Alminaza, D.D.
Auxiliary Bishop of Jaro/ VCDG Head Convenor
Tel. No. 032-4068079

VISAYAS CLERGY DISCERNMENT GROUP
E-Mail Address: visayasclergydiscernment@yahoo.com

Press Statement
April 29, 2013

Statement

[Press Release] Low wage policy, job fairs won’t bring Pilar and Pepe out of chronic poverty -PM

Posted on April 25, 2013 by Human Rights Online Philippines Leave a comment

Low wage policy, job fairs won’t bring Pilar and Pepe out of chronic poverty

The labor group Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) deplores the “no wage hike” on Labor Day announcement made by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) the other day, saying it is the country’s unemployment problem and low-wage policy that keeps Pilar and Pepe suffer a life of misery under chronic poverty.

The group declared that the call for a wage adjustment will be one of the highlights of the big May Day rally planned by the labor coalition Nagkaisa. Today the coalition is holding a motorcade that will pass by different government agencies including DOLE. On the eve of Labor Day, PM is holding an overnight vigil of several hundred workers and poor at Mendiola to press for its demands against contractualization and high prices.

The no wage hike announcement coincided with the release by the National Statistical Coordinating Board (NSCB) of a report indicating the country’s failure to cut poverty incidence during the last six years (2006-2012).

The same report also revealed that those who produce the country’s food requirements—the agricultural workers and fisherfolks—were the lowest paid among employed workers.

PM chair, Renato Magtubo, said he found Malacanang’s wage freeze announcement as a deliberate attempt to distance itself from the wage issue in anticipation of this poverty report by the NSCB.

“Everybody is aware of the fact that poverty is deeply associated with income and the latter being the product of flawed employment and wage policy. Yet the government is trying to skirt the wage issue as if this chronic problem of poverty is not enough to warrant immediate action even prior to the Labor Day celebration,” lamented Magtubo.

The National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC) in its last estimate (2008) placed the family living wage (FLW) in NCR at PhP 917 per day. FLW is significantly higher in the poorest region of ARMM where it was estimated to reach PhP 1,322.

PM is advocating for the implementation of the living wage concept provided under the 1987 Constitution as against the minimum wage concept under Republic Act 6727 or the Wage Rationalization Law. The minimum wage in Metro Manila stands at only PhP446 a day or less than half of the desired FLW.

“To live a decent life, a Filipino family needs at least two minimum wage earners to survive a gruelling daily life in Metro Manila. Sadly 27.9% of the population based on NSCB report cannot even get out of the poverty line as they have no source of income to meet the basic food and non-food requirements now estimated to be at PhP 7,821 a month or PhP 260 a day,” said Magtubo.

The labor leader likewise stressed that low wage and unemployment problems are twin issues that the government should address frontally and not through mega showcase such as job fairs done during Labor Day. PM is advocating a paradigm shift in the economic policy of the government as a step towards resolving the job and income crisis.

PRESS RELEASE
Partido ng Manggagawa
25 April 2013
Contact: Renato Magtubo
09178532905

Press Release

[Press Release] Jobs fairs are a job farce, say labor group -PM

Posted on April 25, 2013 by Human Rights Online Philippines Leave a comment

Jobs fairs are a job farce, say labor group

The militant Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) blasted the Labor Day job fairs announced by Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz as a “job farce.” “These job fairs are a gimmick to cover up the truth that government is not doing anything significant to solve mass unemployment,” asserted Renato Magtubo, PM national chair.

He explained that job fairs are simply job facilitation instead of job generation. “The government is propagating the myth that the problem is job mismatch and thus the solution is job matching and facilitation. Yet the figures do not lie—the unemployment rate remains at 7%, meaning some three million Filipinos are jobless. Millions more are not officially counted as unemployed because they not anymore looking for work after months and years of desperately looking for non-existent jobs,” Magtubo lamented.

He added that “Even a college diploma does not help since 17% of the unemployed are tertiary graduates. The 400,000 jobs allegedly being offered at the May 1 job fairs will not even suffice to provide employment for the 530,000 college graduates who entered the labor force this April.”

“Despite the much-vaunted 6.6% increase in gross domestic product last year and the 5% average rate even before, the unemployment rate and poverty incidence has remained high. Jobless GNP growth means Gutom Na Pilipino for the masses,” Magtubo avowed.

He insisted that “In fact job fairs are even contributing to joblessness since human resources personnel of private companies are being retrenched because their work has been outsourced to the Labor Department and public employment service offices of local governments.”

“Stop the Labor Day job fairs gimmick. This publicity stunt was invented during the illegitimate reign of Gloria Arroyo and has been continued by the administration of Noynoy Aquino albeit his anti-GMA stance. Gloria the economics teacher and PNoy the diligent student do not differ in their blind belief in the neoliberal dogma of the free market. Yet the private sector has historically failed in providing full employment,” Magtubo argued.

PM is advocating a paradigm shift in the economic policy of the government as a step towards resolving the jobs crisis. “In the short-term, the government will have to embark on a public employment program to provide gainful work to the millions of unemployed and underemployed. In the long-term, the country needs an economic policy and plan that will result in the development of domestic labor-intensive agriculture and industry,” Magtubo elaborated.

Press Release
April 24, 2013
Partido ng Manggagawa
Contact Renato Magtubo @ 09178532905

Press Release

[Press Release] Real Noynoying is active defense of corporate greed at the expense of the Filipino masses – BMP

Posted on May 2, 2012 by Human Rights Online Philippines Leave a comment

20,000 Workers march against starvation pay, high prices and contractualization:

Real Noynoying is active defense of corporate greed at the expense of the Filipino masses – BMP

To commemorate Labor Day, thousands of workers from the socialist labor center Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP) joined the broad labor coalition Nagkaisa to demand an end to starvation pay, high prices and contractualization. Nagkaisa is a newly formed group which brings together more than 40 national unions, labor centers and labor federations throughout the country.

Real Noynoying: Defense of Corporate Greed

Leody de Guzman, BMP president said, “Noynoying is not just the indolence and passivity of Malacanang to the people’s legitimate demands for an increase in wages, price control and regular employment. More so, it is the active defense of corporate greed – of monopoly capital’s insatiable thirst for higher profit margins – at the expense of the Filipino people especially the working class”.

The BMP converged at the Welcome (Mabuhay) Rotonda in Quezon City at around 8:00 a.m., before they joined the Nagkaisa march from Espana to Mendiola.

Noynoy’s Subservience to the Oil Oligarchs

Spearheading the BMP contingent are transport workers under Pagkakaisa ng Manggagawa sa Transportasyon (PMT), an affiliate of BMP, which mobilized 7 buses, 5 trucks, 10 jeeps and 500 tricycles from their members.

Dante Lagman, PMT president declared, “The spectacle that is the Corona impeachment is fast losing its luster. Noynoy uses the people’s sentiment against corruption and the Arroyos to score a higher trust rating in the surveys. But he is now being exposed as a lackey of the oil oligarchs. His subservience to the will of multinational corporations is revealed by his intransigent position against the control of petrol prices, the regulation of the oil industry, and the removal of the VAT on oil and other petroleum products.”

Labor Unity: the Gain of May 1, 2012

BMP National President Leody de Guzman concluded, “Noynoy would not give in to the demands of labor because he is not only pro-capital; he is anti-worker. But we will not go home empty handed. The real victory of May 1 this year lies in labor unity. The fragmented labor movement must unite; after all, the onslaught of globalization against the rights and welfare of labor knows no political color, affiliation or ideology. We are all under attack. So, organized labor must assemble.”

PRESS RELEASE
May 1, 2012
Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP)

Press Release

[In the news] Labor Day fun runs, job fairs, rallies in Cebu -Cebu Daily News

Posted on May 1, 2012 by Human Rights Online Philippines Leave a comment

Labor Day fun runs, job fairs, rallies in Cebu.

May 1, 2012

RALLIES, fun runs and job fairs mark today’s observance of Labor Day in Cebu.

Separate rallies will be held by two labor coalitions to air their demands for a wage increase.

A coalition of 21 labor groups called Nagkaisa (United) kicks off their march rally at the Associated Labor Unions (ALU) office in Pier 1, Cebu City.

The rally will end at the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) regional office at Plaza Independencia.

ALU area vice president Ferdinand Jumapao said they will renew calls for a P90 increase across the board.

The coalition said it supports the abolition of contractualization and the passage of the security of tenure bill for workers.

The National Coalition for the Protection of Workers’ Rights (NCPWR) will assemble at Fuente Osmeña circle, then go to downtown Colon Street for a program.

NCPWR convenor Casimero Mahilum said they seek the abolition of contractualization which they consider the “silent killer” of labor.

Mahilum said they also support the abolition of the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board which he said was biased in favor of management.

He it’s better to have a legislated wage increase in order to avoid regional discrimination.

Read full article @ cebudailynews.wordpress.com

In the News

[Statement] Reviving labor unity and struggles amidst the global rebellion of the 99% -PM

Posted on May 1, 2012 by Human Rights Online Philippines Leave a comment

Reviving labor unity and struggles amidst the global rebellion of the 99%

Photo source Froilan Tancinco FB

Grace Lee is far luckier than private sector workers for President Benigno Aquino has surprises for the former but no gifts for the latter on Labor Day. But this is not due to a personal defect on the part of PNoy but a systemic defect of the government. The government is captive to a defective economic model called globalization which sacrifices workers needs to the interests of foreign investors and local capitalists.

From “Erap para sa Mahirap” to “Kayo ang boss ko,” Malacanang’s spinmeisters have concocted different kinds of packaging to the same product—a regime of suppression of workers wages and labor rights for the sake of an illusory development anchored on foreign investments and global competitiveness.

This is confirmed by the recently released “Global Wage Report 2010” of the ILO which notes that workers in the Philippines are among the lowest paid in the world and wages are falling still. Low wages particularly afflicts women workers and even those with high educational attainment. But we really do not need the ILO to confirm the bitter reality felt by Filipino workers—low wages, few benefits, contractual jobs, mass unemployment and repression of unions despite GNP growth.

The imperative to unite and fight for the dignity of workers is the spark for the formation of Nagkaisa which embraces the country’s major labor centers and groups for the first time since the 1980’s. The unity forged among some 40 labor organizations to advance the struggle for regular jobs, wage hike, low cost of electricity and oil, among others as immediate concerns together with long-term demands on policy shift is a key component of the renewal and revival of the labor movement. A strong militant labor movement is the foundation for the working class to regain its place as the tribune of the people and vanguard of social change.

In the entire world, May Day this year will be commemorated in mass protests if not in general strikes. May 1st is a day to express the resistance of the 99% to the greed of the 1%. The convergence of the youth-led Occupy movement with the traditional labor movement will radicalize and strengthen both. In the US, the Occupy movement is calling for a general strike, meaning “no work, no school, no shopping, no banking, and no trading.” The call has reverberated in hundreds of cities across the globe and a worldwide disruption of the status quo is the agenda.

The struggle of PALEA against contractualization and of Tucuma Federation against demolition is part of the global rebellion of the 99% against the 1%. In the midst of such life-and-death battles for workers welfare and rights, the unity in action of Nagkaisa will be tested and forged. The historic Labor Day rally by Nagkaisa in Mendiola and in other cities in Visayas and Mindanao is an important first step on the long journey to recover the dignity of workers, revive the labor movement and ultimately reform Philippine society.

Press Statement
May 1, 2012
Renato Magtubo
Chairperson
Partido ng Manggagawa
Contact 09178532905