These senatorial hopefuls vowed to put forward the interests of workers and the Filipino people should they win in the senatorial race.

By ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL
Bulatlat.com

MANILA – On International Labor Day, labor groups endorsed ‘pro-people candidates’ who they deemed will fight for their rights in the Senate.

After marching from Welcome Rotunda to Chino Roces Bridge (former Mendiola Bridge), labor groups marched again to Liwasang Bonifacio to name their bets in the senatorial race. Among them are senatorial candidates under the Labor Win alliance: Neri Colmenares, Leody De Guzman, Sonny Matula, Ernesto Arellano and Allan Montaño. They also endorsed senatorial candidates from Otso Diretso, Jose Manuel “Chel Diokno and Erin Tañada.

These senatorial hopefuls vowed to put forward the interests of workers and the Filipino people should they win in the senatorial race.

Workers’ groups presented the Labor Agenda 2019 which include:

1) End contractualization.
2) Legislate a minimum wage.
3) Affordable and low prices.
4) Benefits for workers.
5) Occupational health and safety.
6) Respect right to self-organization.
7) Vote for overseas Filipino workers and migrants’ rights.
8) Oppose all forms of child labor.
9) Stop trade union oppression.
10) End unfair trade agreements and poverty.

Kilusang Mayo Uno executive vice chairman Lito Ustarez said their challenge to the senatorial candidates is to bring this agenda to the Senate. He said these candidates commitment to the labor agenda will be the fulfillment of their long time calls.

Tañada meanwhile said people should unite in the last stretch of the campaign period so that the labor agenda will surely be brought to the legislature.

He also stressed the need for a national minimum wage as the prices of commodities and utilities in the provinces are more expensive and yet, workers receive minimum wage as low as P256 ($5).

Meanwhile, Colmenares said through the social media that the pro-labor senatorial candidates have four most pressing tasks:

1. Increase workers’ wages through the re-establishment of a national minimum wage based on a realistic and decent cost of living. Current proposals of around P750 per day is a reasonable starting point.
2. Prohibit abusive contractual labor arrangements. Endo or labor only contracting is actually already prohibited under Labor Law. What the Senate should ban is the use of contractual labor to replace what should be regular jobs in a company
3. Raise pensions for retired workers who deserve pensions that can provide for their most basic needs. The remaining P1,000 increase in SSS pensions should be given so retirees can cope with the increase in prices of goods since last year.
4. Lower prices of goods and services by removing TRAIN’s added tax on fuel and other goods, removing or reducing VAT on power, water & fuel, and preventing overpricing and other monopoly practices by cartels.

The 4 most pressing tasks of pro-labor senatorial candidates:

1. Increase workers wages through the re-establishment of a national minimum wage based on a realistic and decent cost of living. Current proposals of around P750 per day is a reasonable starting point. #LaborDay2019

— Neri Colmenares (@ColmenaresPH) May 1, 2019

Ustarez meanwhile reiterated that whatever the results of the elections, these groups who committed to fight for the workers’ rights will not falter. “We will be together in the struggle, in the Senate or in the parliament of the streets,” he said.

Colmenares also said through the social media, “Regardless of election outcomes, this is an important moment in history when we acknowledge a Labor Vote, which is ultimately the power of the labor sector to choose and put a pro-worker agenda in the Senate. Kailangang maipagpatuloy pa ang electoral engagement na ito! Mabuhay ang ating manggagawa!”

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By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO
Bulatlat.com

MANILA — It was impossible to resist the airconditioned rooms that the fastfood chains along the stretch of Mendiola offered to May Day protesters and even journalists covering the annual mobilization yesterday. Reality struck me that while the fiery speeches and burning issues might bring exhilaration to the soul and the sprit, a whopping 40-degree heat index could push the body toward the comfort of the shade and a cool room.

As soon as the program was over, many sought the comfort of a nearby shade, gulping down water, and resting and preparing for the next program at Liwasang Bonifacio.

We, on the other hand, gave in to the temptation.

There was no time to spare. We looked for an empty table and found none. So we looked for those who are likely to finish eating soon and gave them those puppy-eyed plea that we need that seat. After getting a table, I volunteered to order the food. And we quickly snarfed it down as soon as it was served.

In the middle of everything, however, the lights suddenly turned off. I was waiting something to happen – perhaps, the Big One? Then, I looked behind me and saw three restaurant staff marching ala activist with placards assailing the increasing prices brought to us by President Duterte’s tax reform package, and another calling for the end to contractualization.

For a split second, I thought there was a flash mob inside the restaurant. Why not? Workers in the service sector, after all, are unfortunately among the underpaid and overworked. A few more seconds later, we learned that some protesters earlier left their placards on the table and that the staff were merely clearing it up.

How unfortunate, really, since there were only three journalists in the restaurant at that time – Marya, Zeng, and I. And all three of them happened to be holding a spoon on one hand and fork on the other and not a camera to capture the moment.

One restaurant staff continued to toy with the placard. We could not resist but ask if we can have a photo when the lights came back.

One staff seemed fine with it. But just before my colleague Marya snapped her camera, another staff softly said, “uuuuy.” And the hesitation quickly escaped the eyes of the willing staff, betraying his wide and bright smile.

And suddenly we all knew what it meant. Even before Zeng pointed out explicitly that he might end up losing his job.

It is a sad reality that workers, especially contractual workers, are facing – deprived of their just salary and benefits, and now even their freedom of expression.

In fact, it has been a long-standing plan of Bulatlat to write a story or produce a short video documentary about the life of a contractual worker who will willingly allow us to identify them. We wanted to give a face to the workers behind the statistics. But we have yet to find one. So far, all of those we were able to speak to are hesitant. They all know too well the repercussions it may bring.

And they’d sadly endure it than lose their job.

This sorry state is what many labor groups wish to end. And there is just no other way but stand united. Whatever it takes.

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“Even a salary of P36,000 is not enough. We have to borrow money to make ends meet. At times, we even have to pawn our ATMs (to loan sharks). My mere daily transportation cost is already pegged at P4,000. How could they dare tell us that about P10,000 is enough?”

By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO
Bulatlat.com

MANILA – Tipid na tipid kami. (We’re living on a tight budget.)

This is how 34-year-old Mary Jane Emplamado described her life as a factory worker and a mother, with her present salary barely enough to cover their needs. She cooks one viand per day, hoping it would last for the entire day.

“It’s really difficult. We try to make ends meet. Out of my meager salary, I still send money to my family back in the province,” she told Bulatlat in Filipino at the sidelines of a big protest here, commemorating the International Labor Day.

This year’s commemoration was participated by many women workers. Women rights groups are not surprised with the turn out, especially amid the incessant price increases, worsening work conditions in the country and threats against those who dare to air dissent.

Thinktank Center for Women’s Resources (CWR) said the appalling working conditions of many Filipino women workers draw a stark contrast to the supposed improvement of women’s economic participation in the Global Gender Gap Index last year.

Citing government data, the CWR said there are 4.7 million women workers in wholesale and retail trade and 1.4 million women work in manufacturing industry. Meanwhile, women who engage in professional and scientific work are only 125,000 or a mere 0.30 percent in the total workforce.

Poverty threshold

Reacting to a recent news on the country’s supposed poverty threshold, nurse Cristine Oginez said that P10,481 is barely enough for one person to live decently, especially in the face of increasing prices.

“Even a salary of P36,000 is not enough. We have to borrow money to make ends meet. At times, we even have to pawn our ATMs (to loan sharks). My mere daily transportation cost is already pegged at P4,000. How could they dare tell us that about P10,000 is enough?” she said.

Rose Deblois, 61, of the National Federation of Employees of Department of Agriculture said the same is true even for government employees, even if they have already received their fourth tranche of salary increase.

First-time protester

First-time May Day protester Nora Cultura, a worker at a thread company in Marikina, said she went to the rally to check on how big the workers’ movement is in the Philippines. She was not at all disappointed with the turnout.

“So this is what Mayo Uno really means. When workers stand together, we can win our fight,” she said.

At the factory, Cultura said workers are subjected to heavy working conditions – standing up at the production line for nearly eight hours per day, and tormented to meet their quotas.

Contrary to government claims that protests keep foreign investors away, Oginez said she has met many foreigners who are in solidarity with their fight for just wage.

“That’s hilarious,” she quipped, adding that these foreigners know that what they are fighting for is just.

For Deblois, she said in Filipino that it is important to note that the welfare of workers must be looked into by the government, adding that even if they are mere “cheap labor” to the eyes of the foreign investors, “at the end of the day, they still need us.”

“The times are different now. What men can do, we, women can do as well. But discrimination still persists. And so we are here to unite and fight,” Deblois said.

Labor vote

This coming elections, nurse Oginez said it is time for Filipinos to decide who to vote for. These people, she added, must have a solid track record of fighting for the rights of the people.

“We must vote for those who have strong stand against Endo,” Cultura said. Endo stands for end of contract, the widespread practice of contractual, temporary and flexible labor arrangements.

When asked for her message for President Duterte, Emplamado said Duterte should heed the calls of the poor. “Killing us is not the answer,” she said, referring to thousands of poor slain in the name of “war on drugs.”

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“We have the worst hunger, unemployment, killings and when we protest and organize we are called ‘criminals.’

RELATED STORY: A slice of life of Filipino women workers

By MARYA SALAMAT
Bulatlat.com

MANILA – Under the scorching summer heat, workers and professionals, students, farmers and urban poor gathered from various meeting points in Manila and marched to Chino Roces (formerly Mendiola) Bridge to hold a brief program today, May 1 Labor Day. They delivered a blistering assessment of the Duterte administration’s performance.

“He worsened the neoliberal policies to allow the imperialists and their local cohorts, the big landlords and big compradors, to further squeeze profits from our exploited people”, said Eleonor de Guzman, deputy secretary general of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan).

Among these policies is the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN), which increased the tax take from the workers and the poor especially with the increase in Value-Added Tax. It contributed to the spike of inflation or prices, which the Duterte administration denies. The Labor Day marchers brought placards denouncing the TRAIN law.

Citing the increases in prices and labor productivity, the workers also raised calls for a P750 national minimum wage.

Independent thinktank IBON said that raising the minimum wage to P750 will significantly raise the incomes of Filipino workers. The group’s computations also show that employers can afford to pay the increase in the minimum wage to P750.

At the Labor Day program in Mendiola, speakers denounced the utter lack of reforms to uplift the condition of the working people. On the contrary, the workers and peasants bear the brunt of the economic growth that hardly benefits them. Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas Chairperson Danilo Ramos recalled that Duterte had promised “genuine rural development,” a requisite for creating more jobs and sustaining economic growth.

“But Duterte responded differently,” Ramos said. He cited as example the expansion of haciendas and foreign-owned plantations.

“Duterte made no move to distribute land, instead, what we get are massacres of farmers,” Ramos said.

In terms of massacring the farmers and agricultural workers in lieu of implementing an agrarian reform, Duterte has surpassed the deposed dictator, Ferdinand Marcos, Ramos said.

Meanwhile, Renato Reyes Jr. of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan slammed Duterte’s kowtowing before China.

“Puro paandar,” (Pure braggadocio) Reyes, said, summarizing what they regard as the latest attempt of President Duterte to recover a semblance of appearing he is defending the country’s interest against foreign impositions. Reyes was referring to the recent noises made by Malacañang against Canada’s trash.

It took three years before the Duterte administration made mention of the fact that the Philippines had won its arbitration case against China regarding the West Philippine Sea, Reyes said.

If the Duterte administration is belatedly trying to echo some of the peoples’ calls to defend our territory against China, it’s because they can feel the people’s contempt for their mendicancy, Reyes said.

Fighting Duterte and state terrorism

Leaders of progressive people’s organizations urged the public not to swallow what they described as nonstop stream of lies and fake news coming from the Duterte government and its state forces.

They clarified that, because the Filipino people remain extremely exploited and oppressed under the “US-Duterte regime,” prompting the people to resist, criticize and fight, they become targets of attacks of this administration.

“These attack, killings, harassments, vilification – – all under whole of nation approach of the US-Duterte regime, are being committed in hopes of silencing activism or opposition. All in the name of maintaining the exploitative semi-colonial system,” de Guzman said.

“Though fearsome, we have no other recourse but to struggle and frustrate state fascism,” De Guzman said.

The Labor Day protest highlighted the burning of Duterte effigy.

“True, the workers’ situation under the US-Duterte regime is gruesome – we have the worst hunger, unemployment, killings and when we protest and organize we are called ‘criminals,’ said Jerome Adonis, KMU secretary general.

But there is hope, he said. “A national democratic revolution is the answer if we want to end this suffering,” Adonis said.

He urged the gathered workers and supporters from students and professionals, urban poor and peasants, that it is “important to continually expand the people’s organizations.”

“Sagad na, kinamumuhuan na ng taumbayan, isolated na ang Duterte government,” (The people are fed up. The people despise the Duterte government. It is isolated from the people.) Adonis said. He concluded the Labor Day program with a tribute to the 50th anniversary of the CPP, NPA, NDF, which, he said, is subject to Duterte’s fake news.

“They are not the terrorists, but the AFP and the PNP, who kill unarmed farmers, workers, activists and critics,” Adonis said.

Ramos said the revolutionaries being vilified by the Duterte government actually deserve the people’s support.

Despite the worsening conditions of the farmers and workers, he said, it’s not at all hopeless because “the democratic armed struggle in the countryside is gaining strength and providing improvement in lives of the people there.”

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By MARYA SALAMAT
Bulatlat.com

MANILA – Labor Day celebrations in the Philippines showcase effigies and murals condemning the Duterte’s policies and attacks on workers.

In the capital, the KMU is rolling out a mammoth effigy of President Duterte juggling high-powered rifles. Heavily armed Duterte is depicted as a court jester with forked tongue. He is shown riding roughshod over the people aboard his killer TRAIN that is accumulating corpses. They used the train literally to condemn the Duterte government’s TRAIN tax reforms. Workers and analysts say it taxes the poor more and the rich less.

In Southern Tagalog, Pamantik (Pagkakaisa ng mga Manggagawa sa Timog Katagalugan) is dramatizing what they described as workers’ constant exposure to harassment and threats through an effigy of President Duterte who is also riding a killer vehicle. In Pamantik, the vehicle is an armored personnel carrier with CCTV cameras attached. With Duterte are some military and police generals.

A mural depicting Duterte’s US- and China-backed government, faced by the brewing protests and organized resistance of the people, is the stage backdrop for the May 1 program in the capital.

In Laguna, the Pamantik is combining their protest with a fiesta atmosphere. They are featuring “Sining Proletaryado Festival,” a competitive parade of floats and murals from various sectors and unions dramatizing the workers’ struggle inside and outside of their workplaces, the support of the youth and other sectors and the local situation of workers in their respective provinces and cities.

Labor groups are highlighting campaigns for regular work, P750 national minimum wage, and the fight against the dangerous red-tagging and attacks on labor unions. Claire Balabbo, spokesperson of Pamantik, said joint elements of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and Philippine National Police have held anti-union seminars in the region. Other regional groups have reported the same. In Mindanao where a Martial Law is still in place, unionists allied with KMU are being visited in their homes and tagged as enemies of the state. Balabbo feared that the recently-created Regional Task Force to End Local Communist Insurgency will reproduce in other regions the summary executions and harassment happening in Negros, Samar, Bicol and Mindanao.

For KMU and allies, this year’s May 1 celebrations has for theme “Celebrate the 50th year of working-class leadership in the people’s national democratic struggle. Lead the people’s fight against fascism and neoliberal policies of the US-Duterte regime.”

After holding their program near Malacañang till noon, the KMU is set to join workers from Church Labor Conference (CLC), Federation of Free Workers (FFW), and Pagkakaisa ng Uring Manggagawa (PAGGAWA), and other labor groups and LABOR WIN. They hope to establish “labor vote and labor power.”

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“For 39 years, national labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) has been at the forefront of Filipino workers’ struggle for living wages, regular jobs and democratic rights.”

By MARYA SALAMAT
Bulatlat.com

MANILA – The labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno turns 39 years old this Labor Day. Founded at the height of Martial Law under the then strongman Ferdinand Marcos, the labor center has organized and mobilized workers all over the Philippines and even abroad for common workers’ issues that include wages, working conditions, jobs, union rights and human rights, women workers’ equality, and democratic and political issues such as national freedom and sovereignty, agrarian reform and nationalist industrialization, among others.

“The KMU has withstood many challenges,” said Jerome Adonis, KMU secretary general, as he and other KMU leaders prepared to blow the candles on a chocolate cake during a break while preparing for the May 1 celebration.

The labor center proudly looks back at its engagements with employers’ confederations, the Department of Labor and Employment and at least six previous administrations from Marcos to Aquino, all of which had included the KMU and its leaders in its orders of battles for one reason or another.

“For 39 years, national labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) has been at the forefront of Filipino workers’ struggle for living wages, regular jobs and democratic rights,” Adonis said. The labor center has thus been embraced by workers, he said, respected by and allied also with different sectors including small and medium enterprises. But in contrast to this, the KMU has consistently been despised by exploitative capitalists and tyrants, Adonis said.

Indeed, from the time of their founding up to now, the KMU has always seemed to be a target of government or government-backed vilification and harassment. In a crackdown on trade unionism, Marcos had caused the imprisonment of KMU leaders while promoting the government-backed Trade Union Center of the Philippines in the 70s and 80s.

The KMU and various supportive labor groups responded with demonstrations, coordinated strikes and other concerted mass actions, culminating in their participation in the first Edsa People Power that ousted Marcos.

The post-Marcos presidents also implemented anti-worker policies of cheap labor, labor export, contractualization, flexibilization, no-union, no-strike, to name a few, the KMU said.

The labor center works to rally the Filipino workers against all these, and recommend reforms. Advocating for the workers’ welfare, they also happen to run against the narratives of economic growth, revealing some unwanted truths and incurring in the process the ire of every incumbent administration claiming the growth narrative.

At their national headquarters in Quezon City today, their allied artists from Tambisan sa Sining worked on a giant effigy and mural depicting President Duterte, the seventh president the KMU has engaged with since its founding. Consistent with their 39 years of calling for justice for the working people, they are depicting this May 1 the main causes of injustices that they say should be eradicated.

President Duterte will join their May 1 celebration in the form of a huge effigy of an evil court jester with forked tongue, riding on a killer coffin-like TRAIN, an allusion to the Duterte administration’s new tax laws.

“Amidst consistent brutal attacks by capitalists and oppressive regimes, Filipino workers have gained significant political and economic victories. The KMU continues to defend these hard-earned victories of the Philippine labor movement against the onslaught of neoliberal economic policies,” their birthday statement reads.

At present, they are campaigning for a P750 national minimum wage, regularization of all contractual workers and an end to all forms of contractualization. They are also demanding for a strict implementation of labor standards, occupational safety and health, and respect of labor and human rights.

Adonis said that as the KMU approaches 40, it will continue the fight “against anti-poor, anti-people and anti-Filipino government policies.”

“We will continue to advocate for genuine social change, freedom and democracy,” Adonis said.

On the ground, unions affiliated with KMU report victories through concerted assertion and negotiation for collective bargaining agreements (CBA). Adonis aid these agreements provide wage hikes, security of tenure, humane work hours, workplace safety, gender equality, just benefits and social protection, and other labor and civil rights.

KMU unions report various levels of success in asserting the regularization of thousands of contractual workers through CBAs and various forms of collective actions.

As the KMU remains a national labor center today, Adonis said they have “countered gross attacks on workers’ universal right to freedom of association by defending workers’ rights to unionize and collectively bargain.” Since their founding, the KMU and advocates have documented workers’ struggles against illegal retrenchments, dismissals, downsizing, criminalization of labor issues and other union-busting schemes.

Since the 80s, the KMU has also maintained solidarity relations with trade unions in the Philippines and abroad. It is a member of the International League of Peoples’ Struggle, the Southern Initiative on Globalization and Trade Union Rights, the International Union League for Brand Responsibility, and the International Trade Union Confederation. In the Philippines, the KMU has consciously strived to serve as “the flagbearer of genuine, militant and anti-imperialist unionism.”

The KMU has been chaired by Felixberto Olalia, Rolando Olalia, and Crispin Beltran, now regarded as heroes in the Filipino struggle against tyranny. Its current chairperson is Elmer “Bong” Labog.

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