‘Give laborers, our modern heroes, a dignified pay’

CEBU, Philippines — Several labor groups and other cause-oriented organizations slammed the government’s “failure” to provide dignified salaries to workers in a protest rally in downtown Cebu City yesterday in time for the National Heroes Day.

They also decried the government’s “neglect” on its promise to end contractualization and condemned the unjust labor practices of some big corporations operating in Metro Cebu.

Jaime Paglinawan, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN)-Central Visayas chairman, said they wanted to highlight the plight of today’s laborers being the modern-day heroes.

“Ang mga construction workers maoy naghimo sa mga buildings. Ang mga factory workers naghimo sa mga sinina ug uban pa nga maoy nigama sa mga panginahanglonon sa katawhan,” he said.

Paglinawan said the government should therefore give dignity to laborers by giving them the right salaries, enough benefits, and security of tenure.

Given their great labor, he said, workers need decent salaries and humane treatment in the workplace, especially the factory industry workers. This is why the groups are pushing for a P750 national minimum wage, he added.

Paglinawan said laborers continue to fight for a P750 daily uniform minimum wage across all regions.

The present daily minimum wage in Central Visayas is P386 while in the National Capital Region is set at P512.

Moreover, the groups will also continue to assert in stopping all forms of contractualization.

Around 120 individuals, mostly from labor groups, marched the 1.9-kilometer stretch of Osmeña Boulevard from Fuente Osmeña Circle to Metro Gaisano Colon yesterday.

The protest was led by Alyansa sa mga Mamumuo sa Sugbo (AMA SUGBO KMU) with the support of other groups like Alsa Kontraktwal; Liwayway Workers Union; Coalition of all CocaCola Workers; Kabataan Partylist; and Karapatan Central Visayas, among others.

Meanwhile, the Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino also called for an end to contractualization, high prices, burdensome taxes, state-sponsored killings, and violent dispersals of workers’ strikes.

“Filipino workers are today’s heroes. On our shoulders we bear the responsibility of building a modern society but with the treatment we are receiving from the Duterte administration and those before him. We can no longer remain idle and accept poverty and oppression as our fate, we are not martyrs,” said BMP president Luke Espiritu in a statement.

According to the group, the scourge of contractualization remains despite the much-touted Executive Order 51 and Department Order 174 to address it.

Espiritu said workers have been reeling from regressive taxes, spiraling prices, falling real wages, legalized contractualization, and the rising incidence of violence at workers’ picketlines the past two years.

“By Duterte’s own labor and economic policies, he exposed his bankrupt posturing. Thanks to him, workers are learning fast to not rely on fake messiahs like himself. by choosing to create their own destiny by collectively pushing for the change we seek,” he said. (FREEMAN)