Labor Center reiterates urgency of wage hike amidst oil price surge

“Even before the price of oil surged, workers have been pushing for a substantial wage hike due to continued price increase but the Arroyo regime blocked our every demand despite it's justness. This time, with Christmas just around the corner, gifts for our children and even a bare Noche Buena of white bread and pancit seems like a daydream due to massive inflation.”

This was the statement today the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) Labor Center reiterating the need for the passing of the P125 across-the-board legislated wage hike as oil firms threaten to increase pump prices of diesel and gasoline by another PhP 1.50/liter before year end.

 

“We have instructed all the federations under the wing of KMU to set-up mechanisms to monitor firms who will fail in paying 13th month pay for workers. According to the report of Department of Labor and Employment- National Capital Region (DOLE-NCR), from January to July of this year, more than 500 firms either violated the minimum wage law, did not pay holiday pay or Emergency Cost of Living Allowance (ECOLA) to workers,” said Elmer “Ka Bong” Labog, National Chairperson of the KMU.

 

The labor leader also made a jab at the supposed anti-poverty program of Arroyo. “Gloria Arroyo supposedly earmarked PhP 1 billion for poverty reduction programs but it seems the money never reached their intended target. According to the latest Social Weather Station (SWS) survey, only 1% of the 725,000 families who experienced severe hunger in the past three months said they received assistance from the government. The case of the 11-year old Mariannet Amper who committed suicide due to extreme poverty and hopelessness underscores the failure of this regime to stop poverty from spreading like wildfire.”

 

Labog further cited a study released this November by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) stating that from the one billion people worldwide living on less than $1 (P43) a day, the threshold defined as extreme poverty by the United Nations, around 11 million of them were Filipino families.

 

“Dole-outs provide temporary solutions to a perennial problem like poverty. What we need is employment and substantial pay but the regime thinks otherwise. Instead of creating more jobs here in the Philippines, Arroyo pushes our brothers and sisters to work abroad. Instead of giving our laborers their just demand for substantial pay, more taxes is added to their burden,” opined Labog.

 

KMU joins call to save Marilou Ranario from death row

 

The KMU Labor Center added their voice to the growing clamor to save Marilou Ranario, 35 years old, a overseas Filipino worker (OFW) in Kuwait, from the death sentence handed down last September 28, 2005 by the Kuwait’s Court of First Instance of the Criminal Circuit Court for allegedly killing her employer.

 

“We hope through our collective voices we can save the life of Marilou, who before her employer's death, complained of abuse and maltreatment. Despite the regime's neglect of the plight of our brothers and sisters abroad and the daily grind of working far from your loved ones, more and more Filipinos slug it out abroad due to poverty . When it comes to the the relationship between Arroyo and the OFW's, it is simply a one-way-street, with the regime taking the dollars the latter brings in but miserably failing to give anything in return,” ended Labog.