Workers’ top Christmas wish: Dark days under Arroyo must end

Of the many Christmas wishes that Filipino workers can utter, wishing an end to the dark days of Gloria Arroyo’s rule sits on top of the list with the regime’s grim record of labor rights violations and job massacres, labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno said today.

“Workers have been suffering bleak Christmases year after year under Arroyo’s rule, as wages remain depressed and joblessness continues to worsen. She has tapped the police and military to kill and arrest unionists, leaving many workers’ families incomplete this Christmas,” said KMU Chairperson Elmer “Bong” Labog.

Since 2001, 93 union leaders and organizers have been killed while almost a hundred workers have been jailed based on trumped-up charges. For instance, twenty workers of Rizal-based Karnation Industries and Export, who were charged with slap suits for going on stike, spent two Christmases in jail (2007 and 2008). Two of them died due to disease acquired in jail.

“That is why booting Arroyo out of public office means a huge relief for us workers. It means giving a decent and merry Christmas, which has long been denied to us, a chance.”

The labor leader said more than Arroyo’s removal from power, her anti-labor legacies should also be uprooted, including policies that have inflicted severe blows to livelihood of Filipino workers.

“Arroyo’s policies on intensified labor contractualization, for instance, should be junked by the next administration. DOLE order No. 2, which licensed forced leave and reduced workhours among others, should be scrapped so as to grant us job security,” said Labog.

“Her wage freeze policy should once and for all be ended, otherwise workers would continue to suffer from sparse Noche Buenas year after year, if you can really call it like that” he added.

KMU said for almost two years now, minimum wage rates in all regions have stagnated despite the ongoing global crisis and the rising cost of living. In the National Capital Region, the cost of living has risen to P912, while real wage stands at only P240. #