On TUCP’s proposal for a P75 wage hike through Metro wage board

We reiterate our view that what the Filipino workers and people need right now is a substantial wage increase. One form of such an increase is contained in House Bill 375 filed by Anakpawis Rep. Rafael V. Mariano which seeeks to legislate a P125 across-the-board wage increase nationwide.

Only a substantial wage increase nationwide, and not a mere P75 wage hike, will truly give the Filipino workers and people an immediate relief – after more than ten years of wage freeze and skyrocketting prices under the Arroyo and Aquino regimes. Even a P125 wage increase will only make up for the lost real value of wages in the country.

The struggle for a substantial wage hike as an immediate relief for the Filipino workers and people cannot take as its arena the pro-capitalist regional wage boards or RWBs. The more than 20-year record of the RWBs is there for everyone to see: these have failed to give workers a substantial wage increase and are mere instruments of the government and capitalists in pressing down wages.

The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines’ proposal for a P75 across-the-board wage hike which was filed in the NCR wage board will meet the same fate as its previous proposals: What will be approved is a meager wage hike which the government will hype as proof of its compassion for the Filipino workers and people and which the capitalists will vehemently oppose in public while they celebrate in private because the hike is not big enough.

We condemn the Aquino regime for playing deaf to the Filipino workers’ and people’s calls for a substantial wage increase. Since becoming president, Noynoy Aquino has refused to speak up on workers’ calls for a substantial wage increase while he has continuously and repeatedly assured capitalists that they will continue to reap huge profits by continuing to invest in the country.

We likewise condemn the Department of Labor and Employment for speaking up on calls for a substantial wage hike only to say that the Filipino workers and people will have to wait until June for any wage increase. This, as the Aquino regime shows no letup in allowing wanton increases in the prices of basic commodities and services and petroleum products and is even pushing for fare hikes in the country’s mass transport systems.