Those opposing a wage hike are getting desperate

The widespread hunger and poverty in the country is persisting. It is being made worse by the non-stop increase in the prices of petroleum products, which is further increasing the prices of basic goods and services. Workers and poor people need a significant wage hike, such as the P125 across-the-board wage increase nationwide which workers have been clamoring for.

The government of Pres. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III and big foreign and local capitalists know this. Desperate to weaken workers’ and poor people’s call for a significant wage hike, they are making their attacks on this call even more vicious.

(1) The propaganda line that the P125 across-the-board wage hike nationwide is too big is already old hat. The Aquino government, however, has made it even worse by choosing the wrong data and saying that such a wage hike will amount to a trillion pesos every year. This carelessness or attempt to deceive is proof of the Aquino government’s callousness towards the plight of Filipino workers.

(2) Sen. Franklin Drilon has revived the old excuse that senators do not have the “expertise” to determine the amount of a wage hike. He wants the matter to be decided by the country’s regional wage boards – which have shown expertise only in pressing down workers’ wages. The highest wage hike approved by the wage boards in their more than 20 years of existence is P33 – a far cry from what workers need right now.

(4) The National Wages and Productivity Board is playing the public for a fool by saying that the non-stop oil price hikes do not constitute a “supervening event.” It wants to delay even a meager wage increase by insisting that it will accept a petition for wage increase only on 26 May. Reality is fast catching up: inflation is projected to increase this month.

(4) The Employers Confederation of the Philippines has turned down the smaller wage hike being proposed by the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines. It continues to blackmail workers into choosing between a significant wage increase and retaining their jobs. Such a blackmail goes against studies showing that capitalists can afford a significant wage hike and such wage hike will not jack up inflation.

Workers have not received a significant wage hike for more than nine years under Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and more than one year under Noynoy Aquino. Now more than ever, workers need a significant wage hike. The workers’ only chance of getting this is through legislation – by approving House Bill 375 or the P125 Wage Hike Bill now filed in Congress.