Workers to push for Php 125 legislated wage increase, scrapping of Terror law as Congress opens

Workers led by the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) Labor Center is again preparing for a big push for the approval of the Php 125 across-the-board legislated wage hike as Congress sets to open next week.

According to Elmer “Ka Bong” Labog, National Chairperson of the KMU, their leaders and organizers have been making rounds among local unions and other organizations to prepare the ground for a bigger push for approval of the Php 125 wage hike. "We have started this campaign in 1999 and filed a bill in 2001 and in 2004. During the 13th Congress, the bill was approved by the Lower House but was sabotage by Rep. Crispin Remulla. We have learned many lesson and we have crafted new strategies in approaching this struggle."

Labog clarified the need for an immediate increase in income for ordinary Filipinos due to the fact the minimum wage of workers have gone down by 3.96% in real terms from 2001 to 2006. “Just this week electricity rates jumped up along with an increase in prices of fuel and basic commodities, adding more strain to the already stretched-out budget of Juan dela Cruz.”

Terror law faces strong opposition from workers

“After consultation with union and federation leaders and labor lawyers, we have filed a case last Monday, July 16, 2007 versus the terror law and asked the high court for a Temporary Restraining Order against this very dangerous law. The Arroyo regime’s terror law will attack fundamental rights of workers such as right to form a union, right to strike and other labor rights as this can be twisted as “terrorist acts” under the terror law,” Labog said.

Labog stressed concerted labor actions like strikes and slowdowns can easily be tagged as “sowing and creating a condition of widespread and extraordinary fear and panic among the populace, in order to coerce the government to give in to an unlawful demand" therefore making it a “terrorist act” just like how the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) declares every strike as “inimical to the national interest” prompting a release of an Assumption of Jurisdiction (AJ) providing legal blanket for the police and military to step in just like what happened in Hacienda Luisita, where 7 strikers were massacred by the combined elements of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).

“Since we will be increasing the momentum for the legislated wage hike through workers concerted actions like rallies, industrial actions and lobbying work, aside from physical elimination through political killings, we are very concerned the terror law will be used to silence our voices and put behind bars our leaders, organizers and ordinary workers under the pretext of ‘war on terror’ to decapitate and stifle the nationwide campaign for the Php 125 wage hike,” lamented Labog.

“We will make the fight against the new terror law as one of our priority fights alongside the struggle for a legislated wage hike since any economic struggle can torpedoed by the anti-terror law. When you have fascist elements like Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales and Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales as part of the Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC), respect for human rights will be the last thing on the table,” ended Labog.