Workers urge CBCP to express full support to P125 wage increase demands

Labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) today urged the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) to support the P125 wage increase campaign for workers in the private sector.
“We need the Church to support our calls for wage hikes. We strongly urge the CBCP to side with the workers and provide ‘divine backing’ to the peoples just demands.”

In an interview, CBCP President Bishop Fernando Capalla said Church leaders are willing to support the P125 wage hike demand if they deem it as moral and if labor groups approach them and seek for their help.

“The Church must support the workers’ campaign for an immediate, across-the-board, legislated pay hike. We are most willing to sit down and discuss with CBCP officials and labor advocates in the Church sector the urgency of a wage increase for the country’s wage earners,” said KMU Chairman Elmer Labog.

Labog recounted that in 1999, His Eminence Jaime Cardinal Sin also supported the P125 across-the-board wage increase for workers and even issued a pastoral letter urging the government and employers to consider the granting of the P125 wage increase for workers. He said KMU as well as other labor groups campaigning for an urgent wage increase are most ready to meet with CBCP leaders to forge unity on wage hike demands and other important issues concerning workers and poor people.

“We are ready to discuss to Bishop Capalla and his colleagues at the CBCP the justified and moral grounds of our demands for wage hikes. It is highly moral for workers, who are the producers of the nation’s wealth, to receive adequate wages corresponding to the labor they exerted. They need wages sufficient enough to feed and provide for their families. For almost four years now, workers have not received any substantial increase in their basic wages and salaries despite constant inflation. Time and again we have proved that big businesses and employers are refusing to grant any substantial wage increase to protect their profits and economic interests at the expense of the suffering workforce.”

Meanwhile, KMU Vice Chairperson Lito Ustarez lambasted Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) Assistant Secretary and Spokesman Benedicto Ernesto Bitonio for warning the Congress on additional wages. “With his statement, Bitonio publicly declared himself as an apologist for employers. We urge him to resign as DoLE Spokesman and apply for the position of Corporate Communications Officer for the Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP). DoLE’s rejection of a legislated wage increase favors employers, local and foreign business firms. The worsening unemployment is not a direct effect of wage adjustments. The domestic job generation, by nature, is really problematic.”

Ustarez further said that the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Boards only managed to undermine the workers fight for legislated national wage increase. We will also exert all efforts to block Patricia Sto. Tomas reappointment as Labor Secretary, ” he concluded.