” ‘Good Job’ means a Regular Job with Good Pay “

25,000 WORKERS MARCH TO MENDIOLA ON LABOR DAY;
SENATORIABLES VOW TO FIGHT FOR SECURITY OF TENURE

Chiding President Aquino’s pronouncement that Labor Day should be celebratory with both labor and capitalists greeting each other for “doing a good job” for the past year, workers renewed the call for government to create “not just jobs” but “more regular jobs with living wage.”

Some 25,000 workers under NAGKAISA labor coalition marched from UST to Chino Roces bridge in Manila.

They were joined by senatorial candidates Risa Hontiveros, Ricardo Penson, Allan Peter Cayetano, and Eddie Villanueva, who also signed a pact with the workers vowing to fight for security of tenure, adoption of a living wage, cheaper electric rates, promotion of labor rights in the public sector.

Other candidates have also expressed their willingness to fight for the cause, but have not confirmed for the march are Loren Legarda, Grace Poe – Llamanzares, Jamby Madrigal and JV Ejercito.

Edwin Bustillos, deputy secretary-general of the Alliance of Progressive Labor and co-convenor of NAGKAISA: “Yes, the President listened to our grievances yesterday,” referring to Pres Aquino’s dialogue with labor leaders in Malacanang, “but his mind was set on turning down most of our demands.”

The President has said that he can’t push for the passage of the Security of Tenure bill now pending in Congress because it would negatively affect more workers.

“(Pres Aquino) must be thinking that most Filipino workers are happy with their condition in the workplace — they are not. Most employees are under short term contracts, they are considered casuals or contractuals, whose jobs can be terminated at the whim of their employers and not given any benefits,” says Renato Magtubo, chairperson of Partido Manggagawa coalition.

Vic Balais, President of the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines – PTGWO and co-convenor of NAGKAISA: “We call on all Filipino workers to begin the push of expanding the number of regular workers. The labor code has been bastardized by capitalists to the detriment of the workers, by promoting casualization and contractualization.”

The 250,000-strong NAGKAISA, is the largest nation-wide coalition of various labor organizations in the Philippines.

NAGKAISA encompasses the widest spectrum of colors and persuasions — from the leftist Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL), Partido Manggagawa (PM), Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP), Manggagawa para sa Kalayaan ng Bayan (Makabayan) to the moderate Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) and Federation of Filipino Workers (FFW), the labor centers National Confederation of Labor (NCL) and SENTRO, to the public sector unions Caucus of Independent Unions (CIU), Philippine Government Employees Association (PGEA), Public Services Labor Independent Confederation (PSLINK), ang many other federations.

NAGKAISA FB page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Nagkaisa/421413561266645

Labor groups to Senate: Defer passage of NEA Reform Bill

With barely 4 session-days left, workers belonging to labor coalition Nagakaisa! trooped to the Senate this afternoon to urge feuding senators to defer passage of Senate Bill 3389 or the National Electrification Reform Bill authored by Sen. Serge Osmena on grounds that the proposed “step-in rights” to be granted to NEA is anti-democratic and anti-labor.

Nagkaisa! members like the Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL), Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) and the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines have organized unions in the country’s 119 electric cooperatives.

Josua Mata, one of Nagkaisa! convenors and the secretary general of APL denounced the Senate Bill as a Draconian measure as it grants NEA martial law powers to take over ailing ECs, replace the general manager, the entire board and even employees, appoint third persons in the board or a management team, and convert cooperatives into stock corporations. This measure, he said, usurped the powers of the General Assembly – the highest policy-making body of the coop to decide on what options to take to make their utilities financially-viable and democratically-managed.

Leody De Guzman, Chairperson of Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilino (BMP) said that, “NEA Bill is a bad bill that clearly tramples on our constitutional right to security of tenure and severely undermines our fundamental right to self-organize”.

Louie Corral of TUCP said a close reading of the measure shows that it seeks to clothe the NEA with the same draconian powers, which for the past thirty years it has exercised over the country’s electric cooperatives.

Section 4-B of SB 3389 states that the NEA shall have immediately step-in and take over from its Board the operations of any ailing electric cooperative, within a reasonable period after take-over, the NEA may convert the ailing cooperative to either a stock cooperative registered with the CDA or a stock corporation registered with the SEC.

“This is privatization in the guise of reform,” said Mata, adding that with 90 percent of generation already privatized under EPIRA, big private powers now set their eyes on 9 million households connected with electric cooperatives. Meralco has 5.5 million customer-base.

PM chair Renato Magtubo echoed the same as the both the House and Senate versions aim at making electric cooperatives EPIRA-compliant. “Reform NEA is nothing but a privatization agenda of Osmena in the coops as explicitly provided under his bill,” said Magtubo.

Osmena was also the author of EPIRA which for the past 10 years resulted to escalating rates and diminishing supply.

NAGKAISA believes that any moves to amend the charter of NEA should first be informed by a comprehensive assessment of what really went wrong in the electric cooperative sector and how the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001 or EPIRA has exacerbated the situation.

Labor groups lambast power oligarchs in second day of protest against high power rates

Labor groups belonging to the biggest labor coalition Nagkaisa! vented their ire in their second day of protest against high power rates on the country’s power oligarchs whose business empires are shored up by super profits taken out from the pockets of millions of captive electricity consumers.

In a rally held outside the main office of Meralco in Pasig City, Nagkaisa! leaders took turns in lambasting the big names in the power industry whom they refer to as the Voltage 5 for raking in billions of profits while consumers suffer the burden of paying one of the most expensive electricity rates in the world.

The Voltage 5 includes the Pangilinan group, the Lopez group, the Aboitiz group, the San Miguel group of Danding Cojuangco, and the group of Henry Sy of the National Grid Corporation.

Nagkaisa! convenor Leody de Guzman, said Meralco in 2011 alone earned a net profit of P14.9-B or 22% higher than what they had in 2010. Aboitiz Power netted P25-B in 2010 or 343% higher than what they earned in 2009. Likewise, profits of the Lopez group jumped to P24.8-B in 2010 or an increase of 186% from 2009. The San Miguel group on the other hand earned P16.7-B in 2011 or 31% higher from 2010.

“That’s P81-B of combined profits which is higher than the combined annual incomes of half a million wage earners in NCR and at least a million minimum wage earners in each regions of the country,” stated De Guzman.

De Guzman describes the situation as disgustingly unfair as he assailed the government for making it sure that power oligarchs reap the benefits of power privatization while workers shoulder the pain of unjust rates.

Prior to the Meralco rally today, Nagkaisa! also held a picket at the offices of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) the other day asking the body to defer the planned implementation of retail competition and open access this coming December. Nagkaisa! warns that the implementation of open access would lead to another round of increases in power rates.

The rally at Meralco participated by the Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL), Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP), Partido ng Manggagawa (PM), Philippine Airlines’ Employees Association (PALEA) and Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) is part of NAGKAISA’s “Season of Protest Against Bad Economics”, which the coalition launched early this week.

Another World is Possible! Reject the Policies of Neoliberalism! Protect the Economy, Protect the Working Class!

Together with 800 delegates of the World Social Forum on Migrant Labor, the Nagkaisa broad labor coalition would march on November 30 to call on the Aquino administration to reject neoliberal policies and to pursue the policy of labor and economic protectionism.

In two decades, Philippine governments have swallowed hook, line and sinker the policies endorsed by foreign institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB). Now, it must be said again, the Filipino people are not better off with the policies of liberalization, deregulation, privatization, and flexibilization of labor. Workers are fed up and we demand immediate action.

The proof of the pudding is in the eating. The Filipino workers took the bitter pills of neoliberal policies. But instead of recuperating from crippling poverty, they suffer even more from the following conditions:

Low Wages and Cheap Labor Policy. The minimum wage is not even half the “cost of living” – the necessary costs for a decent life for a working class family. Workers are forced to go on overtime because of starvation wages. Even with the Philippine putting up a “baratilyo” or “bargain sale” of its workers, foreign direct investments have not picked up as fast as it did in our neighbors in the Southeast Asian region.

Outsourcing and Contractualization. To promote cheap and docile workers, employers have restricted the regularization of its workers even for those who perform usually necessary and desirable work for six months. The scourge of contractualization ravaged not only our security of tenure but also our rights to self-organization and bargain collectively.

Lack of regular employment and cheap labor policy force our kababayans to migrate and seek greener pastures overseas; hence, its by-product, the tacit policy of labor migration, which have made our economy dependent on dollar remittances from overseas Filipino workers.

High Power Rates and Privatization of the Power Industry. With the passage of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act or EPIRA on June 2001, power rates in the country have gone up. The cost of doing business in the Philippines is among the highest in Asia due to the high cost of electricity.

Spiraling oil prices. Government insists on the oil deregulation law despite the indisputable fact of unabated oil price hikes and incessant protests from civil society groups including workers’ organizations. The Noynoy Aquino regime put up a review committee on this issue. But instead of drafting proposal to reverse deregulation, it became a mere mouthpiece of the oil oligarchs.

Neoliberal economics is pro-foreign capital and anti-labor. It not only serves the interest of foreign monopoly capital, in the persona of transnational companies. It is a recolonization of the Philippines by foreign powers.

On November 30, the Nagkaisa broad coalition is in unity with regional and global movements against corporate greed. People before profit! Another World is Possible. We call on Noynoy Aquino to adhere to the Constitutional provisions on “full protection to labor” and the “national economy”.

Economic struggle at the factory and shopfloor level must extend to the political arena. The labor movement must transcend traditional localized unionism to lead the discourse on policies and laws that affect the Filipino masses. We challenge the contending parties in the 2013 elections – especially the Liberal Party Coalition (LPC) and United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) to present concrete proposals on how to alleviate poverty and resolve the everyday problems of the masses.