WE REMEMBER and celebrate the contributions of Filipino workers to the country’s struggle for development, social justice and democracy. Filipino workers have always been denied their labor and human rights, as well as the fair share of the immense value that they create, but they have contributed so much to our society.
May 1, 2024 was the second Labor Day under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. who has so far done nothing significantly favorable for the country’s workers.
Independent think-tank Ibon Foundation says that Marcos Jr.’s predecessor Rodrigo Duterte oversaw the paltriest increase in workers’ minimum wages since Edsa 1986. The global cost of living crisis worsened under Marcos Jr., further eroding the real value of the minimum wage. While the country’s senators and congressmen have deliberated on and approved bills for a significant minimum wage hike, Marcos Jr. has kept his deafening silence on the issue, even as his Labor Department has sided with the employers in opposing the wage hike.
While allowing the International Labour Organization’s High-Level Tripartite Mission (ILO-HLTM) in 2023, as well as the mission of United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom Expression in 2024, the Marcos Jr. government has not carried out their recommendations. Executive Order No. 23, which the government is showcasing as its response to the ILO-HLTM recommendations neither addressed nor prevented violations of workers’ rights. It has not abolished the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) and prevented it from carrying out its red-tagging spree.
On the ground, workers are still being retrenched for building unions: In Laguna, electronics company Nexperia is planning to retrench union leaders and plan to retrench more than 100 workers in the management’s efforts to weaken the workers’ union. In Pampanga, garments giant Luen Thai recently laid off thousands of workers, as the workers sought to form a union.
Labor organizers still experience harassment of various kinds. This April, individuals introducing themselves as military personnel harassed Kilusang Mayo Uno-Southern Mindanao Region former secretary general Carlo Olalo and worker Melodina Gumanoy. In March, posters claiming that Nanay Cristy, president of the Samahang Janitorial sa PUP, is a member of the Communist movement spread in the PUP-Manila campus.
Labor activists are still targeted for enforced disappearance. This April, William Lariosa, a union organizer in the plantations of Bukidnon, was abducted and remains missing to this day.
Labor activists still face trumped-up harassment charges. In September 2023, KMU vice-chairperson for the Visayas Jaime Paglinawan received a court summon stemming from a case of “terrorist financing” filed against 27 individuals.
Marcos Jr. has also shielded Duterte from any accountability for the numerous labor and human rights violations that his predecessor and ally presided over. Marcos Jr. has not acted on the cases of 27 political detainees from the labor sector, most of whom were imprisoned under his predecessor.
While his predecessor promised to end contractualization and made a big show in curtailing labor-only contracting, Marcos Jr. has not said a word on the issue. The truth is that contractualization remains widespread and is still spreading and undermining many labor rights. Proposed bills protecting workers’ right to security of tenure are being conveniently forgotten under this government.
Foundation reports that unemployment, underemployment and low-quality work have further increased under Marcos Jr. This government has done nothing to create decent jobs by developing the country’s industries and agriculture. Instead, it has encouraged labor export through its Department of Migrant Workers, exposing the country’s workers to exploitation abroad and refusing to solve the country’s long-standing economic problems. – CENTER FOR TRADE UNION AND HUMAN RIGHTS <pie.ctuhr@gmail.com>
