Statement by the Dublin Council of Trade Unions May Day 2011

Statement by the Dublin Council of Trade Unions May Day 2011*

Irish Left Review

May 4th, 2011

We send greetings to workers in all lands on this May Day. We have so much in common. The economic crisis reaching across the globe has touched us all. Amidst all the wealth created by the labour of working people, who were not responsible for the global crisis, we are now expected to protect and bail out the wealthy few.

The free market demands that the bankers and the financial institutions get their pound of flesh in the form of guaranteed interest rates and loan repayments. This at the expense of the wages, pensions and working conditions of working people, at the expense of unemployed benefits and other social welfare payments. With two further hair shirt budgets endorsed by the present and previous governments more cut-backs are inevitable.

Ireland in common with Greece and Portugal has now lost the sovereign right to make decisions on their own future, a role now taken by the IMF/EU/ECB. Can we default on the debt? Well by all accounts we can never repay it. So it must be restructured at the expense of the European bankers and financial institutions. The government must be forced to travel this road. Borrowed money must be used for job creation with state sector companies allocated a central role, not privatised.

Our slogan for May Day is resist AUSTERITY. The trade union movement must lead this resistance at all levels, at union meetings, in workshop actions, in street protests. There is a propaganda war to be fought and won. The majority of economic commentators in all branches of the media are telling people that there is no alternative. Resistance is futile. The majority of politicians echo this viewpoint.

We must prove them wrong. If people can change governments they can change policies Governments cannot rule without the consent of the people. The trade unions have the power to make this happen.

LONG LIVE MAY DAY.

Phil McFadden
President

Sam Nolan
Secretary

Dave Field
Vice President

* Url:http://www.irishleftreview.org/2011/05/04/statement-dublin-council-trade-unions-day-2011/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+irishleftreview%2Ffeed+%28Irish+Left+Review%29

May Day events in Korea-KCNA

May Day events in Korea

Pyongyang, May 1 (KCNA) -- Senior party and state officials significantly observed the 121st May Day with working people across the country.

Kim Yong Nam, Choe Yong Rim, Yang Hyong Sop and other senior party and state officials and officials of the Cabinet, ministries, national institutions, and local party and power bodies and working people's organizations went to the Pyongyang Thermal Power Complex, the Namhung Youth Chemical Complex, the Hwanghae Iron and Steel Complex, the Taean Heavy Machine Complex, the Migok Cooperative Farm in Sariwon City and other organs and industrial establishments and farms to congratulate the workers, agricultural workers and intellectuals on the day.

They laid bouquets before the statues of President Kim Il Sung, portraits of the smiling President and mosaics bearing the images of the peerlessly great persons.

They went round revolutionary museums showcasing the undying leadership history of the peerlessly great persons and rooms dedicated to history of relevant units.

They met and conversed with labor innovators who are performing feats in the drive to effect a great surge.

They joined working people playing colorful sports and amusement games such as tug-of-war, Korean chess and Yut game and enjoyed art performances.

They expressed belief that all the working people would make great innovations and great leap forward in the production, construction and scientific researches and thus make tangible contributions to improving the standard of people's living and building an economic power.


Pyongyang, May 1 (KCNA) -- A national meeting on the 121st May Day took place at the Namhung Youth Chemical Complex in Anju, South Phyongan Province Sunday.

Present there were Choe Yong Rim, Yang Hyong Sop, officials of party and power bodies and working people's organizations, officials concerned, men of meritorious service, labor innovators and working people in the province.

Choe Yong Rim, member of the Presidium of the Political Bureau of the C.C., the Workers' Party of Korea and premier of the Cabinet, in his report said that the working people of the DPRK greeting May Day are extending militant greetings and firm solidarity to the working people the world over dynamically struggling under the uplifted banner of justice, peace and independence against imperialism.

He said that President Kim Il Sung founded the immortal Juche idea, put forward the working people including workers, farmers and intellectuals as the masters of their destiny and led the revolution and construction to a shining victory by enlisting their inexhaustible strength.

The cause of the President who put forward the working people as the masters of the country and revolution and led the revolution and construction to victory by dint of their creative ingenuity and concerted efforts is being successfully carried forward and developed by leader Kim Jong Il, he noted.

Kim Jong Il has closely rallied the workers and other broad masses around the WPK with his politics of love and trust and benevolent politics and led to victory the popular masses' cause of independence, the socialist cause with the might of single-minded unity, he said.

He pointed out that the working people have glorified the exciting annals of the Korean revolution with shining victories and feats under the wise leadership of the party and the leader.

He stressed the need to cherish the faith of Juche and strong national self-esteem, maintain the revolutionary principle, the class principle, resolutely shatter the vicious ideological and cultural poisoning of the imperialists and further strengthen the political and ideological might of the Korean revolution.

He also called for pushing forward the production drive and bringing about a decisive turn in improving the standard of people's living and building a thriving nation.

He extended positive support to the just struggle of the south Korean working people for independence against the U.S. and for democratization of society and national reunification in name of all the working people.

The reporter said that the working people of the DPRK will fully discharge their historic mission in defending world peace and security and pushing ahead with the human cause of independence. They should further strengthen solidarity with the working people all over the world aspiring after independence under the uplifted banner of independence, peace and friendship, the reporter added.

International Workers' Day of Solidarity!

International Workers' Day of Solidarity!

May 1, 2011

Dear friends and comrades in the struggle for socialism in our country and abroad!

We, the AUCPB heartily congratulate you on our common holiday 1 MAY – A Day of International solidarity of Workers of all countries in the fight for their social and political rights, for socialism! We wish you all good health, high political activity and firmness in the current difficult political situation, internationally and domesticly, in the frenzy of imperialism, feeling its own death.

Believe us, our struggle will necessarily lead to victory and celebration on the planet of a humane socialist system instead of a criminal bandit imperialist society, a society of thieves, rapists and murderers, deceit and wickedness, which turns an honest worker into a slave fighting for survival. The wave of protest of the people against the powerful of this world is growing, like the tsunami. It will sweep away the entire criminal mafia gang ruling the world map, regardless of nationality, and nationality. Let us be worthy of the mission entrusted to us by HISTORY!

CC AUCPB

The ‘good news’ workers want to hear

The ‘good news’ workers want to hear*

Anjo C. Alimario, Researcher

April 30, 2011

Today is President Aquino’s first May 1 as president, a day when thousands of workers from various labor organizations and unions all over the country traditionally converge, carrying their sentiments to the government to prioritize their rights and welfare.

But even with the changing of the guard from the nine-year rule of the Arroyo administration, Filipino workers say they see not much difference with the current labor situation in the country. In fact, they say it’s much worse with the skyrocketing of the prices of basic goods.

As more than 30,000 workers meet in Metro Manila and with more than 100,000 others in the provinces staging their own mobilizations, based on the estimates of Anakpawis Partylist, they are one in saying that President Aquino should review his economic policies to include the workers’ interests.

“If he is really serious in hearing out our concerns, he needs to prioritize on his labor agenda the much-needed wage hike,” Joel Maglunsod, Anakpawis executive vice president, said in Filipino in a recent interview with the BusinessMirror.

In the headquarters of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) in Intramuros, Manila, members of Anakpawis will deliver a large envelope containing the “good news” of what the people want to hear from the President—a P125 legislated wage increase, the repeal of the oil-deregulation law and value-added tax on oil, control of oil prices and commodities, adequate work and the repeal of contractualization.

According to the explanatory note of the pending House Bill 375, or P125 Daily Across-the-Board Wage Increase Act, under Republic Act 6727, or the Wage Rationalization Act of 1989, the task of studying fixing and raising of wages was given to the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Boards (RTWPB).

The minimum wage differs from one region to another, and further differentiated according to locality, industry and employment size—standards set arbitrarily by the wage boards, it added.

“P-Noy will pass the issue on wage hike to the regional wage boards, but in the 22-year existence of the wage boards, it does not meet the workers’ needs—just providing meager wage increases. The P26 given is the highest in history,” Maglunsod emphasized.

What remains clear, as argued by the authors of the bill, is that minimum wages have remained grossly inadequate to support decent living standards after more than a decade of wage rationalization. “This highlights the failure of the government to provide economic relief for workers toward securing a living wage as mandated by the Constitution,” the paper read.

A symbol of workers’ demand

It was in the 13th Congress when the Committee on Labor and Employment, headed by Zamboanga del Sur Rep. Roseller Barinaga, was able to finalize House Bill (HB) 345 and registered the bill for plenary debate. The bill reached third and final readings.

On December 22, 2006, it was approved by the House through a majority vote and by rights the bill was passed.

But the bill could only reach that stage for it was recalled due to “blatant manipulation and disregard of the House rules.” It has taken more than seven years for the P125 legislated wage-increase bill to reach the level that it did in the 13th Congress.

In the following Congress, the bill was refiled as HB 1722. Despite the strong nationwide clamor for economic relief and constant lobbying of workers, the measure did not go any further after a single hearing in 2008.

The P125 legislated wake-hike demand has been recognized as a symbol of the Filipino workers’ united demand for economic relief. “Now, almost 11 years after, this fight for the granting of a legislated increase remains valid more than ever,” the statement read.

After the May 2010 elections, the RTWPB, under the DOLE, announced the granting of a P22 daily wage increase for workers in the National Capital Region (NCR). This hike increased the wage from P382 to P404 in the NCR, which is the last wage increase granted by former President Arroyo.

As of July 2010, the P404 minimum wage in the NCR has a shortfall of P553 against the estimated P957 family living wage. Moreover, the purchasing power of peso has been constantly eroded due to inflation.

The current family wage estimate is likely already twice the daily minimum wage and a P125 wage increase will not even make up for inflation that has eroded real incomes over the last three years, as stated in the paper.

“The fact is the additional P125 is not enough. With the estimate in the cost of living here in Metro Manila at P957 per day, you add P125 to P404 minimum wage, P529 is not even enough,” Maglunsod said.

The note emphasized that business owners’ age-old alibi that wage hikes would result in layoffs, cost-cutting measures and ultimate shutdown of companies was proved to be nothing more than “a blackmail excuse” to deprive workers of a much-needed wage increase.

Inflation argument

The argument that a wage increase will be inflationary is also disproved by the fact that labor costs comprise no more than 11 percent of the production costs on the average in all industries.

According to IBON Foundation, the net income of the top 1,000 corporations in the country soared from P116.4 billion in 2001 to P756 billion in 2009.

In a study by the Ecumenical Institute for Labor and Education Research (EILER) in the manufacturing sector, the share of the workers from the net incomes of companies decreases yearly, while company owners bloat their profits.

Based on the DOLE data in 2007, there are 1.8 million unionized workers that account for 5 percent of the total work force of 36 million. Of this number, only 242,000 workers are covered by existing collective bargaining agreement (CBA). Workers covered by CBA represent only 0.7 percent of the total employed work force, 1.4 percent of wage and salary workers and 12.4 percent of total union members.

Anakpawis data show that as of last year, only 1.7 million out of 19.5 million wage and salary workers are organized under unions. This is less than half of the 3.85 million unionized workers in 2001, and the figures continue to deplete.

During the first months of President Aquino’s term, the last waves of meager wage increases by the Arroyo administration through the wage boards were implemented: P22 in the NCR, P15 in Region VI, P18 in Region VII, P13 and P12 cost of living allowance (Cola) integration in Region X, P21 in Region XI, P10 and P10 Cola integration in Region XIII, and P12 in the ARMM.

“Aquino is about to start his first round of convening the wage boards next month. It took Aquino almost a year, despite severe price hikes, to finally do something on wage hike. But Anakpawis Partylist is wary that his first move on wages will only kill the hopes for a substantial wage hike, since it will again be coursed through the wage boards, and not through legislation, which what Anakpawis Partylist’s House Bill 375 is all about,” the group said in its brief.

Since the creation of regional wage boards under the term of his mother in 1989, no more than a P26 increase was granted in a year. The average yearly increase granted for the past 22 years in the NCR is only P10.75.

According to the EILER study, wages are eroding so fast under the Aquino administration, that the real wage value eroded by negative 7 in only the first six months of Mr. Aquino.

In 2001 the real value of minimum wage, using year 2000 as base prices, is P237. In June 2010 real wage meagerly increased to P242. In February 2011, or after just eight months under the new administration, real value of minimum wage declined to P235.

‘Worst in history’

The unemployment rate for 2010, according to IBON, stands at 11.6 percent —“the worst in history,” the group noted.

While the number of unemployed increases, the more people become desperate and vulnerable to repressive working conditions. The group added that the Aquino administration still uses the distorted categorization of employment started by Arroyo in April 2005, where people who do not look for work anymore are excluded from the labor force, thereby shrinking artificially the unemployment rate.

“So the government always reports lesser unemployment rate,” the group added.

With 35 million Filipinos employed reported by the government, the figure already includes 4.22 million “unpaid family workers” and 12.16 million “own account workers.”

“The announcement from DOLE on Labor Day is the purported distribution of jobs in large job fairs. But the distribution of temporary jobs and irregular in nature does not solve poverty, and if mass layoffs and contractualization will always be permitted,” Maglunsod said.

On the issue of workers’ rights, Center for Trade Union and Human Rights 2010 data reveal that there are many forms of civil and political rights violations observed under the present administration that include killing, frustrated/attempted killing, physical assault, grave threat and coercion, among others.

There were 68 documented cases with 1,361 victims, of which 103 were women. And six were killed under the current administration, where three labor leaders were murdered this year. The latest was Santos Manrique, Federation of Mineworkers Association president, on April 12 in Compostela Valley.

“If the good news coming from the present administration in essence would not involve lifting the livelihood of the people, then people can only expect bad news from the Aquino administration,” Maglunsod declared.

* Url:http://businessmirror.com.ph/home/top-news/10521-the-good-news-workers-want-to-hear

Labor groups push for wage hike, end to contractualization

Labor groups push for wage hike, end to contractualization*

Saturday, April 30, 2011

MANILA — Various groups confirmed plans to seek from the government improved conditions for workers nationwide while Malacañang is set to announce a package of non-wage benefits for workers as part of Sunday’s Labor Day celebration.

“We’ll push for increased wages and an end to contractualization in the workplace,” National Labor Union president Dave Diwa said during the Kapihan sa QC forum at Annabel’s Restaurant in Quezon City on Saturday.

Workers will also call for Malacañang’s action on other labor-related concerns of national importance like power cost and taxes, he added.

President Benigno Aquino III is set to have a breakfast dialogue with leaders of major labor groups on Sunday.

According to Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz, 90 labor leaders from 17 groups have confirmed attendance to the dialogue.

Some of these groups include the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines, Alliance of Filipino Workers, Alliance of Progressive Labor, National Confederation of Labor, National Union of Bank Employees, and the Philippine Association of Migrant Workers and Advocates.

Left-wing group Kilusang Mayo Uno was not invited to the dialogue.

“Dati inanyahan namin yan pero ang kanilang preference ay hindi makilahok. May separate sila na programa at yan naman ay nirerespeto natin dahil ito ay kanilang araw (We used to invite them, but their preference is not to attend. They have a separate program and we respect that because it’s their day),”Baldoz explained.

Early this month, Malacañang announced there will be “good news” on Labor Day to help workers cope with the rising prices of oil and basic commodities.

However, this did not refer to wage increase.

“We all eagerly await the news from the President tomorrow (Sunday) so it will be a big day for all of us tomorrow,” Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said Saturday over government-run dzRB radio.

Valte refused to give additional details on the Labor Day gift of the government, avoiding preempting the President’s announcement.

Anakpawis Executive Vice President Joel Maglunsod said Malacañang must certify as urgent bills proposing wage hikes in both public and private sectors.

Such action is already due as the country’s last legislated wage hike was in 1989 when government approved a P30 across-the-board increase, he noted.

“Government says a wage hike will be inflationary and will create a myriad of negative repercussions but we say it’s time for this since prices are rising,” he said at the forum.

He maintains a wage hike is viable at this time.

Citing results of National Statistics Office’s 2008 survey, he said companies with over 20 employees each collectively realized then profits of about P895.2 billion.

Cost

Implementing a P125 across-the-board wage hike means such companies will spend only P135.6 billion for workers’ salaries.

Companies concerned will still net a profit of P759.6 billion even if workers’ salaries are deducted from total revenues, he noted.

“The problem is employers don’t want to increase their workers’ salaries as they don’t want their profit margins diminished,” he said.

In its statement for Labor Day, Workers Action for Reforms (WAR) reported the prevailing minimum daily wage for an eight-hour work in various regions nationwide, except National Capital Region (NCR) and Calabarzon “is below or slightly above the poverty threshold.”

Threshold

Government’s estimated Philippine poverty threshold in 2009 was P7,953 for a family of five, WAR noted.

WAR further said prevailing minimum wages outside NCR and Calabarzon range from P187 to P316, making life difficult for people concerned.

Diwa pointed out government must eradicate labor contractualization because this practice undermines the potential of workers--mostly college graduates in their early to mid-20s and raring to work—aside from failing to bring forth security of tenure in the workplace.

“They’re hired for five months, then fired,” he said.

Maglunsod also said contractualization, oil deregulation and trade liberalization are among factors preventing small and medium enterprises from truly becoming competitive.

Jobs fair

Meanwhile, the labor secretary also invited jobseekers to attend the Labor Day Job and Livelihood Fair with at least 190,000 job vacancies from 2,000 employers.

The main Labor Day Job and Livelihood Fair will be held in the Lagoon Area of the Rizal Park between Maria Orosa St. and Roxas Blvd.

The regional jobs and livelihood fair will be at the SM Baguio and Baguio Convention Center in the Cordillera Administrative Region; SM Rosales, Pangasinan in Ilocos Region; Francisco L. Dy Coliseum, Cauayan, Isabela in Cagayan Valley; SM San Fernando, Pampanga and SM Baliwag, Bulacan in Central Luzon; SM Sta. Rosa, Laguna and SM Rosario, Cavite in Calabarzon; Divine World College, Calapan City in Mimaropa; SM Naga City in Bicol Region; SM Iloilo and SM Bacolod in Western Visayas; and SM Cebu City, Cebu International Convention Center, Abellana Sports Complex City, Cebu City and Macias Sports Complex, Dumaguete City in Central Visayas.

Other venues are as follows: Tacloban City Convention Center in Western Visayas; Western Mindanao State University Gymnasium, Zamboanga City, and Gaisano Capital, Pagadian City in Zamboanga Peninsula; SM Cagayan de Oro in Northern Mindanao; and, SM Davao, Gaisano Mall Davao in Davao Region; KCC Mall in General Santos, Plaza Pavilion in Kidapawan City and the South Seas Mall, at Don R, Alfonso St., Cotabato City in Central Mindanao; and Dole regional office in Caraga. (Kathrina Alvarez/PNA/Sunnex)

* Url:http://www.sunstar.com.ph/manila/local-news/2011/04/30/labor-groups-push-wage-hike-end-contractualization-152873

Militants to burn PNoy-on-Porsche effigy on May 1

Militants to burn PNoy-on-Porsche effigy on May 1*

By Pia Gutierrez

ABS-CBN News

Posted at 04/30/2011

MANILA, Philippines - Less than 100 militant members of labor groups will be holding a vigil tonight (April 30) at the Quezon City Welcome Rotonda as preparation for Labor Day tomorrow.

Anakpawis Representative Joel Maglunsod said this is a way to encourage more support for the proposed 125 across-the-board wage increase a day before Labor Day.

Earlier, labor group Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) slammed President Aquino's Labor Day "gift" of non-wage benefits from Pag-IBIG, PhilHealth, Social Security System (SSS) and Government Service Insurance System (GSIS).

Samuel Malunes, vice chair for federation affairs of KMU, said that this felt more like a slap in the face, saying the Aquino administration's refusal to grant a significant wage hike needed to cope with skyrocketing prices is cause for outrage.

"Ang kailangan namin dagdag na sweldo pambuhay sa pamilya namin," Malunes said.

The KMU has prepared a huge effigy of President Aquino sitting atop a Porsche car. Malunes said this will be publicly burned at a protest rally tomorrow to symbolize the public's disgust at Aquino's insensitivity to the plight of laborers.

Aquino bought himself a second-hand Porsche amidst his own calls for austerity. The incident caused his popularity ratings to drop.

Thousands are expected to join tomorrow's protests, with groups convening as early as 8 a.m. at Trabajo, Blumentritt, Paco and Moriones.

The groups will then march towards the Liwasang Bonifacio by noon before proceeding to Mendiola for a short program.

* Url:http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/04/30/11/militants-burn-pnoy-porsche-effigy-may-1

MAY DAY GREETINGS

MAY DAY GREETINGS

On the occasion of the International Worker's Day, celebrated around the world, I simply covey this message to the people.

At first, we all recognize that the working class, both worker and peasant are experiencing a plight, having lost much of its rights and in a critical situation that makes them difficult to defend against the right-wing neoliberal and fascist onslaught fostered by the comprador bourgeoisie and of course by the imperialists, being promoters of rotten systems like Capitalism.

As expected, workers and peasants are experiencing inferior conditions of work, all in a massive competitive market, of having contractualization introdiced and reduction in working conditions, of having low wages and less securities whilst profits are gaining high by the compradore profiteers dominating. Workers are even nearly denied the right to collective bargain and even the right to associate in a progressive trade union that often be subjected to firing or death.

So are the farmers, that figthing for land reform continues all despite the repression laid upon by the landlords and of the state itself. That, like in Hacienda Yulo wherein they are violently dispersed by the military for the sake of using their cherished land into a residential and commercial area, these actions laid upon by the system, catering to moribound capitalists and landlords hastens the lessening of food supply and food reserves in a land that is agricultural, and being agricultural meant self sufficient in foodstuffs and other needs of the society.

And as for the students, self employed and the urban poor, their struggle for good education, decent and dignified living and adequate employment continues especially as the urban poor, usually called as "squatters" remained defiant against those who oppose their right to live through demolishing their houses without any replacement or be given a land "inefficient" and "unsupported." Being forced to mendicancy by the rotten social order due to massive unemployment, the urban poor are still fighting, alongside the workers and the peasants for decent living, employment and land willing to return to the soil with mind and heart; so are the students who faced the increase in tuition fees and rampant "scholastic fascism" and the self employed with intense competition laid by the giants supported by the system.

Lately, we've recieved a news that there are no wage hikes for this year, using an alibi of regional wage boards that in fact, like the Labour Department are coddlers of employers and of course Capitalism. Isn't it obvious that their statement is a slap on the faces of the workers, that despite working overnight for a low wage, of saving it for long days just to face increasing prices of commodities and oil? Of fares for transport and Tuition fees for their children? Is the Philippines really experiencing a crisis or inventing a crisis rather to create discontent?

This coming May Day, the laboring people must continue united, to become a genuine militant force facing against the class enemy. We may face repression again and again, but it doesn't mean that the battle will be over. Again, May Day is approaching, and may the laboring people, both in the Philippines and around the world, face the common enemy and avenge after centuries of disenfranchisement and oppression!

No wage hike by May 1, says labor secretary

No wage hike by May 1, says labor secretary*

By Philip Tubeza

Philippine Daily Inquirer

04/27/2011

MANILA, Philippines —What “good” news?

Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said on Wednesday that she was unaware about the “good news” Malacañang said it would announce on Labor Day, adding that it definitely would not be a minimum wage hike.

Baldoz said a wage increase has become unlikely because the first regional wage board to tackle the issue—that of Metro Manila—has scheduled its first public hearing only for May 2, a day after Labor Day.

The regional wage board of Eastern Visayas will also hold its first public hearing on a minimum wage hike only on May 11.

“I have no idea of what good news (Presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda) is talking about,” Baldoz said during a press conference on the sidelines of the First National Summit on Labor and Employment in Pasay City.

“If the context is…the minimum wage, my answer is I have heard the President say that he will leave the issue…to the existing tripartite boards,” she said.

“So, as far as I know, (the President) should be able to give instructions to hasten the process and for (the wage hike petitions) to be studied carefully but that he will respect the process,” she added.

As for non-wage benefits, Baldoz said the some of the agencies who were asked to come up with suggestions had yet to submit them as of Tuesday night.

“These will have to be submitted to the President but, as of last night, some agencies have not submitted their reports,” Baldoz said on Wednesday.

The labor chief said she saw “no chance” of a wage hike on Labor Day because the regional wage boards would still have to conduct public hearings.

“It looks like that there is no chance (for that) this May 1. The earliest (public hearing) is…May 2. The rest will be at a later time,” Baldoz said.

“But I think within the month of May, they should be able to finish on the deliberation and come out with their decision,” she added.

Labor officials earlier said that the Metro Manila wage board could come out with its decision in the middle of May.

* Url:http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view/20110427-333317/No-wage-hike-by-May-1-says-labor-secretary

Unveiling of Ka Bel’s relief marks opposition’s Labor Day

Unveiling of Ka Bel’s relief marks opposition’s Labor Day*
By Tarra Quismundo, Tina Santos
Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines—Politicians from various shades of the opposition united with activists on Saturday under the workingman’s banner to memorialize Crispin “Ka Bel” Beltran, an icon of the Philippine labor movement.

A bas-relief of Beltran, who died in 2008, was unveiled at Plaza Miranda in Manila, where he stood during Labor Day commemorations to speak of the plight of underpaid workers and fight for their welfare.

A gift from the Manila city government, the bas-relief by sculptor Julie Lluch was affixed to one of the massive pillars at Plaza Miranda, above a marker unveiled on Beltran’s first death anniversary last year.

The unveiling was held in the morning, before activists mobilized for the annual Labor Day march to Liwasang Bonifacio in Manila.

Members of militant, labor and urban poor organizations took part in the afternoon march, which was marked by the burning of a life-size effigy of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in a detention cell.

The effigy, dubbed “Kulungan ni Gloria,” symbolized the workers’ desire to make Ms Arroyo accountable for their “sufferings” under her administration, according to Wendell Gumban, media liaison of the labor coalition Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU).

Another highlight of the Labor Day commemoration was the workers’ assessment of Ms Arroyo’s nine-year term and the presentation of the labor agenda to candidates for the presidency.

The demonstrators said record-high unemployment, depressed wages and grave abuse of workers’ rights characterized the Arroyo administration.

“These conditions should be overturned by the next government,” they said.

At the center

The unveiling of the bas-relief brought together politicians from varying colors of the opposition—Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo and Gabriela Rep. Liza Maza, both guest senatorial candidates of the Nacionalista Party; the Liberal Party’s Alfredo Lim, the reelectionist mayor of Manila; and currently “partyless” Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero.

“Even when Ka Bel was alive, he was at the center of the people of any [political] color he was talking to. When it came to the interest of the labor sector, the urban poor, Ka Bel was able to relate to all people, whatever color they were,” said Beltran’s daughter Ofel Balleta.

“Especially with the elections coming, we took this opportunity to bring together everyone who respected Ka Bel,” she said.

Balleta said Mayor Lim offered to make a memorial for her father soon after he passed away, and later funded the separate installation of the marker and bas-relief.

“Now we will see him every day. We can’t say that Ka Bel has left us. Even if it’s just a sculpture, he is there and his family and the people will be able to see him,” Balleta told the Inquirer.

Beltran died of head injuries on May 20, 2008. Then 75, he was fixing a leak on the roof of the family home in Bulacan when he slipped and fell head first to the ground.

He was then on his third term as a party-list lawmaker.

A staunch critic of the administration, Beltran had survived incarceration following his involvement in massive protest actions at the height of calls for Ms Arroyo’s resignation in 2005 and 2006.

Bias for labor

At the unveiling, a wreath bearing red ribbons—the color representing the militant struggle—was offered along with smaller floral arrangements with yellow and orange ribbons.

“Ka Bel as a person was very likeable, especially on a personal basis. You have to respect his very strong bias for labor and know that he will not give up. But even when there were times that he hit hard, he remained humane,” said Ocampo, who had many times marched beside Beltran.

Renato Reyes, secretary general of the militant Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan), said this year’s presidential candidates should look up to Beltran who made no compromises and never wavered in his advocacy.

“He’s an icon of the labor movement; he’s recognized whatever your affiliation may be, whatever your labor union. That’s the spirit of Ka Bel—uncompromising, principled, steadfast, a simple man. That should be emulated even by the ‘presidentiables,’” Reyes said.

Beltran’s widow Rosario said the bas-relief would be not only a memorial to her husband but also a daily revival of that day in November 1956 when she met him, then a cabbie, in Plaza Miranda.

They married 10 days later and had 10 children together.

“A while ago, I had a flashback and thought I could not afford not to keep coming back here. He is here,” the widow said, smiling.

“On the 20th, his death anniversary, we will see each other again. My joke is that I’ll see Ka Bel again standing here,” she said.

No labor agenda

KMU chair Elmer Labog said that while all the presidential candidates were claiming to be pro-poor and promising to end poverty and corruption, no one had presented a concrete, long-term agenda for the labor sector.

“We want to hear [how they will] address low wages, joblessness, labor migration, poor working conditions and violation of labor rights and standards,” he said.

The demonstrators also called on the candidates to back legislation on a significant wage increase for workers, promote workers’ rights, and reverse laws promoting contractual and flexible labor, among others.

Bayan’s Reyes said that apart from making a firm commitment to raise workers’ wages and increase their benefits, the next president should also reverse Ms Arroyo’s economic policies, including what he described as “the oppressive value-added tax.”

“This is Ms Arroyo’s last Labor Day. She should have made it meaningful by giving the workers additional wages, not an additional day off,” Reyes said. “The next President should do better by addressing labor demands.”

Malacañang has declared May 3 a nonworking holiday as part of its “holiday economics” program.

“This move just shows the lack of respect the administration has for the significance of International Labor Day,” Labog said. He said the labor sector did not recognize the May 3 holiday.

Police said the commemoration of Labor Day was generally peaceful.

At around 10 a.m., various groups converged at Blumentritt corner Sta. Cruz, Quirino corner Taft Avenue, and Plaza Moriones in Tondo before proceeding to Liwasang Bonifacio for the main program at 2 p.m.

As of 3 p.m., Manila policemen estimated the crowd at 6,000 to 8,000. But protest organizers put the figure at 20,000.


*Url: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20100502-267605/Unveiling-of-Ka-Bels-relief-marks-oppositions-Labor-Day

May Day Greetings

May Day Greetings

Comrades,

"We have not come to do the work of political parties, but we have come here in the cause of labour, in its own defence, to demand its own rights." These are the words Madame Elanor Marx said in Hyde park, last the 4th of May 1890.These words also mirror the fact that all workers are still pursuing the protracted struggle for their rights.

True, for as time goes by, we all expect that more and more hath their minds opened, looking at the realities, rose up and fight. Like Madame Marx hath said: "but the dozens have grown to hundreds, and the hundreds to thousands, until we have this magnificent demonstration that fills the park today." But now, every park,square or plaza around the world became filled with workers and the red flags waving all in the name of struggle,not just for worker's and farmer's rights, but also for genuine Democracy and Socialism.

Driven by strong working class Patriotism and Internationalism, the entire working class somehow became inspiration to many all despite the anomalies, incidents, and tragedies happened pointing against them. The working class will continue forwarding the struggle for genuine Democracy all despite the dissolution of the east bloc, the capitulation of China to the wishes of the west, and modern-day revisionism courtesy of cliques, groups within vanguards.

Somehow the ones from the west and its domestic allies still try to vent much of black propaganda against us out of despair. Worse as we encounter the same methods like harassment and even death amongst our ranks. But then, we, the working class really faced those things regardless of life and in lieu of decreasing ranks amongst us, increasing all due of our lessons we shared upon to the rest of the world, continuing the legacy of popular struggles against the exploiters and the slanderers of the people.

As of now, we call on the peoples of the world, regardless of race, religion and sharing a common idea must forge a new, eternal and fraternal unity in order to counter the hordes unleashed by the Imperialists, especially the United States and its cohorts as we are living in a very tense time as they, the exploiters, maddened by permissiveness and excess of always printable blank dollars, which buy everything and everyone, from the U.S. not serviced at all by the gold reserves of the U.S. (ie, empty wrappers)can afford in it, coupled with kowtowing to the imperialist governments in Europe, Russia, and even the Revisionist China, including acquiescence to the world beyond the aggressive imperialist policy of world conquest robbery-that even encompasses all fields including politics, culture and the economy in different countries of the world are Americanized owing to the US policy of "internationalization" and "globalization."

But then,
The days of exploitation are numbered not just because of rallies directing against them from London to Washington or from Paris to Manila. And a UK cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church told the members of British parliament, politicians and businesspersons that capitalism, the system of exploitation, met its ruin since the declaration of the end of socialism not less than 20 years ago with the collapse of Berlin wall in 1989-all due to the intensification of people's struggles from legal to armed means like Columbia to the Philippines, wherein the struggle kept on growing.

All of these are not because of modern weaponry nor the number of people in every rally. We must recognize that the popular masses, who are behind all of the growing anti-Imperialist, anti-Capitalist, and anti-Fascist opposition play a decisive role as masters of national sovereignty and international solidarity. And that unity is mightier than a nuclear weapon or any kind of modern weaponry and sends the imperialists a tremble with apprehension and fear-like this remarkable May 1 event.

I hope the people must greatly understood the entire event like the past of years ago. The struggle isn't and will never be over irregardless the basis what the exploiters said directly against us.

Long live May 1 - Day of struggle against U.S. evil imperialism, for peace and security, for free labour and prosperity on our beautiful planet Earth! And someday, people of the world will hear and say these words in a coming offensive: Launch the offensives! Protect the Barricades!

As May day comes

As May day comes

Many people around the world for sure are waiting for this one of a kind special day, and that is the day wherein the harvests are ripe and ready to be harvested, followed by a celebration-starting in the first of May.

Morris Dancing in England, a part of a May Day event

May Day, as what most people called, is the festival wherein most people are dancing, enjoying the first harvests and even attending mass since that day also connotates with the Blessed Virgin Mary, but in a societal sense, it is more related to harvest and of labor, and in case of pagans-of the goddess flora and other deities related to the month of may.

An early Russian May Day poster

An old East German May Day stamp

But then,
Despite its festival like intentions, May Day, in a contemporary sense is rather synonymous to our Labor Day, especially in the Philippines. Wherein in lieu of dance, wine and song of joy, protest marches and songs of labor and even dances against the system were being made as the rest of the world also do so, both enjoyment and of protest, made during the first of may.

And for sure most of us, the slackers and the confessed apathetics around, also think of it as a start for taking advantage in completing the entire summer holiday, like the first part-enjoyment and pleasure makes May Day a part of a happy holiday people, especially the youth liken, as they tried much in filling every month before the common day of classes starts! Well... it all happens in that last resting month, starting with the first of may!