On DU30s 100th day: Church, labor groups calls for ‘kabuhayan hindi patayan’

Partido Manggagawa (PM) Labor Party - Philippines SHARED FROM Friday, October 7, 2016 On DU30s 100th day: Church, labor groups calls for ‘kabuhayan hindi patayan’ The Duterte administration should redefine itself despite the high approval rating it got from pursuing its ruthless campaign against drugs during the first 100 days. The challenge was made by the Church-Labor Conference (CLC), an aggrupation of labor and church groups in the country, in a rally held at the Mabuhay Rotonda this morning, on the occasion of President Duterte’s 100th day in office.  October 7 also marks the celebration of World Day for Decent Work. In Cebu, the chapter of Partido Manggagawa (PM) echoed this call. “Ang kahirapan at adiksyon ay magkarugtong na problema. Ang malawakang patayan at ang kahandaan pang pumatay ng 3 milyong pusher at adik ay hindi solusyon sa kahirapan. Ang kailangan ay bagong patakaran at konkretong hakbang na maghahango sa 26 na milyong Pilipino mula sa kahirapan, magbibigay kabuhayan at regular na trabaho sa 40 na milyong manggagawa, at buhay na may dignidad para sa lahat,” said PM-Cebu spokesperson Dennis Derige. One of PM-Cebu's leader and organizer, Orlando "Ka Lando" Abangan, was shot and killed last September in a vigilante style killing. His killing remains unsolved. PM national chair and CLC co-chair Renato Magtubo said the next five and a half years will be more challenging for the Duterte administration amid the sharpening contradictions between the contending classes inside and outside his administration in dealing with other social programs. He cited as an example the strong opposition coming from local and foreign business groups against workers demand to finally end the policy contractualization and the realization of the living wage principle enshrined in the constitution. “Sa manggagawa ay simple lang ang depinisyon ng pagbabago. Wala nito kung nariyan pa rin ang endo at mababa ang sweldo. Wala nito kung mananatiling untouchable ang mga gaya ni Lucio Tan, Henry Sy, at iba pang endo lords,” added Magtubo. Labor groups were all opposed to the win-win solution on endo being proposed by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) which promotes regularization outside of the principal employers but to the third party service providers such as manpower agencies and cooperatives. The group is also opposed to the planned imposition of regressive taxes to replace revenue loss resulting from the removal of VAT exemptions from senior citizens and the lowering of income taxes for corporations and individuals in the higher tax brackets.

At congressional inquiry yesterday: PALEA demands recall of mass layoff

Partido Manggagawa (PM)

Labor Party - Philippines

Thursday, November 5, 2015

At congressional inquiry yesterday: PALEA demands recall of mass layoff

At congressional inquiry yesterday: PALEA demands recall of mass layoff

At a congressional inquiry by the House of Representatives Labor Committee yesterday, the Philippine Airlines Employees Association (PALEA) demanded that Philippine Airlines (PAL) recall the latest mass layoff and reinstatement the 117 fired employees. PAL responded by announcing that the termination of the affected workers is being delayed from November 9 to November 30, giving them three more weeks of work.

“Since PAL has not conceded to our demand for the recall of the illegal dismissals, PALEA’s notice of strike stays. So the work stoppage that will impact PAL flights and operations may happen later this month,” stated Gerry Rivera, PALEA president and a Partido Manggagawa bet for the party-list elections.

PALEA did not push through with the planned strike during the undas holidays in deference to conciliation proceedings called by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE). Another conciliation meeting is scheduled on November 10.

The congressional hearing was held in Davao City and presided by Rep. Karlo Nogrles. In response to queries on the status of the duly elected PALEA officers led by Rivera, DOLE Undersecretary Rebecca Chato testified in the hearing that pending final resolution of the intra-union cases, the status quo remains and thus current union officials are the legitimate representatives and bargaining agents of PAL ground employees.

“USec Chato’s clarification of labor law and jurisprudence should be a wakeup call to management to stop its unfair labor practice of disregarding PALEA and talking directly to union members, such as what happened in the termination of the 117 employees,” Rivera explained.

Representatives of factions that contested the leadership of PALEA also attended the hearing. Leaders of these factions lost in the PALEA union elections last February that was won by the slate of led by Rivera. Two petitions were filed at the DOLE by the losing candidates after the elections. Last month, some of the petitioners filed another case asking the DOLE to disregard the pending notice of strike by PALEA.

Rivera averred that “All these PAL employees who are noisily attacking PALEA’s fight against contractualization but who are suspiciously silent on the mass firings by PAL are being exposed as lackeys of management.”

“Since 1998, more than 8,000 PAL regular employees and union members have been fired and replaced by contractual workers who labor for longer hours but are paid less in wages and benefits, and work without a voice in the workplace. Thus even during times when PAL says that it is losing money, airline service providers owned by Lucio Tan and his family remain extremely profitable,” Rivera revealed.

Aside from the propriety of the latest round of retrenchments at the national flag carrier, the congressional inquiry also discussed PAL’s refusal to open collective bargaining negotiations for the last 17 years and to implement the terms of the settlement agreement to end the outsourcing dispute of 2011. PALEA had repeatedly asked PAL to start CBA talks and fulfill the re-employment provision of the settlement deal to no avail.

November 5, 2015

PALEA

The TRUTH will set you FREE

SMUGGLED GOODS ARE IN 40-FT LONG CONTAINER VANS NOT IN 4-CUBIC FT BALIKBAYAN BOXES

Partido Manggagawa via Facebook.com

2 hrs · Edited ·

SMUGGLED GOODS ARE IN 40-FT LONG CONTAINER VANS NOT IN 4-CUBIC FT BALIKBAYAN BOXES

NEWS RELEASE
23 August 2015

PM to BOC: Balikbayan boxes contain labor and love; smuggled goods are in container vans

Labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) joined OFW groups and individuals around the world in denouncing the new policy of Bureau of Customs (BoC) to subject balikbayan boxes to inspection and to impose duties on their assessed values exceeding $500.

“The policy is anti-OFWs on two grounds. First, it begins with the sweeping assumption that OFWs are into technical smuggling. Second, it ends up with a new revenue scheme that can generate some P600 million/year from small articles being sent home by our OFWs,” said PM Chair Renato Magtubo.

Partido Manggagawa is asking the BoC and Malacanang to scrap the twin policy altogether as they smack with a veiled intention of making money out of the small and non-business articles coming from our OFWs.

The BoC came up with the memorandum explaining the new policy based on the findings that balikbayan boxes are being used for technical smuggling. The bureau said some P50 million are lost every month from technical smuggling and one way to address this problem is to subject balikbayan boxes to inspection.

But Magtubo said, “Stricter rules must be imposed against illicit trade, including imported goods that are meant for business and not against compressed articles that contain hard labor and deep love coming from our OFWs.”

He pointed out that this reform is also aimed at the wrong target since smuggled business articles are usually found in 40 ft.-long container vans and not in 4-cubic foot balikbayan boxes.

On the planned imposition of duties against articles exceeding $500 in value, Magtubo said the policy can be used arbitrarily and indiscriminately against OFWs who are unaware of custom’s valuation as well as the procedures on how values are determined on a mix of articles that are compressed inside the balikbayan boxes.

The labor group lamented the fact that OFWs have already been paying $0.05 cents per dollar in their remittances thus the new policy will be an added burden to them.

He also agreed with the view that the new policy may only create new forms of corruption in the most corrupt agency at the expense of hardworking OFWs.

19 Likes3 Comments20 Shares

The TRUTH will set you FREE.

#State of Negros: The rise of ‘new sacadas’ belies SONA claim of PNoy on labor

State of Negros: The rise of ‘new sacadas’ belies SONA claim of PNoy on labor shared from NEWS RELEASE Partido Manggagawa-Negros 28 July 2015 The rise of ‘new sacadas’ in Negros belie the claim of President Aquino during his State of the Nation Address (SONA) yesterday that the country is now moving from cheap labor to high-tech producer. Fresh from the joint consultation-workshop on the state of sugar workers held in Bacolod City last Sunday, the Negros chapter of Partido Manggagawa (PM-Negros) and the Sentro ng Nagkakaisang Manggagawa (Sentro) described as ‘first world falsehood’ the assertion of the President that high-tech production is taking over cheap labor that for a long time characterized the Philippine labor force. “What country are you talking about, Mr. President?  Negros is now home to BPOs yet the island remains a country of sacadas,” said the two groups in a statement. It is clear, according to PNoy, “The Filipino can now compete.  Previously our only selling point was cheap labor.  Now factories for high-tech equipment are coming here, from airplane parts, electrical tricycles, printers, and other digital media products to high-quality medical devices.” During their Sunday consultation, PM-Negros presented a study that pointed to the rise of ‘new sacadas’ in Negros resulting from the dismal failure of agrarian reform in the island as well as the massive contractualization of farm works in the Sugarlandia. “The old dumaans (regular workers) were replaced by tens of thousands and contractual workers. And the migrant sacadas that mainly came from Panay and other neighboring provinces before are now replaced by inland sacadas -- a phenomenon that suggests a downside shift in labor relations in the island,” explained the group. According to PM-Negros, the ‘new sacadas’ of Negros is represented now by tens of thousands of contractual farm workers who comprise at least 80% of the total workforce in sugar plantations in the island.  They receive not more than P150 per day working as planters, weeders, fertilizer applicators, harvesters and haulers. “Until the late 90s, Negros sourced its shortage of sacadas from outside of the island but now the internal labor market is heavily populated with contractual, seasonal and mobile workers who perform work previously done by regular workers or the dumaans,” said the two groups. For PM and Sentro, the combination of failed agrarian reform and the onslaught of contractualization schemes created this phenomenon as workers who were displaced due to massive retrenchments lost their employee-employer relationship (EER) and eventually their right to become land reform beneficiaries.  “This condition left at least 100,000 hectares with no more agrarian reform beneficiaries to claim the lands, creating in effect an army of sacadas that hop from one hacienda to another around the island to find work,” explained the group. This state of sugar workers in Negros, added the groups, is further threatened by the expected adverse impact of Asean integration on Philippine agriculture once the zero tariff regime begins to be implemented this year. “We expect massive job loss once the country’s sugar industry fails to survive the intense competition with Thai and Vietnamese sugar,” said PM. The saddest point, said PM and Sentro, is to hear the SONAs of the past and present Presidents, without any mention of the pressing problems in Negros, specifically the life of sugar workers. “Ang problema namon, amon lang gid problema. Isa kami sa halimbawa sang SONA nga indi matalupangdan,” concluded the group.

The TRUTH will set you FREE.

PARTIDO NG MANGGAGAWA MAY 1, 2015 RALLY

The TRUTH will set you FREE.