By IBON FEATURES
Posted by Bulatlat.com
The May 1, 2010 question: What hope has labor in the 2010 polls?
IBON Features | May 2010 | Many hope that the elections will usher in reforms and alleviate the worsening plight of the Filipino people, including the country’s 38.6-million labor force.
Many hope that the elections will usher in reforms and alleviate the worsening plight of the Filipino people, including the country’s 38.6-million labor force.
The commemoration of Labor Day was marked not only by workers’ affirmation of a continuing struggle for their rights but also by their participation in the coming May 2010 national elections. Like for many, this period symbolizes hope that the elections will usher in reforms and alleviate the worsening plight of the Filipino people, including the country’s 38.6-million labor force.
The Filipino worker’s misery has been worsened under the Arroyo administration due to job insecurity, measly wages, poor working conditions and attacks on workers’ civil and political rights. Labor contractualization has become legal with the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Order #18-02 of 2002, wherein actual work term can be shortened than what is stated in the contract. The minimum wage has for a long time been pegged at a miserable low (P382 in NCR) against government’s own family living wage estimate (conservatively at P917 in NCR). Workers also continue to lament DOLE’s Assumption of Jurisdiction order which calls for government takeover management’s handling of workers’ strikes, which has led to violence and bloodshed in picket lines.
The Arroyo administration has also vigorously encouraged Filipinos to work abroad: 8.2 million overseas Filipinos have been recorded in 2008, counting 4.3 million temporary workers and 3.8 million permanent residents, while 1.29 million more overseas Filipino workers [OFWs] – counting an average of 3,845 OFWs per day – were deployed abroad in 2009.
The country’s unemployment rate has reached its worst nine-year sustained high of joblessness since 1956 at 11.2% counting 4.3 million Filipinos. The employment figure of 35.1 million in 2009 attempts to conceal poor quality of work revealed in these figures: 4.2 million are unpaid family workers, 12.2 million are own account workers while 11.7 million wage and salary workers are without written contracts. Similarly, one out of three jobs are merely part-time work, 6.6 million Filipinos are underemployed (employed but still looking for more work and income) and the number of working children aged 5-17 years old number 2.7 million.
Workers’ demands and the presidentiables
This election season, workers’ groups put forward their demands which they call on candidates, especially the presidentiables, to squarely address: just wages, job opportunities and security, humane working conditions, a reversal of the labor export and labor contractualization policies and justice for victims of union busting and repression. Change groups also urge candidates to make a stand on protecting the domestic industry by addressing working people’s issues. How do the presidentiables fare with regard to these demands? More concretely, how far has each gone to genuinely address workers’ issues?
Pro-labor platforms
In her platform, independent candidate Maria Ana Consuelo ‘Jamby’ Madrigal states a comprehensive, pro-labor stand. According to her, a genuine and pro-Filipino industrialization will ensure adequate and decently paying jobs. She also says that Filipino labor must be protected and nurtured through living wages, regularization of work tenure, banning of contractualization and agency-hiring, and defense of migrant rights. Her platform fully supports the campaign for a nationwide P125 across-the-board daily hike in wages.
Like Madrigal, the platform of Bangon Pilipinas candidate Eduardo ‘Eddie’ Villanueva boasts of support for labor and the local industry: shifting the direction of Philippine agriculture to producing finished products over mere raw materials and providing support for research and development for this purpose; generation, growth and development of small and medium enterprises; development of skilled and smart labor by granting scholarships for poor ut deserving youth; forging a strong and vibrant domestic economy by adopting a policy of ‘self-help first before foreign aid’; and lifting tariffs and duties for equipment and technology to aid Filipino invention and production of goods. He believes that the state should promote an environment where job and business opportunities will enable Filipinos to live decently.
Pronouncements
Most candidates’ platforms support job opportunities, jobs security and just wages, such as that of Liberal Party’s Benigno ‘Noynoy’ Aquino, John Carlos ‘JC’ Delos Reyes of Ang Kapatiran Party and independent candidate Nicanor Jesus ‘Nick’ Perlas III. Creating jobs at home so that working abroad will be an option rather than a necessity and protection for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) are also common in almost all of the presidentiables’ platforms, especially that of Aquino, Delos Reyes, Madrigal, Villanueva and Bagumbayan presidential candidate Richard ‘Dick’ Gordon.
However, Gordon contradicts his own pronouncement about OFWs with his plan to encourage migration into jobs and countries with higher potential for skill-acquisition and to make OFWs global ambassadors for global expansion and tourism.
Meanwhile, Lakas-Kampi presidential candidate Gilberto ‘Gibo’ Teodoro Jr. says that there is a need for more job-creating opportunities especially in the industry and services sectors. Manuel ‘Manny’ Villar of the Nacionalista Party further believes that a government stimulus package could address the needs of laborers and employees for a just and decent wage. However, both Teodoro and Villar say it is up to the National Wages and Productivity Commission NWPC) and the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Boards (RTWPB) to handle petitions for wage hikes. This is despite complaints from the labor sector that these bodies are more inclined to favor employers rather the interests of employees .
