This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. V, No. 18, June 12-18, 2005
LABOR WATCH
Southern Tagalog Workers Treated Like Slaves
In the Southern Tagalog
region, workers were given a minuscule increase in their minimum daily wage.
What proves to be worse is that only a small segment can avail of the already
miniscule increase, since those outside the so-called extended metropolitan area
will be getting less.
By
DENNIS ESPADA Baculo explained that in
the increase announced recently, wages are either just the same or lower than
the minimum daily wage before Nov. 1. "Alipin ang turing sa
naobligang limos sa pulubing obrero!”(They treat us like slaves as they are
obliged to give alms on poor workers), he said. © 2004 Bulatlat
■
Alipato Publications Permission is granted to reprint or redistribute this article, provided its author/s and Bulatlat are properly credited and notified.
Bulatlat
CALAMBA CITY, Laguna – A wage increase has been granted but workers in the
Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon) said that this is not
enough. In the recent past, they even stressed that wages were reduced.
Following the announcement of the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity
Board-Department of Labor and Employment (RTWPB-DoLE) of a P22 ($0.40, based on
an exchange rate of P55.20 per U.S. dollar) daily wage increase last June 3
through Wage Order No. IV A-10, progressive labor leaders here (52 kms south of
Manila) said that the move is like "giving alms." They assailed the Macapagal-Arroyo
administration for "pushing paid labor to a depressing state."
Under the new wage order, a copy of which was obtained by the Pagkakaisa ng
Manggagawa sa Timog Katagalugan-Kilusang Mayo Uno (Pamantik-KMU, or Unity of
Workers in Southern Tagalog-May First Movement), the already minuscule increase
is given in two installments.
Effective June 16, workers in the municipalities, cities and provinces in
Calabarzon classified as "extended metropolitan area," "growth corridor area,"
"emerging growth area" and "resource-based area" will receive a daily wage
increase amounting to P10 ($0.18). By Jan. 1, 2006, they will get an additional
P12 ($0.22), P7 ($0.13), P5 ($0.09), and P3 ($0.05) respectively.
Only San Pedro (31 kms from Manila) and Biñan (35 kms) towns in Laguna, as well
as Imus (23 kms) and Bacoor (17 kms) in Cavite which are reclassified as
extended metropolitan area can avail of the P22 ($0.40) daily wage increase.
From P255 ($4.62) last year, the minimum daily wage in this area is increased to
P277 ($5.02).
On Nov. 1 last year, wage adjustments in Calabarzon underwent a reclassification
scheme through DoLE’s Wage Order IV A-9. Pamantik-KMU said that instead of
providing relief, workers in places outside the extended metropolitan area
suffered minimum daily wage diminutions ranging from P5 ($0.09) to P38 ($0.69).
Farm workers in the Mimaropa (Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon and Palawan) region,
meanwhile, are receiving as low as P40 ($0.72) to P80 ($1.45) in their daily
wage.
As of 2001, the total workforce in the Southern Tagalog region, a prime foreign
investment hub, stood at about four million.
Dignity, not alms
"The RTWPB-DOLE's wage hike has no serious objective but to pour cold water over
the worker's struggle for a P125 ($2.26) legislated wage increase,” Pamantik-KMU
secretary-general Luz Baculo told Bulatlat. “Alms and bribes will not
suppress the strength gathered and intensified by the workers in the wage
campaign."
In Cavite, employers are systematically reducing daily wages down to P177
($3.21) through a so-called apprenticeship program, according to Solidarity of
Cavite Workers (SCW) Chairperson Marlene Gonzales. "We work as long as 12 hours
a day but we still remain poor. We can only depend on building trade unions
because this serves as our pillar to defend our rights, jobs and wages."
Noel Alemania, spokesperson of the campaign alliance Southern Tagalog Wage
Increase Solidarity (ST-WINS) and the Cabuyao Workers' Alliance (CAWAL), called
to dismantle the regional wage boards which, he said, contributes to the
exploitation of workers.
In the wake of problems like soaring prices of oil and basic commodities capped
with regressive tax measures, Baculo said the militant labor movement vowed to
persevere in their struggle amidst supposed maneuvers by the Macapagal-Arroyo
regime to "kill" the wage bill filed in Congress. Bulatlat