Workers set big march for rights on May 1

Trade and labor organizations in the country on Monday launched a broad alliance that would stage a 20,000-strong “historic” action in Manila on Labor Day to push Filipino workers’ demands for higher wages, security of tenure and to fight labor contractualization.

Dubbed “Nagkaisa,” the new “multi-ideological and multiform” network of labor organizations is composed of some 40 major trade unions and labor federations from across the country.

In a press conference, labor leaders said the alliance would mobilize a united and massive protest march to historic Mendiola street on May 1, a first in recent history.

Joshua Mata, secretary general of the Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL), said the last time various labor groups  formed a coalition to advance the rights of Filipino workers was in 1989.

“May 1 promises to be a historic action because for the first time in so many years, there has been a broad coalition of labor groups that would all come together to make our demands to the government not only in Metro Manila but also in key areas of the country,” said Mata.

To mark Labor Day, simultaneous mass actions  will be staged in key cities  like Baguio,  General Santos City, Davao, Iloilo, Cagayan de Oro, Cotabato and Iligan.

“This will be a calibrated mass action because we will give the government an opportunity to address our appeal to improve the plight of Filipino workers,” said Pete Pinlac, president of Manggagawa para sa Kalayaan ng Bayan (Makabayan) at a press conference in Manila yesterday.

Should the government’s response be unfavorable to the workers after the Labor Day march, the coalition would stage further mass actions to advance the laborers’ interest, including protests during the Asian Development Bank annual meeting next month.

The ADB meeting, to be held from May 2 to 5, is expected to draw some 4,000 banking and finance executives from 67 countries.

“The ADB has a big role in the privatization of our industries,  especially in the power sector…so we are also ready to show force and hold a protest during the meeting,” said Pinlac.

As one voice of labor, Nagkaisa would primarily raise issues on oil deregulation, wage increase, the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001 and the passage of the Security of Tenure Act.

The coalition said it would also actively engage industries and all branches of the government in meaningful and progressive social dialogue to improve the plight of workers.

“In the face of the prevalent antiworker environment…our unions have continued to champion workers’ right to organize, to collectively bargain, to hold strikes and to engage the government in social dialogue but with limited success,” said Nagkaisa in a statement.

“We believe the Filipino workers can be empowered again by, first and foremost, united action among unions and workers’ organizations,” it said.

The new coalition is composed of labor groups Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines, Makabayan, APL, Marino, Partido ng Manggagawa, Philippine Government Employees Association and Sentro ng Progresibong Manggagawa, among others.