Two labor groups on Wednesday threatened to organize a general strike in what they call a “last ditch effort” to compel the Duterte administration to stop the price hikes of goods and commodities.
The Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP) and the Metro East Labor Federation (MELF) slammed government for being “indifferent” as it continued to defend its economic policies and tagged critics “crybabies.”
READ: Palace: Duterte does not view Filipinos as ‘crybabies’
The labor groups demand the repeal of the TRAIN law, an immediate price control policy on all basic commodities, a P750 national minimum wage and the abolition of all forms of contractual employment.
According to the groups, they have filed a notice of strike before Malacañang and not with the Department of Labor and Employment as Duterte was the “chief executive officer” of a “backward-capitalist” society.
“Our backs are pushed against the wall. We have no choice other than to resort to collective action in order to force this insensitive and rabid pro-capitalist administration to heed the people’s clamor,” MELF chairperson Ronald Sabareza said in a statement.
“His (Duterte) office represents and embodies the interests of the local oligarchs and multinational corporations,” Sabareza added.
Meanwhile, Gie Relova, chairperson of BMP National Capital Region and Rizal, said their patience “have been wearing thin.”
“We are set in the middle of the millstones and inflation and taxation,” Relova said in the same statement.
“We have no other recourse than to deny them our labor power – the force that moves the grinding wheels of commerce and industry – in order to compel them to face us in the negotiating tables and decisively address uncontrolled inflation,” he said. /muf