|
The challenge to trade unions
LABOR Day 2008 will probably be no different
from other celebrations of workers’ day in the country. There will
be the same speeches and messages extolling Filipino workers for
their patience and industry, despite the pressures of global
financial and food crisis. Same refrain heard from government
leaders even as real wages tumble and workers toil simply to make
both ends meet.
May Day may well be a day of unrest as masses of
workers are being mobilized for protests. This despite the dwindling
numbers of unions and organized labor. As of latest count of the
Department of Labor and Employment, for the past decade, from a
force of 38 million, there are only a little more than two million
workers organized, with only 230,133 covered by collective
bargaining agreements. How this happened under cacique democracy
remains to be a researchable topic for academicians and historians.
Soaring food prices and shortages traced to
rocketing oil prices since the US bombed Iraq and climate change
remain a challenge to Filipino workers. Overseas workers who remit
the dollars needed by the economy to stay afloat have been suffering
social costs that have yet to be addressed by the government.
Taxation is skewed in favor of the wealthy, while the middle class
continues to be sapped by EVAT, withholding taxes and high income
tax rates. Policy-wise, the Labor Code needs to be reviewed and
revised to meet the needs of workers who complain they are hard put
in organizing due to the constrictions imposed by the law. A bill
that supports labor organizing continues to impend in Congress.
The workers must continue organizing, sustain
workers’ education, intensify advocacies and demands in Congress,
unite politically and elect pro-worker councilors, congressmen,
governors, mayors, senators and presidents.
Jose Cortez
joepcortez@yahoo.com
|
