Workers welcomed the reopening of Congress with protests on November 4 to demand the passage of a nationwide wage increase. They assert that the regional wage boards’ meager increases do not suffice to keep up with inflation and the decline in their standard of living. The latest example is the paltry ₱40 wage increase for workers in Western Visayas, which they say is not even enough to buy a kilogram of rice.
Along with plummeting living standards, workers are also facing illegal and arbitrary lay-offs and other labor rights violations.
Among these is the series of terminations and deaths of workers at the Herma Shipyard in Mariveles, Bataan in the past few months. At least 50 workers were fired in August, including those who had been working in the factory for 2 to 25 years. In September, two workers died on the job due to unsafe working conditions.
At ABS-CBN, the giant television network, around 100 workers are on the verge of losing their jobs due to a supposed decline in advertising revenue. The company is owned by the Lopez family, one of the country’s largest bourgeois comprador families.
In Davao del Sur, 3,200 workers were abruptly and arbitrarily fired by Franklin Baker Inc. on October 3. The company announced the dismissals only through a message on a Facebook group. Until now, the workers still do not know their status.
In Quezon City, drivers and conductors of Mark Eve’s Transit staged a strike in front of their terminal on P. Tuazon Boulevard, Barangay Project 4 on November 5. This was to protest the termination of five union officials. The workers were fired after the union refused to accept the management’s plan to appoint union officials.
These workers add to the 800 employees of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport and over 300 workers at the Mactan Export Processing Zone who were fired in September.
Meanwhile, the terminated workers of AC Mojares Construction were only offered a separation pay of ₱10,000 despite working for the company for 4 to 19 years. They also have large unpaid wages for overtime pay, holiday pay, rest day pay, and night shift differential. The fired workers protested in front of the company in Quezon City on October 29 to demand what is rightfully theirs.
