Labor Day 2023: The first under Marcos Jr.
Missing on Labor Day: Workers in new panel on labor organizing; the president himself
In commemoration of Labor Day, President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. approved an executive order that paves the way for the creation of an inter-agency committee to oversee labor cases.
But, on May 1, trade unions and workers' rights advocates noted two factors missing: the inclusion of stakeholders — or the workers themselves — in the creation of the committee and the chief executive himself, who is currently on an official trip to the United States to score more investments for the Philippines and to discuss defense deals with its decades-old treaty ally and former colonizer.
"It’s disappointing how [the president] chose to prioritize the Americans on his first Labor Day instead of hearing out the concerns of workers in the country," Kilusang Mayo Uno Chairperson Elmer "Ka Bong" Labog told the media in Filipino.
Thousands of workers from trade groups under KMU, the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines, Nagkaisa! Labor Coalition and Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino — under the new formation All Philippine Trade Unions — took their issues to the streets on Monday as they reiterated calls for an increase in the minimum wage and for the government to put an end to contractualization.
Workers remind Marcos: Quality, better-paying jobs needed back home
Labor leaders called on President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr., who is abroad partly to seek investments in the Philippines, to provide quality jobs that will not treat Filipinos as cheap labor.
Marcos Jr. is on his 10th foreign trip since taking office last year. He arrived in Washington DC on May 1, Philippine time, and will be there until May 4. In his pre-departure speech on Sunday, he said he will be in the US in hopes of "greater economic engagement" with its major trade partner.
According to data from the Office of the US Trade Representatives, US foreign direct investment in the Philippines was at $5.2 billion in 2020. "US direct investment in the Philippines is led by manufacturing, professional, scientific, and technical services, and wholesale trade," the office also said on its website.
Labor lawyer Luke Espiritu, president of Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino, said that while foreign investments and business deals are always framed as a win because of the jobs these will create, he said the government does this by marketing Filipinos as "cheap, flexible, [and] precarious labor."
Workers have lodged petitions for wage hikes at regional wage boards as inflation — at 7.6% year-on-year in March — have driven up prices of basic goods.
Bills have also been filed in Congress to legislate wage increases. Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, chair of the Senate labor committee, has said that while he acknowledged the need for higher salaries, "we really have to strike a balance so workers and employers are not inconvenienced."
