Labor group ready for big May 1 rally

By Cheneen R. Capon
About 5,000 workers from different sectors in Davao City will converge in Magsaysay Park at noon on Labor Day (May 1) to demonstrate against the Aquino administration.
“The Aquino administration has been committing crimes and violations against workers and the people,” Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) Mindanao spokesperson Joel Maglunsod said during the Kapehan sa Dabaw at SM City Annex yesterday.
Maglunsod said President Aquino “has heaped miseries upon the working class with sanctioned attacks against wages, jobs, and workers’ rights.”
He also blasted the President “for promising to bring relief to the working class but has instead worsened their plight under the hallucination known as ‘daang matuwid.’”
“This ‘daang matuwid’ has been marked by utter neglect and dereliction and has proven to be a fatal road for the Filipino people,” Maglunsod said.
He said the continued imposition of policies that further depress wages such as the two-tiered wage system and the piece-rate or pakyaw system is “a great injustice to workers.”
“The pakyaw system is now being implemented in banana plantations in Compostella Valley now. Already forced by Japanese owned Sumitomo Fruit (Sumifru) as wage scheme in the packing house, the piece rate system will cut the workers’ wages by half,” he added.
The KMU- Southern Mindanao Region is calling for the junking of the two-tiered wage and piece-rate payment schemes implemented by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).
The group is also calling for the banning of contractualization which is part of the DOLE Department Order 18-A.
Maglunsod also scored the threats and harassments experienced by union leaders and organizers “which is a violation of International Law Organization (ILO) Conventions 87 and 98.”
KMU-SMR spokesperson Carlo Olalo, meanwhile, said there will be a photo exhibit at the Sangguniang Panlungsod Building lobby from April 20 to May 5.
Aside from the May 1 rally, there will be also caucus on the P16,000 national minimum wage at the Rophe’s Chicken on April 21 and a fun run on April 26.