Kilusang Mayo Uno

pinilak ang pakikibaka ng mga manggagawa sa pangunguna ng Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU)

NEWS RELEASE

February 15, 2006

La Niña months to hit Malacañang

Workers to wear red armbands to the streets

Militant workers, drivers, urban poor organizations and other allied groups such as Bayang Nagkakaisa para Palayasin si Arroyo (BAKLASIN si Arroyo) will flood to the streets wearing red armbands on Friday, February 17, says labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU).

“We will wear red armbands to show our protest against the government’s heartless and callous disregard for our rightful demand for decent wages through P125 across the board wage hike which has long been overdue,” declared KMU National Chairperson Elmer Labog.

Last Monday, Oakwood soldiers have called upon the people to express and assert “displeasure at the sham regime” through street demonstrations and wearing red bands on the left arm.

Labog likewise warns Malacañang of La Niña months to come saying the workers and the people are disgusted with the administrations’ boastfulness of credit ratings and peso appreciations while continuing with neglecting its obligation to see to the welfare of the people, “Protests will definitely storm the palace because of its inutility to address the problems of grinding poverty and rising prices.”

“Filipinos are definitely losing their patience. Where are the actions aside from photo ops that she said she does to help the poor, where are the jobs she promised, where are the food that she promised on our tables, where is her vision and political will?” he further said while downplaying Mrs. Arroyo’s pronouncement about the “scent of victory in the country’s economic offensive.”

The labor leader cited the study by an independent think tank Ibon Foundation that 87% of the country’s families are poor based on the international poverty measurement counting those living under $2 a day as poor. The research group also estimated that 17 million workers suffer from job scarcity, with even those who have work hardly enough to meet their needs.

“With prices shooting up, the P275 minimum wages in the National Capital Region (NCR) alone continue to devalue. The real value of the peso, or the actual amount of goods and services one peso can buy, has fallen to P0.74 in January 2006 from P0.79 in the same month last year,” Labog explained.

The KMU likewise urges Mrs. Arroyo to make decisions “unpopular” to big business groups and IMF-WB through pushing the wage hike legislation. In a radio interview, Mrs. Arroyo said that while her political challengers do not have the guts and political will to make unpopular decisions that will eventually benefit the people, she has what it takes.

The KMU will converge at Isetann and march to Mendiola at 1 pm on Februaury 17. Similar protests will take place on other major points across the country to press on the wage hike and Mrs. Arroyo’s ouster. ###

posted by: KMU at 05:19 | link | comments |

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