Labor groups press P200 wage hike
The country’s major labor groups will march today, Labor Day, to Chino Roces (formerly Mendiola) Bridge, a historic landmark near Malacañang where many protests have taken place especially during the martial law years, to push for the P200 wage hike bill.
Members of various labor federations, trade union centers and workers’ organizations comprising the National Wage Coalition (NWC) said they want send a “strong message” to President Marcos and Congress to support the legislated wage hike.
NWC is composed of Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP), Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU), Nagkaisa Labor Coalition (Nagkaisa) and the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP). Nagkaisa includes the Federation of Free Workers (FFW), Partido Manggagawa (PM), Alliance of Progressive Labor and Public Services Labor Independent Confederation.
Stark reality
“[Our] call for President Marcos [is] to lead from the front, not behind recycled directives to defective regional wage boards, towards certifying as urgent the historic first-ever P200 legislated wage hike in 36 years since 1989,” NWC said in a statement.
“[This] comes after three years without a single dialogue between the President and the Philippine labor movement—not once, not amidst the runaway inflation, and not even now, as hunger and poverty reach crisis levels,” it added.
The coalition said the President’s certification of the bill as urgent is “imperative” to ensure that the House of Representatives approves the P200 legislated wage hike on third and final reading as soon as possible.
This would enable the bicameral conference committee to reconcile its version with the Senate’s P100 daily minimum wage increase, allow both houses to ratify the bicameral report, and submit it for the President’s signature before the 19th Congress ends on June 30.
Subsidized rice
The NWC said labor sector protest-marches and programs are also set to be held in Cebu City, Bacolod City, Iloilo City and Iligan City.
Meanwhile, PwM welcomed the government’s rollout of the P20 subsidized rice but insisted that the certification of the P200 wage hike bill should be made if Mr. Marcos is serious in responding to the worsening hunger and poverty in the country.
“Offering cheap rice is not enough, as Malacañang seems to think. [A] P200 wage hike plus P20 subsidized rice are initial steps to alleviate the conditions of poor and hungry Filipinos,” PM secretary general Judy Ann Miranda said in a separate statement.
“Reality on the ground contradicts the government’s rosy economic claims of low inflation and unemployment. The reality is stark: minimum wages remain below the poverty threshold, endo is rampant, and public services like PhilHealth are being gutted to fund political patronage,” she said.
P1,200 living wage
She noted that Filipino workers will be “amplifying,” through the Labor Day protests, their demands for higher wages, regular employment, and accessible public services amid worsening economic conditions.
Miranda cited recent surveys showing over one in four Filipino families experience involuntary hunger, the highest rate since the pandemic, while more than half consider themselves poor, the worst in 21 years.
KMU and its affiliates under the All Workers Unity said their “banner call” will be for P1,200 living wage nationwide and lowering of prices, as well as the end to contractualization and a call to respect the workers’ right to unionize and strike.
