ADVERTISEMENT
Piston said most of the country’s jeepney drivers and operators are fine with upgrading and rehabilitating the jeepneys, but not in the total scrapping of it as advocated by the Transportation department.
Almost coinciding with the two-year anniversary of Kentex factory fire was the 100th day since the HTI factory fire in Cavite.
“We want to be regularized (directly) under Harbour Centre and we have filed cases against (Grasials) agency, which has been defrauding us.”
“Contractualization aggravates poverty and widens the gap between the rich and the poor.”
“This is a test case for the Duterte administration to bare its resolve in ending contractualization through strong intervention.”
The ‘social justice’ issue being raised by Sec. Lopez covers most of the agenda being raised by workers.
“Our fellow workers have died, and will continue dying in factories found violating labor standards and occupational and safety standards, if accountability and justice continue to be elusive.”
“Through standards only a few foreign corporations could comply to, and through selling vehicles only they could manufacture, jeepney operators are subjected to the monopoly of these corporations, and they would be mired in debt.”
The stories of the injured and the remaining workers, told from varied perspectives in the burning building as they searched for the precious way out, weave a tragic workplace incident that to this day is still crying out for further investigation.
Aside from KMU-SMR, other regional chapters of the KMU have a standing complaint against the Republic of the Philippines with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in relation to military-instigated attacks on unions, unionists and workers.
Some HTI fire survivors shared that they had crawled on bodies of workers who appeared to be unconscious at the second floor.
“The lack of concrete measures from the labor department to address and prevent workplace tragedies is appalling.”
Change for the families of working people seems to be getting farther rather than nearer: 2017 began with government declarations of intention to raise various taxes and workers contributions such as oil excise tax, beverage tax, SSS, among others.
"We cannot accept the continued legalization of contractualization and proliferation of agencies.”
“That is the reason why we cut the bananas, but if they [guards] will still enter even when there are no more bananas, then they are after the land.”
It would be more beneficial not just for workers but also for the entire economy if it would prohibit contractualization.
The dismissal of union leaders and brutal demolition of strikers’ picket line or picket protest camp has become a familiar story across the country in recent years.
“The policies that would likely bring the people’s desired change would begin only if Duterte scrapped the neoliberal policies adopted by his predecessors and now by his economic team.”
“Marcos may already be dead, but his legacy of contractualization, cheap labor, no-union no-strike policy, killings, abductions, illegal arrests, torture, militarization of peasant and Lumad communities, and much more are still alive and continues to oppress Filipino workers and people.”
“In the land of bigname hacienderos, contractual workers lug everyday more than 1,000 sacks of sugar weighing 50 kilos. They are paid lower than the minimum wage. Some suffer bone fractures. Some developed hernia. But the workers complained the company does not even provide them a clinic or first aid.”
A community of readers and supporters that help us sustain our operations through microdonations for as low as $1.