Pilipinas, kasama sa ‘top 10 dangerous place’ sa mga manggagawa

SANG-AYON ang Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP) sa inilabas na survey ng International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) kung saan kasama sa top 10 ang Pilipinas sa mga bansa sa buong mundo na may mapanganib na kondisyon para sa mga manggagawa.

“When we consider the actual  circumstances on the ground, the current state of labor relations policy during the quarantine allowing wage reductions and suspending labor rights inspections, the anti-labor and the anti-consumer program of  our economic managers to raise anew excise taxes and opposing security of tenure, as well as the dangerous political slide towards authoritarianism evidenced by passage of the Anti-Terror Bill, we see the handwriting clearly on the wall: workers rights and workers are and will be victims in the current political environment,” ayon sa pahayag ng labor federation.

“There remains unresolved assassinations, allegedly labor-related disappearances, various repressions, red-tagging and wanton attacks on workers and workers’ fundamental rights that makes the current environment dangerous and difficult for workers.

Base sa 2020 Global Rights Index ng ITUC, kabilang sa mga bansa na nasa listahan ay ang Bangladesh, Brazil, Colombia, Egypt, Honduras, India, Kazakhstan, Turkey at Zimbabwe.

We foresee the conditions to get even worse in the days ahead. With the current full operationalization of police and military offices in ecozones to combat what they describe as “radical trade unions”, the inevitable enactment and enforcement of anti-terror bill and the current aggressive push by business owners in cahoots with the economic managers for increased labor flexibilization, wage reduction and the lowering of labor standards — using the COVID19 and the growing great global depression as the justification to justify and peddle their wrong-headed prescriptions to keep private profits high and social spending  low, is now making the country more dangerous and more difficult place for workers to live and to work and are promoting unproductive and very dangerous class warfare.

Nanawagan ang ALU-TUCP na pakinggan ang hinaing ng mga manggagawa at matututo umano sa kasaysayan.

“In the midst of the last great depression in the 1930’s, there were two paths taken by different models of government, those who followed the totalitarian temptation and those who followed the path of worker protection and social protection. The former’s repression collapsed their countries and governments around them in bitterness, sorrow and World War defeat. The latter model led to collective prosperity and increased grassroots democracy.”

Ang ulat ng ITUC Global Rights Index ay batay sa kalagayan ng mga manggagawa sa 139 bansa at kanilang mga karapatan.