KMU to Baldoz: What workers need is wage increase, not Ecola 04/07/2011

KMU to Baldoz: What workers need is wage increase, not Ecola

04/07/2011
The militant Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) yesterday said it would not accept Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz’s proposal to grant an Ecola (emergency cost of living allowance) instead of granting wage increase.
Baldoz claimed the purchasing power of workers in Metro Manila has been eroded by P7.48 — the highest among all of the country’s regions.

“A mere increase in the Ecola, especially if it is only P8, will definitely not give us workers any relief from the skyrocketing prices of oil and other basic goods and services. This is the first time that the Aquino regime will do something with workers’ wages and it is hinting at giving us mere crumbs,” said Roger Soluta, KMU secretary general.

“Any honest comparison between wage hikes and price hikes in the past 10 years will show that our wages have not been increased enough to cope with the increases in prices. Big capitalists are raking in profits from merely increasing their product’s prices and by pressing down workers’ wages to starvation levels,” Soluta added..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/metro/20110407met4.html