MEDIA RELEASE
Nov 5, 2011
MANILA — Labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) condemned today
business groups’ statement of support for the Philippine Airlines
management whose treatment of an ongoing labor dispute hasreportedly
turned violent last week. “The employers’ groups are overreacting to
so-called illegal acts committed by PAL workers to hide from view the
PAL management’s long record of abuses against workers,” said the KMU in
a statement.
Business groups Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI),
Federation of Philippine Industries (FPI) and Federation of
Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FFCCCI) recently
released statements calling on the Aquino government to “enforce the
law” on PAL premises, where retrenched workers are holding a picket to
protest layoff and contractualization.
“What about Lucio Tan’s long record of abuses against the workers of
PAL? The leaders of the three business groups are making noise about PAL
workers’ alleged illegal acts while keeping silent on the PAL
management’s long list of anti-worker policies,” said Elmer “Bong”
Labog, KMU chairperson.
“As workers who champion strikes as workers’ potent weapon against
capitalists, we have repeatedly seen capitalists fabricate stories of
workers’ so-called illegal acts to call on the government to suppress
our ranks. We believe that this is what’s happening in PAL right now,”
he added.
KMU said the business groups have through the years kept silent on
the PAL management’s fire-and-rehire scheme when this was implemented on
PAL’s pilots, flight attendants and ground employees.
“We vehemently condemn this call for nothing less than outright
repression against the workers of PAL. We have serious reservations
about the leadership of the PAL workers’ union but we stand firmly with
the workers of PAL in their fight against massive layoff,
contractualization and repression,” Labog said.
Irresponsible business elites
“The business groups’ statements display how irresponsible the
country’s big capitalists, who lead these business groups, really are.
They are imbued with a profit-first, me-first attitude that is
detrimental to the country’s workers and poor people,” Labog said.
The labor center said the country’s biggest capitalists have pressed
down workers’ wages and promoted contractual employment schemes.
“It is capitalist greed which is the target of the Occupy protests in
the US. In the coming weeks, we will continue with our protests against
the greed of big capitalists in the country, which has worsened hunger
and poverty here,” Labog said.
“We are calling on the workers and poor people to rise up for a
significant wage hike and for the junking of contractual employment
schemes. We simply cannot rely on capitalists to at least show some
compassion for us,” he added.
(Media Release from KMU)
Source: Bulatlat.com
URL:
http://bulatlat.com/main/2011/11/05/kmu-slams-capitalists-unity-vs-pal-workers/