BMP Rally at Dusit Thani Hotel in Makati

Workers’ Picket at Dusit Hotel against Union Busting and Contractualization

MEMBERS of the militant Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP) held a picket-protest in front of the Dusit Hotel in Makati to express solidarity to the hotel supervisory union, who are preparing to go on strike in response to the dismissal of its president, Crisanto Ami. 

Crisanto Ami was dismissed on trumped up charges of theft, involving a piece of Ferrero Rocher chocolate. The supervisory union, however, asserts that the management decision is an attempt to bust the union by removing its union president. 

BMP national president Leody de Guzman said, “The dismissal of Mr. Cris Ami does not commensurate to his alleged transgression, if there was any, since the supervisory union president said that he followed company rules on provisions left by hotel guests”. 

“The BMP and the hotel supervisory union alludes that the heavy-handed reaction is a retaliatory action to a DOLE investigation on labor contractualization practices by the Dusit management last May 16, 2016. In fact, as a sign of negotiating in bad faith, the management dismissed Mr. Ami on the same day that it concluded the collective bargaining negotiations with the supervisory union,” the labor leader added. 

As the result of said inspection, the management was ordered to regularize 309 out of 382 casual employees and to pay P48 million to compensate for its underpayment to the aggrieved workers. Cris Ami requested for the said DOLE inspection.  Several contractual workers, who have also been sacked, joined the picket and are calling for immediate reinstatement and payment of backwages. 

The BMP challenges the Duterte administration and DOLE Secretary to prove their anti-contractualization stance in the Dusit case. 

De Guzman expounded, “It has been more than a year since Duterte took oath as the most powerful man in the country. Yet his promise to end contractualization is yet to be realized. Action speaks louder than words. The Dusit case provides him the opportune moment to show his real position towards contractualization by compelling the management to reinstate Cris Ami, president of the hotel supervisory union and to regularize and reinstate the contractual employees”. 

He concluded, “The inspections transpired before the Labor Advisory 10 and Department Order 168, which granted more power to DOLE labor standards inspections under the helm of DOLE Secretary Bello. Nonetheless the labor department must take full responsibility for its actions, which has caused the loss of livelihood of unionists who simply sought the help of DOLE in enforcing labor standards at the workplace”. #

Workers picket at Senate: “No new taxes to a fascist government that slaughters poor youths!”

BMP PRESS RELEASE

August 24, 2017

As the Senate conducts hearings on the controversial murder of 17-year old Kian delos Santos by elements of the Caloocan police and on the Tax Reform for Acceleration for Inclusion (TRAIN), members of the militant Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP) held a picket in front of the upper house today to condemn the “war on drugs” and proposed tax measures, which they both dubbed as “anti-poor”. 

BMP president Leody de Guzman said, “No new taxes to a government that slaughters poor youths like Kian delos Santos! Workers demand justice for Kian as much as we demand tax justice. Tax the rich, not the poor”. 

Anti-Poor TRAIN

The labor group is calling on the Senate to reject House Bill 5636, which will “exempt the middle class and the rich from personal income taxes while raising excise taxes on products that are consumed by the poor majority and the general public”. 

De Guzman clarified, “Minimum wage workers, who are at the seventh decile of family income distribution – according to DOF estimates, are already exempted from withholding taxes. The proposed increase on personal tax exemption to P250,000 a year would only benefit the middle class, professionals, chief executive officers and affluent celebrities”.

“The increase in estate and donor taxes would only benefit the propertied few. Its inclusion in HB 5636 means that our legislators in Congress are concerned more with the inheritance to be received by their heirs. While it is true that the impact of excise taxes for petroleum products and sugar sweetened beverages, including the broadening of the VAT base, is across-the-board, its proportion to household income is higher for poorer sections of society,” he added.

“There are tax reforms and there are tax reforms. The proposed TRAIN would wreck the lives of the majority poor. We need to introduce reforms that would pass the tax burden to those who have more in life. The top ten richest Filipinos are not the BIR’s top ten taxpayers. Clearly, something is rotten in our taxation system. Higher consumption taxes should be placed on luxury goods. Higher tax rates should be placed on wealth and property”. 

“War on the Poor”

“Workers are likewise enraged at a fascist government, which seeks new taxes on the poor, but is also waging a war against them in the so-called ‘gyera laban sa droga’. Almost all of the estimated 13,000 dead come from the poor. Due process is reserved to those who have economic power and political connections. The murder of Kian delos Santos should serve as a wake-up call to those who blindly support the bloody war against illegal drugs. No one would be spared, not even the innocents who, like Kian, have associated themselves with the so-called DDS. Stop the killings now,” he concluded. #

TRAIN ni Digong: Pahirap sa masa, pabor sa kapitalista