BMP's Solidarity Message to JRU's 28th Annual Congress

Solidarity Message

Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino – BMP (Solidarity of Filipino Workers)

for the 28th Annual Congress
of the Japan Confederation of Railway Workers’ Union (JRU)

June 2, 2012

Comrades and friends,

On behalf of the workers of the Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP) – a militant labor group from the Philippines, we extend our warmest solidarity greetings to the members and leadership of the Japan Confederation of Railway Workers’ Union (JRU) on the occasion of your 28th Annual Congress.

We thank you for inviting us to this meaningful event, as we are likewise grateful to JRU for its assistance in the formation of Pagkakaisa ng Manggagawa sa Transportasyon (Unity of Transport Workers), which is now an affiliate of the BMP.

Meanwhile, the BMP also expresses our deepest sympathies to the Japanese people who are still recovering from the Great Eastern Japan earthquake and the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plants last March 2011.

We believe that the Japanese people – especially the working class – would rise from this great tragedy.

Humanity has long faced natural calamities such as earthquakes and floods. But through labor – through human collective and creative action using our tools and intellect – we not only survived but also became the dominant species of the planet.

While humans have no other choice but to adapt to forces of nature, the case is different with regards to “man-made disasters” such as poverty and oppression, the exploitation of the working majority by the elite oligarchs, the slavery of labor by capital. We have a choice and – as workers – we must choose to fight for change.

Too Much Poverty amidst Too Much Progress

The world today faces a great contradiction. There is too much poverty and misery. Yet there is also too much progress!

In the past 60 years, there have been great leaps in the spheres of food production and preservation. We harvest millions of tons of different food types. Yet billions are undernourished.

We have achieved advancement in construction and engineering, making habitable even the harshest environments such as deserts and the Arctic tundra. Yet millions are homeless.

The capitalist advertisers have artificially created different demand for various human wants. Yet millions are deprived the bare necessities in order to live.

On a global scale, the gap between the rich and the poor is ever so widening. The Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) and the owners of global monopoly corporations earn more than a hundred times more than their rank and file workers.

While the few global billionaires worry about their profit margins, billions of working people are living in abject poverty, suffering from low wages, temporary and unsecure employment.

And yet, what is being preached by our governments and their economists? Their slogan is no other than “Free trade”. Rather than liberate the working class, they want liberalized commerce. They want no interference and regulation from the State!

In the nineties, they promised a greater cooperation among nations in a liberalized global economy. But the policies of liberalization, deregulation, privatization and flexibilization of labor did not lead to cooperation but to intensified competition, which only worsened the conditions of the working peoples of the world.

Effects of Privatization in the Philippines

Comrades, it would probably take too much of our time if we discuss each policy of globalization – and its effect on workers.  Of course, with the JRU campaign against the privatization of the Japanese railway system, you know all too well its effect on workers’ job security.

So let me just share with you – the most glaring effect of privatization in the Philippines.

Since 2001, a law was passed for the privatization of the entire power industry in my country. The power plants and transmission lines, previously owned by the government through the National Power Corporation (NPC), were sold to capitalists in the private sector.

The government then promised that the cost of electricity would go down. What happened was the complete opposite.

In a survey by the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) on the “cost of doing business” in 31 countries in the Asia-Oceanic region, it was revealed that the highest residential electricity rate is in Metro Manila, in the amount of $0.23/kwh. This is significantly higher than the rates in Tokyo and Singapore ($0.20/kwh), which ranked second place in the survey.

There are no compelling and rightful reasons for electricity costs in the country to be the highest in Asia. The Philippines is a Third World country, where every single centavo increase in power rates would reduce the “food on the table” for working families because even the highest minimum wage (in Manila) is but half of the cost of living – the necessary cost for a working class family to live decently.

The country’s extremely high power rates are also irrational in a country which has just begun the massive extraction of natural gas – a fuel to run power plants, thereby, alleviating the country’s dependence on imported crude oil.

Sadly, capital could only understand one thing: its logic of profit, profit and profit. It is not in the business to give service to the people. Its motive is to accumulate even at the expense of an entire population of a poor Third World country.

Flexibilization of Labor: the Cornerstone of Globalization

However, for the working class, globalization is more than “higher prices” due to privatization and deregulation. Its cornerstone is “flexibilization of labor” – the removal of all labor rights and standards, which has established the price and the conditions of labor-power through centuries of hard-fought working class struggles.

Free trade means free competition. Capitalists fight for their dominance in the market through their “price war”. Previously, governments intervened in capitalist competition by placing tariffs and imposing regulations to prices.

Now, with globalization, corporations have no other recourse but their production expenses. And as trade unionists, we all know that when our bosses speaks of “cost cutting”, they really mean the cutting down of wages and benefits, not on other “costs of production” such as materials, equipment, and machinery.

For the employers, workers could be blackmailed by the threat of hunger and unemployment to force them to accept lower wages. They want to have flexible arrangements to setting wages and working conditions.

In order to survive the stiff competition in the global market, employers invented new schemes to render useless the various labor standards won by the international labor movement. These labor standards include the minimum wage, the 8-hour working day, job security and other benefits. Their new work arrangements are called in different names in various countries: outsourcing, contractualization, subcontracting, temporary employment, flexible work agreements, individual bargaining, casualization, etc., etc.

The objective of “flexibilization of labor” is to create a cheap and submissive workforce, who earn wages that are lower than the existing minimum wages and who are constantly afraid of being terminated due to their unsecure and temporary employment.

The effect of which is to weaken the base of regular workers who enjoy the protection of their union. Hence, our founder – Comrade Popoy Lagman – once described globalization as a “holocaust of unionism” and the “global union busting”.

The twin scourges of “flexibilization of labor” and “privatization” are most felt by public sector employees. Government corporations are being sold to monopoly capitalists, who are intent on smashing the previous regular workforce.

Unfortunately for the displaced state workers, if they are able to find another job, they would be victims of “labor flexibility”, facing lower wages and irregular employment.

The Challenge for the Labor Movement

Comrades, we are in the middle of a capitalist offensive against trade unionism, workers’ rights and labor standards. As always, the key to our victory lies in the unity and struggle of the labor movement. The imperative is for labor to unite, not just in words but in deeds.

But in order for workers to truly unite, the BMP believes that we must transcend the limitations of trade unionism. In order to merge into a single fighting army, labor must start to think “as a class” – not just “as employees” in local or industry unions, not just “as a sector” in a branch of the economy such as the transport sector and not “as a nation” based on the color of our skin or our culture.

Because we are all brothers and sisters in class, because we are all workers, and because we are wage slaves, we must unite and fight for the emancipation of labor from the bondage of capital. We have a world to win. Workers of the world unite! Gambaro! Gambaro! Gambaro!  #

Corona Conviction is not a Deterrent to Corruption

PRESS STATEMENT

May 30, 2012

Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP)

Partido Lakas ng Masa (PLM)

SANLAKAS

Corona Conviction is not a Deterrent to Corruption

Malacanang and its paid hacks in media are now making a mountain out of a molehill. They say that the conviction of Renato Corona by the impeachment court is a triumph of democracy and a cleansing of the bureaucracy. Nothing could be farther from the truth. 

The telenovela that was the impeachment of Corona ended with a predictable and lackluster climax, leaving the masses unentertained and not craving for more. The single and simplistic moral lesson of the story: “tell the truth in your SALN”. 

Despite the long proceedings, the Senate could only prove one fact: Corona did not properly disclose his dollar deposits in his SALN. Hence, its verdict rested on the sole issue of “non-disclosure”, covered by Article 2, which it raised to a “culpable violation of the Constitution”.

In so doing, the complaint, reduced to Articles 2, 3 and 7 during the deliberations, was further narrowed down to “non-disclosure” (Article 2, paragraph 2.2). It did not determine if such cash assets were ill-gotten or acquired illegally, leaving unanswered the people’s questions on “ill-gotten wealth”, “court decisions for sale”, “misconduct and corrupt practices”, etc., etc. The result was a “narrowing down” not to focus on more substantial issues; the case was watered down to insignificance. 

The respondent’s admission of non-disclosure was enough for the prosecution and the senator-judges to obtain a guilty verdict. They did not use Corona’s waiver of his dollar deposits to put such bank accounts under scrutiny. Hence, it is clear as daylight that the real intention of the impeachment court was not to expose and punish immoral conduct and corrupt practices in government but to merely remove Corona in the Supreme Court, to replace an Arroyo crony with an Aquino lackey in the judiciary.

If the impeachment court truly wanted to cleanse the bureaucracy, it should have let the sun shine in the dark and shadowy corridors of power. Let the people know how Corona acquired his millions of dollars; how Lucio Tan compelled the Court to flip-flop on the FASAP (Flight Attendants and Stewardesses Association of the Philippines) case; how much perks and privileges are given by PAL to members of the Supreme Court. 

But it did not; the impeachment court stopped in its tracks. It did not go beyond the question of non-disclosure. To the people, especially the workers and the poor, we believe that they did so because further investigation would reveal their modus operandi, the prevalent malpractice of officials in the bureaucracy who use their power and influence for economic and personal gain. 

Hence, the conviction of Corona would not be a deterrent to corruption since no “crime” other than “non-disclosure” was established. While government officials should properly disclose their properties in the SALNs, a statement of how much one owns is not enough. Public accountability requires public scrutiny on how such wealth was acquired. Therefore, we reiterate our demand for DISCLOSE ALL, for the full disclosure of all bank records and financial transactions by all government officials – a political reform that would test the Constitutional provision on “sovereignty”, if all power and authority truly resides in and emanates from the people. #

Disclose All or Resign All! Genuine Cleansing of the Bureaucracy not a Telenovela of Elite Infighting

PRESS STATEMENT

Mayo 23, 2012

Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP)

Partido Lakas ng Masa (PLM)

Sanlakas

Disclose All or Resign All!

Genuine Cleansing of the Bureaucracy not a Telenovela of Elite Infighting 

We have said it before and we will say it again. Give the Filipino people a chance for real reforms and meaningful cleansing of the rotting bureaucracy.

The impeachment of Corona is not enough. The process is a spectator sport for the Filipino masses who are neither senator judges nor members of the prosecution and defense panels. More so, it is atelenovela of elite infighting being used by the Aquino regime to consolidate its control of the state and to advance its economic interests.

In impeachment proceedings, the masses are being induced to take sides between two oppressors. They are made to choose the lesser evil among rival camps of the ruling elite, which is nothing more than a choice between hell and purgatory.  By so doing, it fosters the illusion of democracy, of people’s participation in the affairs of the State.

But while the impeachment process is patently limited in its scope and objective and is being utilized by factions of the elite to pursue their self-serving economic and political agendas, it would inevitably open more meaningful questions. Its narrowness and limitation would provide exact arguments for the necessity of genuine and widespread reforms, and for other means of political activity that ensure public participation in the cleansing of the bureaucracy.

Hence, upon the opening of impeachment proceedings against Corona, we issued the “Disclose All” slogan, the demand for the full disclosure of all financial records and transactions by all government officials.

The beleaguered chief justice – who is more an astute politician than an honorable judge – knows this Achilles heel of the impeachment process. Hence, Corona is now piercing the veil of Noynoy’s anti-corruption pretense in order to save his skin as he challenges Senator Drilon and the 188 signatories of the impeachment case to “disclose all”. Truly, crooks know when to speak the truth to hide a lie.

We are neither “pro-Corona” nor “pro-Noynoy”. Both politicians are personifications of the social evil of a corrupt bureaucracy under an elite democracy. If government officials want to dispel public mistrust, they should let the sun shine into dark places. The broad masses of the people, not just the workers and the poor demand the public scrutiny of their private wealth.

If they could not “disclose all”, then they should all resign. And if the demand for “full disclosure” is continuously not met, the cry for “Resign All” would transform from an appeal for delicadeza into a call of action for their ouster. #

Metro Workers picket the NCR Wage Board

PRESS RELEASE

May 21, 2012 

Metro Workers picket the NCR Wage Board:

Workers’ Cost of Living not Employers’ Capacity to Pay! – BMP NCRR

In reaction to the latest order by the NCR wage board, the militant socialist center Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP) National Capital Region Rizal chapter (BMP-NCRR) picketed the offices of the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board in in Malate, Manila today.  

Last Friday, the NCR wage board ordered a two-tier P30 cost of living allowance (COLA) and the integration of P22 previous COLA into the basic pay. Romy Castillo, BMP spokesperson said, “The order is an insult. The P30 COLA is not even enough to buy a kilo of rice.  More so, it also falls short of the P90 to P125 across-the-board wage relief demand by organized labor.”

Castillo added, “Workers, however, have little to expect from the regional wage boards. Its checkered track record shows that it is patently not a mechanism for economic relief.  Their wage increase orders are a pittance. The exemptions they give to employers make their directives a paltry. Barya na nga! Ipinagkait pa ng mga eksempsyon! Two-gives pa!”

BMP-NCRR Secretary General, Gie Relova explained, “The NCR wage board fulfilled its mandate in accordance to Republic Act 6727, or the 1989 Wage Rationalization Act: to peg wages to the level of starvation pay”.

The BMP is demanding the reform of the country's wage fixing mechanisms and the abolition of the wage boards. The labor group is calling for the scrapping of RA 6727 since “it gives more weight and consideration to “employers’ capacity to pay” rather than the “cost of living” for the workers and their families.

“Workers are not asked for their "capacity to buy" when we buy our families' needs. Why then, in fixing wages, must the government ask the employers in the tripartite wage boards if they have the "capacity to pay" the living wage?”, Relova asked. The BMP estimates the daily cost of living for a family of six to be at P990.

Relova elucidated, “Are workers asking too much if they want to be paid at cost? Prices of commodities are generally the sum of "cost of production" and profit. For the price of labor power (wages), workers want to be paid according to the necessary costs for workers and their families to survive decently.” 

At the protest, the workers brought “thirty (30) rotten eggs” to highlight their disgust to the latest wage order of P30 COLA for Metro Manila worker.“Tatlumpong bugok na itlog para sa bugok sa wage board”, Relova concluded. #

Ang mga Manggagawa ng Gelmart - ni Tina Foronda

Ang mga Manggagawa ng Gelmart

ni Tina Foronda

Manggagawa sa ilalim ng pakikibaka!

Gumagawa para kumita!

Gumagawa para may makain!

Gumagawa para sa Pamilya!

Taong 1986, ang Pagawaan ng Gelmart Industries Philippines ay may humigit kumulang pa sa Sampung Libong Manggagawa na ang 90% ay kababaihan at 10% lamang ang kalalakihan. Ang pagawaang ito’y matatagpuan sa South Service Road, Parañaque City. Isang pagawaan ng mga panloob na kasuotan.

Ang mga kagamitan nito ay nagmumula pa sa ibang bansa at ang nabuong produkto nito ay pang-export din, sa iba’t ibang bansa pa ito dinadala. 

Maraming manggagawa ang ibinuhos na ang buong buhay, panahon at lakas ng kanyang paggawa sa loob ng pabrika.

Naging mistulang alipin ng buong sistema ng kapitalista, dahil sa kakarampot na sweldo, na hindi makasapat na ipangbuhay sa pamilya at lalong hindi makatugon sa pang-araw-araw na pangunahing pangangailangan.

Ang mga manggagawa ng Gelmart ay may isang samahan o UNYON, ang LAKAS MANGGAGAWA sa GELMART (LMG). Noong 1994 ay si Victor Briz ang nahalal na Pangulo ng nasabing Unyon, at masasabing isang solidong samahan kahit may mga ilan lang na kumakalaban minsan. 

Ang Unyon ng Gelmart ay aktibo sa mga pagkilos mula sa Lokal at Sentrong Pampulitika ng Manggagawa, ang Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP). Maipagmamalaki din na isa sila sa pinakaaktibo sa pagkilos lalo na sa mga rally. May mga pagkakataon na rin na naglunsad ng pagkilos ang mga manggagawa sa loob at labas ng pagawaan at ilang beses na ring humantong sa mataas na antas ng pakikipaglaban, (ang mag-strike). 

Unti-unti ng tinatamaan ng matinding krisis ang kompanya dulot na rin ng Globalisasyon at nahirapang makipag-kompetisyon, dahil sa pang-export ang mga produkto nito, at dahil sa Dolyar ang pinanggagalingan ng gastusin nito ay lumala pa dahil sa pagbagsak ng halaga ng dolyar sa piso.

Dahil sa pagbabawas ng mga orders ng mga costumer nila sa ibang bansa, unti-unti na ring isinasara ang ibang Departamento sa loob ng pagawaan. Dinadala nila ang ibang manggagawa sa lugar na kung saan merong gagawin.

Inilipat na sa ibang gawain at departamento ang ilan, kung saan kailangan pa, at ang iba naman ay napilitan nang mag-resign dahil sa hindi makayanang magpalipat-lipat ng trabaho. Hanggang sa umabot na lang ng humigit kumulang sa dalawang libo ang natirang manggagawa noong taong 2005. Tumindi ang hagupit ng delubyo sa pagtuntong ng taong 2006 sa halos dalawang libo pang manggagawa.

Pansamantalang pinwersa na pinagbabakasyon ang karamihan at halos isang porsyento alng ang naiwan sa loob ng planta para magpatuloy sa mga natitira pang hindi natapos na produkto.

Umabot ng anim na buwan ang pansamantalang pagbabakasyon na hanggang sa tuluyan nang nagdeklara ang management na magsasara na ito dahil hindi na raw makayanan na maisalba pa ang kumpanya sa pagkalugi at di na kayang makipag-kompitensya sa ibang malalaking kompanya. 

Nawalan na ng munting kabuhayan at pinagkakakitaan ang mga manggagawa sa Gelmart. Ang iba ay nawalan na ng pag-asa, ngunit ang iba naman ay may mga lakas pa ng loob na makipagsapalaran sa ibang mga pagawaan. Wala mang kasiguraduhan na mapermanente ulit sa trabaho dahil sa hindi na pagreregular ang mga kompanya sa mga manggagawa. Ang dahilan ay bahala na, ang mahalaga ay may pansamantalang pagkukuhanan ng pamatid gutom man lang.

Nahaharap pa rin sa pakikipaglaban ang mga manggagawa dahil sa biglaang pagsasara ng pabrika na hanggang sa ngayon ay hindi pa nababayaran ang mga manggagawa sa matagal na pagseserbisyo at benepisyo ng bawat isa.

Nagkaisa ang mga manggagawa sa pangunguna ng pangulo ng Unyon at ng mga opisyales na magpiket sa labas ng pagawaan upang matiyak na hindi mailabas ang mga kagamitan. 

Bawat gate ay tinayuan ng mga kubol at binabantayan ng dalawampu’t apat na oras kada araw ang mga gate. Nagpapalitan ang mga manggagawa sa pagbabantay. 

Nasa kaso na ang mga usapin. 

Sa Regional Trial Court (RTC) Parañaque kasaluku-yang nililitis ang kaso. Humaharap ang mga abogado ng Gelmart Management at opisyales ng Unyon, kasama ang ibang miyembro at kaharap din ang abogado ng manggagawa mula sa Sanidad Law Office.

Base sa mga paglilitis, sa mapagbebentahan ng mga ari-arian ng kompanya magmumula ang kabayaran ng mga manggagawa.

Mahigit anim na taon na ang itinatagal ng kaso. Hindi maayos ang isinagawang pag-imbentaryo ng mga makina o kagamitan sa loob ng planta. Sobrang napakababa ng halaga nito at kinailangang ipaulit pa, kung kaya’t napapatagal ang pagbibenta ng lahat ng mga ari-arian.

Sa kasalukuyan ay patuloy parin namang nakikipag-usap ang bahagi ng Gelmart Management, kahit sa labas ng paglilitis at nakikipagtulungan din naman na matapos na ang kaso at makapagbayaran na.

Ang hinihiling lang naman ng manggagawa ay ang sapat na kabayaran.

Ang pamunuan ng unyon ay hindi sumusuko sa pakikipaglaban dahil na rin sa suportang ibinibigay ng kanyang mga miyembro. Lalo’t higit sa Pangulo ng Unyon na si Victor Briz ay matatag at hindi nagpapabaya sa kalagayan. 

Tunay na ang manggagawa ang yaman ng bansa. 

Ipamulat natin sa uring manggagawa na habang ang kapitalista ang naghaharing uri, mananatiling alipin ang manggagawa…. 

PR - Workers “die-in” at EDSA then march to Energy Department

PRESS RELEASE

March 14, 2012

In protest against oil price hikes:

Workers “die-in” at EDSA

then march to Energy Department

Some 200 workers from the militant Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP) rallied today in front of the Department of Energy office in Taguig. The protest is part of the groups’ campaign against spiraling oil prices and their demand for the end of oil deregulation and for state control of oil prices.

The socialist labor center also condemned the Department of Energy (DOE) for acting as “envoy of the oil oligarchs”. BMP spokesperson Romy Castillo said, “The department displays uncanny energy and enthusiasm when it warns the public against higher local oil prices every time the price of oil spikes in the world market. Their announcements not only condition the minds of the public to accept an oil price hike”.

He added, “More so, it promotes the fallacy that local oil prices automatically correspond to world market prices. Oil companies in the country have a buffer supply for two months. They also overprice their commodities.”

The labor leader pointed out that the price of crude oil in the world market decreased by 17.25%, from $145 per barrel at the height of the 2008 oil crisis to its present level of $120 (Dubai benchmark). During the same period, there was also a decrease in local oil prices but not in proportion to its drop in the global market. Local gasoline and diesel prices decreased by 1.61% and 4.12% respectively, from P59.46/liter to P58.50 (for gasoline) and from P52.44 to P50.28 (for diesel).

If local oil prices truly follow the global market, as asserted by the Energy Department, the BMP concluded, “Local oil prices should have dropped higher than the global decrease of 17.25%. Because the peso-dollar exchange rate is at P42.40:$1, as compared to P44.28:$1 in 2008”.

The labor group also chided the Independent Review Committee set-up by the energy department to review the financial statements of the oil firms. Castillo averred, “The IRC is a toothless tiger, being a recommendatory body. There is also an internal arrangement between the IRC and the department on the non-disclosure to the public of the oil firms’ book of accounts. The IRC was formed to conjure the illusion of transparency as the people’s clamor against overpriced oil prices intensify”.

Before the protest in Taguig, the workers staged a “die-in” at EDSA Guadalupe to highlight the urgency of their demands for government control of oil prices, the removal of VAT on oil, the buy-back of Petron and Energy Development Corporation and the scrapping of the oil deregulation law. The activity stopped traffic for a few minutes as protesters lay down along the country’s busiest thoroughfare. #

Militants seek justice for their comrades in Malaysia

Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP)

Press Release

March 13, 2012

Militants seek justice for their comrades in Malaysia

Delegations coming from the militant Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP) staged a picket rally in front of the Malaysian Embassy to denounce of what they call current trade union repression confronting the Maybank employees in Malaysia.

“We are deeply alarmed and indignant of what is happening now in Malaysia, we want to put an end to this highly condemnable acts of the Maybank Management condoned by its government that is supposed to protect for the benefit of the workers”, Romy Castillo, BMP Deputy Secretary General retorted in his speech during the rally.

Simultaneous with the picket, the group presented a letter addressed to the Prime Minister and was submitted through the Ambassador of the Malaysian Embassy. The letter articulated the issues and demands of the Maybank workers that the group believed should be given immediate attention and resolution.

For his part, Mr. Teody Navea, National Vice President of BMP further articulated that “the Malaysian Government should uphold and respect the rights of the Maybank Workers. Their inability to act on this cases would mean a defiance of the call of the global community to seek justice for the Maybank workers.”

The group vowed to sustain their campaign for support to the Maybank Workers. They are set to release a petition to the Malaysian government to gain support from various sectors in the country. This early, a substantial number of organizations already signified their intention to support the campaign.

The group also firmed up their plans to monitor and continue to engaged in various forms to effect a successful pressure in the international community. (30)