DAVAO CITY , Philippines – The administration of President Rodrigo Duterte is responsible for the rise of cases of workers’ strikes in the country.
This was the reply made by Kilusang Mayo Uno after Duterte blamed the group for the decline of investors in the country, which he claimed was due to the increase in labor strikes.
“The upsurge of workers’ strikes these past months are a resultof Duterte’s failure to end contractualization, refusal to address the rising prices of commodities by implementing a significant wage hike and of the government’s fascist attacks against trade union and human rights,” said KMU chair Elmer Labog in a statement on Tuesday evening.
Duterte singled out KMU during his live interview with Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo on Tuesday afternoon, September 11.
Investors were leaving the country because workers were staging strikes, the President claimed.
Duterte also compared the labor situation in China where workers work instead of waging strikes.
Labog condemned the tirades against the KMU and reminded the President that the right to strike is a universal workers’ right guaranteed by international and domestic laws.
KMU is among the groups critical of the policies of the Duterte administration, most specifically on workers’ rights and the economic situation in the country.
Earlier this year, KMU criticized Duterte for signing Executive Order No. 51, a mandate which, the group said, ignored the demands of workers to end contractualization.
The group is also supporting the passage of a bill now pending in Congress that will provide for a national minimum wage of P750 a day.(davaotoday.com)
