Militant labor center Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP) today assailed what they call as a “seeming connivance of the government and the business sector against a fair wage increase.”
BMP’s statement is in reaction to BSP Governor Amado Tetangco’s warning that an increase higher than P25 is inflationary and ECOP President Edgardo Lacson’s assertion that they could only afford an additional P13.35 for workers’ salaries.
Leody de Guzman, BMP President, said, “The workers now understand what Aquino’s Public-Private Partnership is all about. It is the continuance of the connivance of business and government against labor interests.”
He lamented, “They’re harping the same old classic blackmail against wage increase; that it is inflationary, that it will cause retrenchments, and that it will spell apocalypse. But what is a slight decrease in profits to save our people from extreme hunger? What is a just wage increase compared to BSP’s long-running inflationary policy of low interest rates?”
The militant labor center said that they plan to picket the offices of BSP and ECOP soon to further register their messages. -30- Julian Zacharias, PLM
