Thursday, May 03, 2007 Wenceslao: Day of shame By Bong O. Wenceslao Candid Thoughts
LABOR Day celebrations nowadays are monotonous and repetitive, or these have become but rituals. “Disorganized” labor, or more properly its various factions, continues to hold separate activities that prove the notion that the parts can never be bigger than the whole. That is matched only by the zeal President Arroyo recycles her May 1 speeches.
Wasn’t it the great communist leader Mao Zedong who said, “Let a hundred flowers bloom and a thousand schools of thought contend?” or words to that effect? Consider last Tuesday’s Labor Day ritual. How many labor groups held how many Labor Day activities? Or maybe they are actually believers of another idea: small is beautiful.
This as the President again talked of non-wage benefits, doing it with such a flourish you’d think she honestly believed the workers nationwide are clapping their hands in glee. Pag-ibig defends? Condonation of loans? GSIS salary loans? Livelihood programs? Okay, they’re non-wage. But when your pay is low, do those benefits matter?
If this kind of Labor Day ritual continues, we better call for a scrapping of the May 1 celebrations altogether. Retain the holiday because we need the extra pay, and let the workers spend their time with their family. That is better than going through the motions of celebrating or listening to false promises. Sakit-sakit lang sa dughan.
Which made me recall the heady days of the late ‘70s and a big chunk of the ‘80s. Funny but the darkest period of this country was also the brightest times for the labor movement in the country. The old Kilusang Mayo Uno? Even then dictator Ferdinand Marcos trembled every time Ka Bert Olalia talked. That’s hyperbole, but it has basis.
My most memorable May 1 happened somewhere in the middle ‘80s along Jones Ave. I was with hundreds of farmers who joined the biggest Labor Day rally held by AMA Sugbo-KMU. On the other side of the avenue were members of the rival Associated Labor Unions. We traded slogans and insults---a case of two giants colliding.
I haven’t seen a similar flexing of muscles by two major labor federations since then. It was like downhill from then on. Labor unions fragmented, or its ranks decimated for various reasons. Labor Day activities became laughable. In turn, presidents became daring, junking wage hike talks for “non-wage” babble. Labor Day? Day of Shame.
