FOR the labor group General Alliance of Workers Associations (Gawa), the 70 legislators whom they call "legistraitors" who junked the franchise renewal of ABS-CBN Corp. shall never be forgotten by the working class.
Its secretary-general Wennie Sancho said these congressmen are considered as culprits of this terrible labor oppression, which is the large-scale unemployment of more than 11,000 workers.
In Bacolod City alone, 81 employees of the network are losing their jobs after August 31 following the death of its bid for a new 25-year franchise.
"Are they happy for bringing despair and anguish to the workers and their families?" he asked. "As if adding insult to injury, one legistraitor said that they did not impose the death penalty to ABS-CBN but life imprisonment."
Sancho, also the labor representative of the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board-Western Visayas, said there is now a growing consciousness that indeed suffering in common is a greater bond of union than joy.
Sancho said it is a treachery to the cause of the workers because the employees of ABS-CBN were humiliated, oppressed and impoverished as a result of the franchise denial.
"By losing their means of livelihood, the workers of ABS-CBN and their families will be suffering from poverty and stricken with sorrow in their hearts," he said, adding that this "tyranny of the 70" was done with a semblance of legislative authority.
The labor, however, considered it as a form of social tyranny and political oppression by a government that declares that "the State shall afford full protection to labor."
Those who were responsible for the unemployment of more than 11,000 employees of ABS-CBN have their "own rules of conduct" for those who dissent against their arrogant posture of leadership, Sancho said.
"Is that fair?" The labor leader further asked.