FDC Statemnent: SOLIDARITY MESSAGE OF THE FREEDOM FROM DEBT COALITION (FDC) WITH THE STRUGGLE OF THE DIGITEL WORKERS

Freedom from Debt Coalition 11 Matimpiin St., Brgy. Pinyahan, Quezon City 1100, Philippines Phone: (+63.2) 921.1985 | Telefax: (+63.2) 924.6399 Website: http://www.fdc.ph | Email: mail@fdc.ph

 

SOLIDARITY MESSAGE OF THE FREEDOM FROM DEBT COALITION (FDC) WITH THE STRUGGLE OF THE DIGITEL WORKERS

The Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC) expresses its solidarity with the Digitel Workers and their union in their struggle for their trade union and human rights.

 

The workers and their unions have long fought for their right for Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) and against unfair labor practice, among their trade union demands and won their case. They have exhausted all the available legal remedies but received union busting actions such as the illegal dismissal of union members by the PLDT management

 

The Supreme Court, in its October 10, 2012 final decision, ordered Digitel, now owned by the PLDT boss and business tycoon Manny Pangilinan, to  implement the order of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), directing the firm to start collective bargaining agreement (CBA) negotiations and declared the dismissal of 13 Digital employees as illegal.

 

We are gathered today together with the Digitel employees not only to show solidarity with them and their just struggles, but also to rally around and  express our full condemnation of the  prevailing system and practice in our country that allowed labor rights to be trampled upon in the name of profits and benefits for the rich and powerful.

 

Trade union rights have long been suppressed under a series of successive regimes. But such assaults scaled new heights with the imposition of the IMF-World Bank Structural Adjustment Prescriptions (SAPs) with its conditionalities that included privatization of power and public services, trade liberalization and labor contractualization. The deliberate acts of union busting and muffling of trade union rights in PLDT is one such result. The destruction of people’s rights and livelihoods and the perpetuation of mass unemployment, hunger, poverty and underdevelopment are one of the direst consequences of the Philippine government’s continued adherence to  the neoliberal economic policies with their death-dealing consequences.

 

FDC therefore links up today with the struggle of the Digitel workers not only  for  their trade union rights  but also with the larger Filipino people’s struggle  against neoliberalism and for economic social  justice. Together we should persevere in the unfinished fight for a better and just Philippines. Together, we should continue to arouse, mobilize and fight with the vast majority of freedom-loving and justice seeking people!

 

Justice for the Digitel Workers and the oppressed Filipino labor!

Justice for the suffering and struggling Filipino people!

 

Freedom from Debt Coalition

April 24, 2013