By Mae Singuay
The labor groups in Negros Occidental will conduct a series of activities today, Labor Day, as they unite for a wage increase.
The United Labor Alliance-Negros (ULAN) will demonstrate a strong and broad unity to call for the P750 across-the-board national minimum wage, the lowering of prices of goods, and other economic demands of the workers amidst the worsening crisis.
ULAN aims to uphold the militant history of Labor Day, which originated from the struggle for an eight-hour workday in Chicago, United States in 1886.
The group will greet this historic day with a massive mobilization and a short program at the Bacolod City Government Center Replica in the city public plaza, the group said.
Meanwhile, labor groups, the National Congress of Unions in the Sugar Industry of the Philippines (NACUSIP), the General Alliance of Workers Association (GAWA), the Congress of Independent Organizations, and the Philippine Agricultural Commercial Industrial Workers Union will hold a forum and a press conference at the Negros Press Club from 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. today in celebration of the International Labor Day.
Wennie Sancho, GAWA secretary general, said Roland de la Cruz, the national president of NACUSIP, will participate virtually from Manila, and Benjie de la Cruz will be the lead convenor in the forum.
Sancho, who was recently appointed as the Labor Sector Representative to the Regional Tripartite Industrial Peace Council, will be the forum’s presiding officer.
Among the crucial issues to be taken up is the call of the labor sector for the scrapping and rejection of direct sugar importation as proposed by manufacturers in the food and beverage industry in a letter to President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. on March 22 of this year.
The said groups will also discuss the updates on wage increases.
The ceremony will be highlighted with the bestowing of a posthumous award to the late Atty. Zoilo de la Cruz, Jr. for his invaluable and outstanding contribution to the labor sector in the country, Sancho said.
He added that more than 50 labor leaders in the province will attend the forum./MS, WDJ