Public school teachers called for a wage increase on LABOR DAY

“Mayday is for all of us- working people to celebrate,” Teachers’ Dignity Coalition (TDC) National Chairperson Benjo Basas said. “This day recognizes our sacrifices and invaluable contribution, not just to the economy but to the entire society,” he added. Members of the TDC, said Basas, joined the workers under the Bukluran ng Manggagagawang Pilipino (BMP) and the labor alliance NAGKAISA who marched from Welcome Rotonda to Mendiola on Thursday morning. “Teachers bear the agony of low salaries, high prices of commodities, unfair labor practices, heavy workload and contractualization, among others. These are also the everyday sufferings of the Filipino workers, thus our reason to take solidarity with the rest of the working class,” he said. Basas said that the members of the TDC will be “initiating protest actions” in the remaining weeks of summer vacation for their demands before the classes in schools under the Department of Education (DepEd) resume in June. He said this is because the Aquino administration “so far has not initiated” a salary increase for teachers and government workers and the last legislated increase in their salaries was the four-tranche increase in 2009 under the Arroyo administration which was fully implemented two years ago. “P-Noy, for this day gave us assurance that there will be no increase in the wages of our brothers and sisters in the private sector, the same with us in the government,” he added. The TDC called on Malacanang to provide increase in salaries and other means of benefits for teachers and government employees through reduction in taxes, increase in productivity enhancement incentive and scrapping of divisive and deceptive performance-based bonus and granting of more benefits under the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS).(courtesy MANILA BULLETIN)