ST workers call for Baldoz’s ouster

Workers from Southern Tagalog claimed DOLE Secretary Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz accountable for the “continuing and intensifying trade union repression” under. This December 10, workers called for the ouster the labor secretary.

The police remained helpless when militant workers from Southern Tagalog forced their way through their ranks and barricades to hold a program and air their demands in front of the labor office in Intramuros, Manila in the morning of December 10, International Human Rights Day.

According to Pagkakaisa ng Manggagawa sa Timog Katagalugan-Kilusang Mayo Uno (PAMANTIK-KMU or Soldarity of Workers in Southern Tagalog-May First Movement), “The Southern Tagalog region is continuously held as a laboratory of anti-people and anti-workers policies by the previous regimes and current Aquino administration. The region right now is a laboratory for the implementation of Sec. Baldoz’s Department Order No. 18-A which expands the enforcement of the illegal contractualization, Wage Order No. IV-A-15 unleashing the two-tiered wage scheme, and the combined attacks of government agencies, AFP, PNP, and yellow unions in the Trapartite Industrial Peace Council Manifestos of Commitment (TIPC MOC).”

As a symbolic action on the blood debts of DOLE to the thousands of displaced workers, as well as those workers victims of human rights violations and extra-judicial killings, the protesters threw red paints to the office façade of DOLE.

“There is no reason for a capitalist lackey like Baldoz to stay as DOLE secretary. We are sure many workers will join in to oust her from office,” concluded PAMANTIK-KMU.

This activity held in DOLE is part of the Lakbayan ng Mamamayan ng Timog Katagalugan para sa Karapatang Tao (Southern Tagalog People’s March for Human Rights), which took off on December 3.#