Everyone has a Christmas wish list.

Workers just want their fair share of the economic pie.

Just how reasonable this and the employers’ capability to grant them is the function of negotiation and settlement.

And government plays the key role as mediator.

The willingness of all sides to reach a healthy compromise and  an agreement would spell the success of any tripartite exercise.    

A huge labor federation has presented  the labor sector’s wish list for President Aquino to be doing for workers by January 2012.

“At the heart of every Filipino family unit is a working and toiling parents who aspire for their children’s future be far better off than what they are today. The ALU-TUCP believes that labor and workers’ welfare are in the heart and mind of President Aquino,” Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines national vice president Gerard Seno said. “Now that there are four years left into his 6-year term, we, the workers, therefore, are reminding President Aquino that today is the time to begin devoting all his energies towards beginning to rebuild and empower every Filipino family.”

ALU-TUCPs want Pinoy to: 

* either reduce the prices of basic commodities and electricity rates to protect the erosion of family income or increase the current daily wage rate by approving  into law the across the board wage increase petition in Congress;

* address Philippine government’s multi-institutionalized failure to make the Philippines competitive in the region due to the following factors: endemic corruption in the bureaucracy particularly the illegal smuggling, the high-cost of operating a business in the country, inadequate infrastructures for quick and free flow of goods, worsening security and order, and government’s assignment of all workers’ social benefits to employers.

* certifying as urgent/priority the pending job security of tenure bill;

* uphold labor tripartism participation in formulation of key government policies and frameworks;

* protect informal economy workers particularly the domestic workers. Ratify ILO Convention 189 or Domestic Workers Convention;

* make sure a full implementation of ILO Conventions 87 and 98 that champion the freedom of association and collective bargaining;

* ratify International Labor Organization’s Maritime Labor `Convention of 2006. The Maritime Labor Convention of 2006 was adopted by the ILO in February 2006 as a response to the global nature of workers’ employment  in the maritime industry, to comprehensively address the working and living conditions of seafarers and to set out the minimum standards for decent work for domestic seafarers. 

Founded by dock workers in 1954, the  ALU had since been the country’s pioneer in championing the ideals of free trade unionism. Along with its affiliates, partners here and abroad, and alliance with the TUCP, ALU has been steadfast advocate of the plight of the toiling masses working in various industries and sectors.