30,000 workers to troop to Mendiola on Labor Day

MANILA, Phillippines - Around 30,000 workers are expected to march tomorrow, May 1,  to the historic Don Chino Roces bridge (formerly Mendiola bridge) in Manila to protest the failure of the Aquino administration to address concerns of the labor sector.

To celebrate Labor Day, Nagkaisa labor alliance said their members will march from Welcome Rotonda to the Don Chino Bridge around 8 a.m.

"Hindi tuwid, hindi tama, hindi makatwiran kung pag-unlad ay para sa iilan lamang," the group said in a statement.

Leaders of the labor groups under the alliance also scored Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla and Bureau of Internal Revenue Commissioner Kim Henares for failing to offer solutions to pressing workers' issues during the yearly dialogue.

"Since assuming presidency in 2010, Mr. Aquino is always being remembered by workers in every Labor Day memorial as a leader who has abandoned and failed them at the critical moment when they needed his leadership in view of growing joblessness, rising cost of living, rampant and unfettered precarious work arrangement, high cost of electricity rate and by conceding social protection services to greedy capitalists," the groups said.

President Benigno Aquino III had sat down with labor leaders to discuss issues concerning the sector two days ahead of the Labor Day celebration.