Labor Day : 'It's Your Birthday, But Sorry No Gift!'

May 1 is observed as labor day and it is a regular national public holiday in the Philippines to honor the Filipino workers. Most labor groups and other cause-oriented groups made used of this opportune time to dramatize their gripes on the malpractices of the management of the companies which they are working with.

Most of their trending issues were on inadequate wage, failure on collective bargain agreement, excessive working time, among others. These kinds of problems were already deep rooted since time immemorial, but no solutions yet ever attained. The companies or agencies concerned had their own side too. They had their own reasons why they couldn't meet the demands of their workers or laborers. Management-wise, they're adopting a contractual mode of employing or hiring their workers or laborers to save cost or expenditures on retirement based on the length of services rendered by an employee. With this issue, the security of tenure and the security of earnings of every worker are at stake. This is one of the main issues in today's activity of the labor groups and unions being tackled and discussed on what possibility this could be remedied.

Philippine Labor Day Evolution

Labor Day in the Philippines

The first Labour Day celebrations were held in the Philippines on May 1, 1903 in a mammoth rally in front of Malacañang Palace staged by the Union Obrera Democratica (Democratic Laborer's Union), while pressing for workers’ economic rights.

The UOD was the first modern trade union federation in the country, earlier labour groups had been more of mutual aid societies and guilds. The organization had thirty-three affiliated trade unions as of 1902. In 1903 the organization counted with 150 affiliated unions, and around 20,000 members in the Manila area. At its peak, the Union Obrera Democratica had around 150,000 members in eight provinces of Luzon.