Digicast Negros

Negros groups air demands on international women’s day

The women’s protest in Bacolod on Wednesday.*Paghimutad photo

Wages, dignified work, public services, safe spaces, and human rights were the demands of Negros women’s groups as they marked the 112th year of International Working Women’s Day on Wednesday, March 8.

Women Workers United – Negros staged a rally to reaffirm their fight against injustice and exploitation of women in all forms, a press release from the group said.

The WWU-Negros members marched from the Rizal Park at Araneta Street to the Bacolod City Government Center replica at the Bacolod Public Plaza for a joint rally.

“Filipino women find ourselves in a time of crisis today. Joblessness is at an all-time high, 7 in 10 Filipinos—mostly women—are being driven into informal, precarious work, inflation is soaring at 9.3 percent, and violence against women (VAW) has seen a dramatic rise with one woman every 20 minutes becoming a victim of rape, physical abuse, lasciviousness, and other forms of VAW,” the WWU statement said.

They said they reassert their call to protect women workers’ rights to freedom of association and their rights to collective bargaining and negotiation; close the gender wage pay gap and institute a national minimum wage closer to the living wage which is at PHP 1,100; recognize unpaid care work as work;

Implement policies involving participation of both men and women in care work; ratify of International Labor Organization Convention 190; strengthen legal framework and policies to address VAWC; and pass the SOGIESC (sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristics) Equality Bill, among others.*

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