A cyclic event come first of May is the staging of rallies and demonstrations across the length and breadth of our archipelago by workers seeking just compensation for their sweat and labor. The demand for just wages that could support a decent living of a family had always been a contentious issue between capitalists and laborers.
Wails by labor groups seeking just wages are tactically met by capitalists with threats of closure of business and establishments if they are forced to give workers’ demands. In the confrontation of opposing forces, laborers are always the weaker hapless party as against the mighty and wealthy. After the fiery orations from the laborers, the issues are settled in the silence of a prevailing repetitious setup where workers succumb to the threat of losing their jobs if they insist on their demands.
The situation is prevalent among workers in the private sector and the bureaucracy. The setup where wages are legislated leads to laws that are often dictated by powerful lobby groups from the wealthy and mighty. The causes being raised by workers seldom find support in the halls of the legislature as champions of such demands are too nil to overcome the majority. With salary standards inked in statutes, the contention of business and management is anchored on the law notwithstanding its inequity against the helpless working class. Unseen repercussions of the prevailing setup had adverse effects on society.
This writer posits his view of the unjust wages as root of the social ills besetting this Filipino nation. The inadequacy of workers’ wages to support a decent living of the family had pushed couples to leave the home for gainful employment just to make both ends meet, though unfortunately still not. The joint earnings of both father and mother still fall short to provide for the basic needs of the family just to live decent lives.
With father and mother out of the home, children are deprived of the parental care that ought to be given by the mother. The pain of a mother leaving her children to care for other’s children just to earn something to help the husband feed the family is a deep wound suffered by the family which is just borne in silence. Children left astray or in the care of old folks in the family, parents of the parents or relatives or nearest kin, is a reality among poor families that comprise the great majority of the cross-section of our society.
An objective gaze at the nation’s landscape brings a grim picture of workers struggling to survive from their impoverished situation while the wealthy and mighty are living in luxury from huge profits out of the earnings that should have been given for workers’ just wages. Threats of businesses closing seldom happen as companies and establishments continue flourishing and expanding.
While workers, especially those overseas, are labelled as heroes, the sad reality is that workers are modern slaves in perennial debts. It boils down to the root cause, the unseen labor manacles.
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We need to be born again daily
ALTHOUGH we already are born again in Christ especially through the sacrament of baptism—and with that reality continually nourished by the other sacraments and other instrumentalities that Christ through the Church has made available to us—we should see to it that we know how to live up to that reality in our daily life.
We know that we tend to be inconsistent in our ways. We say one thing and yet do another. We profess, even very fervently, our Christian faith, and yet our actions often belie what we profess.
We have need to truly work out how our being born again in Christ is really lived. For this, I imagine that we should make as our own these words of St. Paul: “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Gal 2,20)
It would indeed be helpful if everyday we set some concrete goals of how we can become more and more like Christ. This would help us to have a good sense of purpose in our daily life, and to be protected from the danger of the distractions we can meet along the way. This would also help us to be more resistant to the urges of our weaknesses and the many temptations around.
For example, we can have some ideas of these goals if we can ask ourselves: Are my thoughts and intentions those of Christ? Do I have a sense of mission and is that mission a sharing in the mission of Christ? Am I growing in the virtues like kindness, humility, fortitude, love for the cross and suffering in general, etc.? We should try to make these goals as concrete and as specific as possible.
And once these goals are clearly set, let us get down to make some practicable plans and strategies to achieve them. For this, we need to give due consideration to the different current conditions and circumstances of our life—personal, family, professional, social, etc.
It would be good if we can identify both the favorable and unfavorable elements involved in the pursuit of our goals, so we would know how to prepare ourselves accordingly for this daily endeavor. As much as possible, we should try to achieve that ideal condition when the pursuit of the goals is done in a smooth, active and lively way.
Obviously, we have to make some allowance for some unexpected things that can appear along the way. We should learn also to be flexible and adaptable to these surprises that may involve a radical revision of our plans.
And then, when these plans and strategies are made, let’s put all our efforts to put them into practice. Let’s remember that we should first of all ask for God’s grace and that our intentions are always pure and all for the glory of God. There should be zeal and ardor in carrying out these plans.
But we should also see to it that for all the zeal and ardor that we should try to attain, we should remember to be humble, meek, tender and even sweet. Far be it from us that we become bitter and rigid in our zeal, highly sensitive and irascible whenever we meet some negative things along the way.