RP workers stage May Day rallies

RP workers stage May Day rallies

MANILA (Reuter): Tens of thousands of Filipino workers, divided and marching in separate directions, staged May Day rallies yesterday as President Fidel Ramos urged them to cast aside their ideologies and unite for political stability.

In the day's main rally by 20,000 workers at Manila Rizal Park, moderate groups and a breakaway leftist faction signed a pact pledging to set aside their political differences and not to raid each other's union for members.

"A fractious labor movement dissipates labor power to bargain with employers," they said in their "Covenant of Unity." Labor Secretary Nieves Confesor witnessed the signing.

About 10,000 other workers belonging to the mainstream leftist union, May 1 Movement (KMU), marched to a square one kilometer away and slammed state policies they said were aimed at discouraging formation of worker unions.