MAY DAY 2025: THE PAST CONTINUES,
THE STRUGGLE INTENSIFIES
Every year on May 1st, the world marks International Workers’ Day—a date born not from celebration, but from struggle, sacrifice, and the blood spilled on the streets of Chicago in 1886. It is a day when the working class rises not to ask, but to demand; not to commemorate in silence, but to speak in thunderous unity.
In the Philippines, the condition of labor in 2025 is a reflection not of progress, but of the enduring rot at the heart of the system. Beneath the spectacle of growth and modernity lies a reality of hunger wages, precarious employment, union suppression, and government indifference. The capitalists speak of a “new Philippines,” but for workers, it is the same old order—oppressive in form, exploitative in function.
Automation, digitization, and globalization are dressed as innovations, yet serve the same purpose: to deepen inequality, to render workers more disposable, and to concentrate wealth and power in fewer hands. Workers are told to be patient, to be resilient, to be grateful—while they bear the weight of a society built on their backs.
But this May Day, the working class is not content to wait. They do not beg. They march, they organize, and they resist.
With a unified voice, Filipino workers declare: ₱200 wage increase, legislate it now. End contractualization. Uphold the right to unionize. Justice, not platitudes. Liberation, not survival.
This is not just a commemoration—it is a confrontation.
May Day 2025 is a warning. The fire of the past is alive—and it is burning toward the future.
I. THE HISTORIC TASK OF THE WORKING CLASS
“It will be the workers, with their courage, resolution and self-sacrifice, who will be chiefly responsible for achieving victory.”
—Karl Marx
Throughout history, the working class has stood as the unseen architect of civilization. It is the hands of laborers that build cities from dust, till the soil for harvest, lay the tracks for transport, wire the grid for light, and keep every wheel of society in motion. Their sweat runs through the veins of every industry. Their silence holds up the towering facades of the ruling order.
And yet, the conditions of the working class remain stubbornly unchanged. Wages stagnate. Rights erode. Dignity is denied. From the haciendas of the colonial era to the concrete slums of today, the worker remains exploited—praised in word, punished in fact.
May Day, then, is no mere holiday. It is not a token of gratitude bestowed from above. It is a day of militant remembrance, a commemoration of lives sacrificed in the struggle for bread, rest, and dignity. It is a call to arms—not just for better pay, but for the radical transformation of society.
The enemy has changed costumes over time—but never character. The capitalist class, in every era, retools its weapons to contain, divide, and pacify the working majority. Once, it was outright colonial violence. Then came the lash of wage slavery, the rise of contractualization, and the stifling of union power. Today, it introduces automation—hailed as progress, but too often wielded as a threat.
Automation, in theory, holds promise: to relieve human beings of dangerous, demeaning labor and to expand the realm of creativity and leisure. But in the hands of the capitalist, it becomes another tool of discipline and displacement. Jobs are eliminated not to ease human toil, but to maximize profit. Workers are discarded not because they are unskilled, but because they are inconvenient to capital’s pursuit of efficiency without humanity.
Alongside automation comes a parade of coercive tactics:
• Mass layoffs justified by “technological redundancy”
• Endless contracts that deny regularization
• Surveillance, union-busting, and repression
• Even imprisonment of labor leaders under trumped-up charges
This is not the future—it is the past, recycled and repackaged. Capitalism sells itself as innovation, yet it delivers the same old domination in new, digital forms. The promises of flexibility and opportunity become pressures to settle for less, accept more risk, and work without rights.
But if capital adapts, so too does labor.
The fire of worker resistance has not dimmed—it has evolved. From the picket lines to the platform cooperatives, from street marches to digital campaigns, the struggle continues. Workers understand that they are not simply cogs in a machine, but the rightful engine of history. They do not seek mere survival within the system. They demand a future beyond it.
The oppressors offer contentment in chains. The workers raise their fists for liberation.
This May Day, the working class of the Philippines does not mourn. It mobilizes. For the wage they deserve. For the dignity they were denied. For a future that belongs to the many—not the few.
Let the capitalists claim to represent the future. The workers know: they are still fighting the same oppressive past—now dressed in the costume of the present. But the day of reckoning draws closer. The working class has not forgotten its historic task. It has only begun to remember.
II. THE UNIFIED DEMAND: A ₱200 LEGISLATED WAGE HIKE NOW
In the year 2025, amid soaring inflation, deepening poverty, and the widening gulf between wealth and wages, the voice of the Filipino working class rises with clarity and urgency: ₱200 across-the-board wage increase, legislate it now!
It is not merely a demand—it is a declaration of collective survival and dignity.
This is not an isolated cry. It is the unified banner of the National Wage Coalition (NWC)—a historic convergence of labor forces that once stood apart in strategy but now march together in cause. The coalition brings together four of the country’s largest and most influential labor formations: Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU), Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP), Nagkaisa! Labor Coalition, and the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP).
Their united front signals not only the strength of their shared grievance but the urgency of national intervention. For too long, wages have been dictated by regional wage boards—bureaucratic institutions that move slowly, inconsistently, and always in favor of capital. Workers are no longer willing to wait for a system designed to delay.
On April 29, 2025, in a rare show of solidarity, these labor organizations convened a joint press conference to announce the coming Labor Day mobilization and to issue a direct challenge to President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.: Lead from the front. Stop hiding behind broken boards and recycled rhetoric. Certify the ₱200 wage hike bill as urgent.
The coalition condemned the President’s silence and inaction over the past three years, during which he has not held a single formal dialogue with the labor movement. This absence is not merely an oversight—it is an insult. It is an abdication of responsibility at a time when working families face the worst levels of hunger and economic hardship seen since the pandemic, or even in the last two decades.
In response, the workers will speak in the language of unity and resistance. On May 1, 2025, tens of thousands of laborers, trade unionists, and community allies will march to Mendiola, the historic site where cries for justice have echoed for generations. Their message is thunderous and direct: “Mr. President, CERTIFY AS URGENT! Congress, PASS IT NOW! ₱200 WAGE INCREASE, LEGISLATE IT NOW!”
This is more than a policy proposal. It is a matter of national necessity. It is a call for redistributive justice in an economy that grows richer at the top while leaving the many behind. It is a demand backed by the unbreakable will of organized labor—a force that will no longer be placated by words, nor pacified by delay.
The ₱200 wage increase is not a gift. It is not charity. It is the rightful share of those who build the wealth of the nation with their hands, their sweat, and their time. It is time. Pass the wage hike now.
III. RHETORIC VS. REALITY: EMPTY PRAISE FROM THE RULING CLASS
This year, as in those before it, the ruling elite once again cloaked themselves in hollow tributes to the Filipino worker.
Vice President Sara Duterte, in her Labor Day message, lauded the “resilience,” “intelligence,” and “hard work” of Filipino workers, commending their dedication across both domestic and overseas sectors. She paid tribute to the labor force for their sacrifices and implored them to remain “resilient, patient, and determined” in the pursuit of meaningful change and national progress.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., meanwhile, asserted that the government was not merely a passive observer in national development, but an “active partner” in the construction of a “Bagong Pilipinas”—a New Philippines—where society would be fair and just. He claimed that the administration’s commitment to the working class was not only a responsibility but also an expression of gratitude.
And yet, such declarations—devoid of legislation, policy, or political will—only serve to deepen the chasm between rhetoric and reality. Workers do not eat praise. They cannot feed their children on empty gestures. Resilience is not a wage. Gratitude is not a collective bargaining agreement. Sacrifice is not a substitute for justice.
To call the demand for a ₱200 wage increase “idealistic” is to insult those who labor under conditions of real material suffering. To continue deferring responsibility to the broken, outdated machinery of regional wage boards—bodies that consistently fail to deliver livable wage increases—is to defend a system designed to delay and deflect, not deliver.
In sharp contrast, Ka Leody de Guzman of the Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP) delivered a blunt rejoinder. Speaking amid rising prices and deteriorating living standards, he declared:
“Workers are not happy this Labor Day. What is there to celebrate when prices are going up and wages remain stagnant? The government has turned its back on labor by refusing to act decisively. It is time to unite. We are calling for a ₱1,500 national minimum wage, an end to contractualization, and full recognition of our right to form unions. These are not mere wishes—they are our rights.”
De Guzman challenged the feel-good rhetoric of the administration with clear demands: an end to hunger wages, the abolition of precarious work, and respect for union rights. His message cut through the fog of official language with the voice of the street, of the factory floor, of lived experience.
Where Duterte and Marcos offered sentimentalism, De Guzman presented solidarity. Where they urged patience, he called for resistance.
The contrast could not be clearer. While the ruling class drowns in its self-congratulations, the working class sharpens its demands. The establishment offers gratitude where there should be accountability. It offers promises without timelines, policies without teeth, and reforms without the will to implement.
It is in this context that the May Day mobilizations carry revolutionary clarity. The Filipino worker no longer waits for benevolence. They demand justice—with loud voices, with firm footsteps, and with the full strength of united labor behind them.
V. BEYOND WORDS: THE STRUGGLE FOR STRUCTURAL CHANGE
Again, this May Day- International Workers Day is not a celebration—it is a confrontation. A confrontation between those who produce and those who profit. Between those who sacrifice and those who exploit.
Let no one claim that these demands are “unrealistic.” The true fantasy is to believe that workers will forever be content with crumbs.
The movement today is not merely about wages. It is about the right to live with dignity. It is about the right to organize, to bargain collectively, to enjoy secure and humane conditions at work.
Raise the wages.
End contractualization.
Respect union rights.
Legislate justice.
Liberate the nation.
These are not utopian ideals. These are the foundation of any just society. As corporations accumulate wealth and politicians deliver platitudes, the people who build the nation continue to be denied a fair share of its fruits. But the day is coming when the oppressed shall no longer be silenced by gratitude from their oppressors.
The voices rising on May Day are not echoes of the past. They are thunderbolts of the future. For every factory, every office, every field, every school—Filipino workers are remembering their strength. They are reclaiming their voice. And they are ready to make history.
This is the year of reckoning.
This is the march toward dignity.
This is the time of the worker.