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What is a worker?

One can simply say that a worker is someone who works. Even the latest edition of Webster’s dictionary defines a worker as such, but the question on who is a worker and how he works and lives can not be explained by neither a single sentence nor a paragraph.

Hardworking, disciplined

A worker has no property except his skills, talents, and physical strength. He is the one who directly involved in the production of goods and services. In the mushroom plantation of Agro Industries Inc., for instance, the worker sees to it that the mushrooms sell.

To live, a worker has nothing to sell but his strength. He has no choice but to sweat and bleed just to earn money to feed him and his family. A miner in the Philex Mining Corporation has to sniff all the dust and face all the hazards of unsafe mining methods to earn money. He must also bear the unsolicited self-pity every time he transports bullion of gold worth billions of dollars without him getting the wage he deserves.

The worker possesses the highest form of discipline in the system of production. The worker takes pride in the discipline he inputs in each production process. Unlike his employer who does nothing but wait for the produce of his workers and accumulate profit, the worker busies himself in exhaustion until his work is done. For example, a bus driver of the Philippine Rabbit Bus Line fetches passengers and makes sure they get to their destination safe and sound while management does nothing but collects the fare.

The worker is precise and accurate. In factories in the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) such as Adriste, a cutter bears in mind to cut the pattern of a glove precisely for it to be sewn accurately to produce a fine pair of gloves.

Resourceful, patient

The worker is scientific and resourceful in nature. If he observes that the machine does not function well, he initiates to repair it so as not to delay production. He is so unlike his employer who does not care about the plight of the workers as long as the production goes on and the machines work well.

In the case of the former employees of the E. Ramos Construction when they built the fly-over and the rock shed in Marcos Highway, their manager forced them to work overtime just to make sure that the project would be completed on time. The overtime was enforced without considering the workers’ capacity to endure lengthy sleepless periods. No incentives were given for the said overtime. It was not until a construction worker died at the workplace that workers discovered that the company did not remit any of the workers’ Social Security System (SSS) contributions.

A force in development

It was and is still due to the worker’s skills in production that the world developed. In every nation’s progress, no one can say that a worker has nothing to do with it. All the credits should be directed to him, but he incurs himself into credits due to low wages and lack of benefits, which ensnares him into indebtedness.

Everyday, miners fall in line to collect their wage. Beside them is another queue of people with pens and notebooks containing a list of those who have to pay their debts. As the miner receives his pay envelope, almost all of its contents go to these petty loan sharks.

For peace

A worker is a peace lover. He wants serenity inside the workplace. This he can only achieve if his rights and welfare are respected and recognized, and his hard labor is paid accordingly. He also wants and maintains good relations with his co-workers.

For this, the worker is militant in promoting harmonuy between his work and life.

The worker is a nationalist. He looks at society’s unjust system holistically, realizing that there should be a radical change in the system where the rights and welfare of every individual is truly addressed.

The worker is a fighter of change. He develops the forces of production and works hard for the relations of production to work in his favor. He is a fearless fighter. After all, he has nothing to lose but his chains. # Aldwin Quitasol for NORDIS

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