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Based on data from the NCMB, a total of nine actual strikes were recorded from January to June this year, or 31 percent lower than the 13 recorded for the same period last year. The number of workers involved in new strikes has likewise gone down from 4,835 to 939 – an 80-percent difference, NCMB data further show. This is notwithstanding the fact that the number of labor organizations and organized workers has increased since last year. Figures from the Bureau of Labor Relations (BLR) show that there are a total of 28,290 labor organizations throughout the country as of June 2006. These have a combined membership of 2.3 million, BLR data further show. Of these, 15,823 are private-sector unions with a combined membership of 1.62 million, while 1,505 are public-sector unions with a combined membership of 289,428. The rest, numbering 10,962, are workers’ associations. The number of labor organizations recorded by the BLR for the first half of this year is more than 10,000 higher than the 17,132 last year – which have a combined membership of 1.92 million. But the number of collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) was constant at 1,691. As it is, only a very small number of unions, around ten percent, are covered by CBAs. There was also a decrease in the number of strike notices filed. The NCMB recorded a total of 176 notices of strike, involving 37,139 workers, filed from January to June this year. The number of notices of strike filed for this period is lower by 30 percent than the 253 cases documented by the NCMB for the same period last year, which involved a total of 44,941 workers. Since the number of strike notices filed during the first half of the year is lower than the number of cases filed during the same period last year, there is as should be expected a dip in the number of actual strikes. This is reflective of what NCMB data show to be a downward trend in the strike incidence from 2002 to 2005, cut only by a slight rise in 2004.
Strike-preventing devices KMU spokesperson Prestoline Suyat traces the drop in strikes to what he called the near-perfection of legal devices to prevent strikes by both capitalists and the government. “Since mechanisms to prevent strikes have been established these past few years,” Suyat said, “the natural tendency is for the strike incidence to go down. This means that it is becoming more and more difficult to stage strikes, that capitalists and the government have almost perfected their means for preventing strikes. These are legal mechanisms.” “One of these strike-preventing mechanisms is the 30-day period requirement between the filing of a notice of strike and the actual staging of the strike,” Suyat said. “Within those 30 days, a long period, capitalists can do a lot of maneuvers to prevent the strike from materializing, like intimidation against both union leaders and members: they can be threatened with dismissal, for instance.” On the government’s part, the main device used to prevent strikes is what is called the assumption of jurisdiction (AJ), Suyat said. “The law states that only cases involving the national interest warrant AJs,” the KMU spokesperson pointed out. “But former Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas issued AJs in almost all labor disputes. In fact she boasted at one time that strikes could rarely push through because she often resorted to AJs.” “The government uses the AJ to stop strikes instead of investigating what triggered these,” Suyat said. “In the end, the disputes are resolved in a manner that favors the capitalists.” Suyat said the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) has commonly used the AJ to order striking workers to return to work. “Workers who are not inclined to defy the order and risk losing their jobs return to work whenever the DoLE assumes jurisdiction and tells them to leave the picketline,” he pointed out. He added that return-to-work orders are usually followed by union-busting moves by the capitalists. “So AJs usually result in mass lay-offs,” he said. But mass lay-offs have not been the sole result of the AJ. In a number of cases, the assumption of jurisdiction was taken by the military and the police as a license to violently disperse the picket. Most notable was the case of the Hacienda Luisita strike in 2004 wherein seven workers were killed and hundreds more were injured during a violent picket dispersal by the army and police. A few years before, the assumption of jurisdiction on the Nestle Philippines strike gave rise to a number of forcible dispersals. Sto. Tomas was appointed as DoLE secretary on March 16, 2001 and resigned from her post earlier this year. She was known for maximizing the use of the AJ in resolving labor disputes. She is now the chairperson of the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP). Longer to settle But even by the BLR’s documentation, as has been seen, the strikes that took place from January to June 2006 have, on the average, taken longer to settle than those that were staged in last year’s first six months. “This means that workers this year faced bigger issues compared to last year,” Suyat said. When asked what issues these were, Suyat pointed to mass lay-offs as the main issue. “Regular workers are dismissed and replaced with contractuals,” he said. Another major issue, Suyat said, is the non-implementation of collective bargaining agreements. Suyat’s observation is bolstered by the government’s own figures. “Of the 300 cases filed, 261 or 87 percent involved unfair labor practices; deadlock in collective bargaining mostly (regarding wages) were raised in 31 cases; and eight cases raised both the issues of unfair labor practice and bargaining deadlock,” Ubaldo said. Wages Collective bargaining agreements are usually centered on union rights, the providing of more benefits, and wage increases. Wages are expectedly a major issue for labor – both organized and unorganized – considering the drastic and continuous slide in the costs of living from 2001, when President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was catapulted to power through a popular uprising, to 2006. Based on data from the National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC), the living wage for a family of six – the average Filipino family – now stands at a national average of P664 ($12.73 at an exchange rate of $1=P52.16) as of May 2006. Conversely, the daily minimum wage now stands at a national average of P283.67 ($5.44), NWPC data further show. The living wage for an average Filipino family was in 2001 a far cry from what it is now. That year, it stood at a national average of P445.53 ($10.89 at an exchange rate of $1=P40.89 in 2001), based on data from the NWPC. The highest regional minimum wage then was in the National Capital Region (NCR), which was pegged at P250 ($6.11 at 2001 rates). Today the country’s highest regional minimum wage is still in the NCR, which stands at P300 ($5.75) plus a P50 ($0.96) cost of living allowance or an “increase” of less than a hundred pesos from 2002. Workers’ groups affiliated with the KMU have been demanding a legislated P125 across-the-board, nationwide wage increase since 1999. The demand has also been taken up recently by the party-list group Partido ng Manggagawa (PM or Workers’ Party), represented in Congress by Renato Magtubo. Anakpawis (Toiling Masses) Rep. Crispin Beltran filed a bill seeking a P125 across-the-board, nationwide wage increase in 2004. Three years before he had filed a similar bill as representative of Bayan Muna (People First). A consolidated wage hike bill was approved on second reading at the House of Representatives early last month. The House, however, failed to pass the bill before adjourning on June 7. Prospects Considering the rampant labor repression amid the increasing impoverishment of workers, Suyat expects more unrest on the labor front, which he said may not necessary manifest itself only in strikes. “The government has pending anti-labor measures to be channeled through Congress, Charter change, and the planned revision of the Labor Code,” Suyat said. “These can further flame labor unrest.” Bulatlat BACK TO TOP ■ PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION ■ COMMENT
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