Filipino Community Builds Support for Hotel Workers

Filipino workers comprise seventy-five percent of the total number of hotel workers in Toronto. Together with those from the Asian, African, Latin American and Caribbean communities, they make up the bulk of the estimated one million workers in the Greater Toronto Area who earn less than $29,400 a year. This puts them at or below the poverty line.

BY SIKLAB-Ontario
Posted by Bulatlat

TORONTO – Filipino workers comprise seventy-five percent of the total number of hotel workers in Toronto. Together with those from the Asian, African, Latin American and Caribbean communities, they make up the bulk of the estimated one million workers in the Greater Toronto Area who earn less than $29,400 a year. This puts them at or below the poverty line.

Some 60 Filipino workers (caregivers, factory workers, hotel and restaurant and other service workers), and their allies and supporters from the Filipino and other communities gathered February 3 at the Wellesley Community Center for the forum dubbed "Raising the Standard of Living of Filipino Hotel Workers in Toronto". The event was co-sponsored by SIKLAB Ontario (National Alliance of Filipino Migrant Workers in Canada) and UNITE-HERE, a Canadian general workers union originally comprised by textile and garments workers, hotel and restaurant employees.

The forum started with SIKLAB members Jonathan Canchela and Yolyn Valenzuela talking about the history of migration and the background of Filipinos in Canada . Now totaling close to half a million, Filipinos make up the third largest migrant community in Canada. They came as teachers and nurses in the 1960s; worked in the garment factories in the 1970s; and today, they come and work as janitors, cleaners, hotel workers, factory workers and live-in caregivers. They came in search of a better life while filling in Canada's need for immigrants to build and sustain its expanding economy and to maintain its global competitiveness.

The Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo government continues to aggressively push its labor export policy to achieve its goal of sending one million Filipinos abroad annually. Initiated by then President Ferdinand Marcos as a temporary measure in the 1970s upon pressure by the World Bank and IMF to ease the unemployment problem in the country and help stabilize the Philippine economy, Canchela said this policy actively promotes the export of highly-educated and highly-skilled Filipinos as cheap labor in over 186 countries worldwide. Some 8 million Filipinos living and working abroad remitted around US$10.7 billion to the country last year. They continue to be the largest source of revenue for the Philippine government, propping up a debt-ridden, ailing economy.

SIKLAB vice-chair Yolyn Valenzuela pointed out that despite being highly-educated and highly-skilled, Filipinos are among Canada's lowest paid workers. These workers have to work two or three jobs and cannot properly care for and support their children.

"They do the dirty, difficult and dangerous jobs that no Canadian would take," said Valenzuela. On the average, Filipino workers earn $2,000 less per year compared to other workers. The skills and education they acquired in the Philippines are not recognized.

Valenzuela also spoke about the problems with Canada's Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP) through which a growing number of Filipinos have come to Canada in the last two decades and a half. Describing it as exploitative and racist, she said the LCP sentences people, mainly women of color, to a lifetime of live-in domestic and low-paying work. These conditions contribute to the stress placed on families and cause anger and frustration among family members. These, Valenzuela said, are cited as a factor why some Filipino youth join "gangs" and engage in anti-social behavior.

Hotel workers shared stories of their exploitation and their struggle for dignity as workers. They cited their workload as a major issue. In one hotel, workers are assigned to work 16 rooms in 8 hours.

"We have to clean and vacuum them, dust off the furniture, which means a lot of bending and stretching," the hotel workers said during their sharing.

Benefits are also an issue. Hotel workers complained of rising costs of drugs and medicine. "Everything is now costing more. Our drug plan has to be improved. We need good wages, good benefits and also a good retirement," said the hotel workers.

Lillian Salvador spoke of how she and her fellow workers waged a 160-day picket to successfully raise their wages and lessen their workload, which adversely affects their health and well being. Another Filipino immigrant, Victoria Sobrepena, talked about her experience as a qualified university-trained teacher who could not find a teaching position in Canada because her skills and qualifications are not recognized. Filomena Canedo spoke about her experience as a union leader among hotel workers and called on everyone to support the fight for better working conditions for all hotel workers.

Fr. Ariel Dumaran called on the community to strengthen links and to forge solidarity especially with the hotel workers as they embark on their contract negotiations with hotel management. He urged everyone to look into the roots of poverty, joblessness and forced migration, and to reflect on ways to address these. Representatives of the Filipino-Canadian Youth Alliance (UKPC-Toronto) and the Silayan Community Centre imparted solidarity messages to the hotel workers.

Union leader and community activist Pura Velasco called for a campaign to let the broader community know about the working and living conditions of the hotel workers and to draw them into the struggle being waged for living wages and proper working conditions, and in defense of their right to be respected and to dignity. A UNITE HERE representative described the Hotel Workers Rising Movement, a North American initiative to raise the wages and working conditions of all hotel workers. She called on other community organizations and labor unions to support this movement by passing a resolution in support of hotel workers in Toronto. Bulatlat

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