2008: Workers Under Attack, but Gains were Made

There were those who, while “fortunate” enough not to have been killed, were abducted and tortured. Among them is Melvin Yares, an organizer of Kahugpungan sa Kabus sa Basak (KAKABAS), an informal workers’ group in Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu. He was forced to claim to being an NPA returnee and to spread black propaganda against the party-list group Anakpawis (Toiling Masses), the urban poor group Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap (Kadamay), and other organizations.

Other assaults on workers’ civil and political rights include union-busting, of which CTUHR documented 11 cases last year; attacks on picket lines (three in 2008); and violent dispersals of workers’ actions (five in 2008, involving 1,025 victims).

The attacks on workers’ civil and political rights took place against a backdrop in which their economic, social and cultural rights are also being violated.

The following table from the government’s National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC), which was posted on the agency’s website last Dec. 22, shows that wages have eroded by as much as more than P100 in some regions since 2000, which is used as the base year.

CTUHR, using data from the NWPC, has estimated that workers’ wages are pegged at around only 34 percent of the family living wage for a family of six – the size of the average Filipino family.

CTUHR also recorded a total of 58 cases of inhumane working conditions – a 62-percent increase from the 22 reported in 2007.

Still, not all is lost

But while 2008 for the most part was a bad year for Filipino workers, there were some rays of light. The unions of Bleustar Manufacturing, Inc. and Triumph International won their struggles for just wages and benefits, and against sexual harassment – proving that even at a time when the labor movement is confronting attacks left and right, the old formula of solid unity and organizing can bring substantial gains to the working people. (Bulatlat.com)