In the midst of the global financial crisis and the resulting job losses in the Philippines, a new labor group is expected to be launched before this month ends. At the same time, the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU or May 1st Movement) has declared that it will continue to push for a P125 across-the-board, nationwide wage increase.
BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
LABOR WATCH
Bulatlat
In the midst of the global financial crisis and the resulting job losses in the Philippines, a new labor group is expected to be launched before this month ends. At the same time, the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU or May 1st Movement) has declared that it will continue to push for a P125 across-the-board, nationwide wage increase.
Called the Samahan Laban sa Tanggalan at Kontraktuwalisasyon (STK or Association Against Retrenchments and Contractualization), the new group aims to take up the cudgels for those who are victims of retrenchments, contractualization, and unemployment. STK is expected to be launched by the last week of February.
Prestoline Suyat, spokesperson of the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU or May 1st Movement), said his group is helping establish contacts among retrenched workers, contractual employees, and the unemployed to form STK.
“STK is going to be an association of victims,” Suyat told Bulatlat in an interview. “Among other things, its members can stage actions before the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) if they were illegally dismissed, or they can go to the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) and demand that government take concrete steps in addressing their issues. In particular it will serve those who have been jobless for a long time.”
The government estimates that anywhere from 300,000 to 800,000 workers in the Philippines are to lose their jobs this year as a result of the global financial crisis.
Some 15,000 workers in the Philippines have lost their jobs from November 2008 to January 2009 alone, government data show – while around 19,000 more were made to work for reduced working hours. The KMU chapter in Southern Tagalog, the Pagkakaisa ng mga Manggagawa sa Timog Katagalugan (Pamantik or Unity of Workers in Southern Tagalog), estimates that around 40,000 workers from the electronics and car manufacturing industries in the Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon) area would lose their jobs by the first half of the year. These two industries along with other industries engaged in export, such as garments and toys, are expected to be hit hard by the crisis as demand from export destinations such as the US weakens because of the crisis.
It is not just the local-based workers who are taking the axe. Government data further show that some 500,000 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) will be sent home this year due to the crisis.
Some 5,800 OFWs have been sent home from November 2008 to January 2009, government data further show.
