Labor
Barely Surviving 2005
The past year saw
workers struggle to keep their jobs in the wake of contractualization and
globalization, and their unions in the face of government policies against
unionism. The labor movement also lost two of its most courageous leaders
– the union presidents of Hacienda Luisita and Nestle Philippines Inc. in
2005.
BY DABET CASTAÑEDA
Bulatlat
Leah Dupelis
was not part of any Christmas and New Year revelry as she and her
co-workers from the garments company Chunji International Phils., Inc. (CIPI)
spent the holidays at the picket line in front of their company gates.
CIPI is one of the factories inside the Cavite Export Processing Zone (CEPZ),
29 kms from Manila.
Dupelis is
the chairperson of the CIPI chapter of Solidarity of Cavite Workers (SCW),
a provincial alliance of labor organizations formed in October 2005 and
affiliated with the Workers Assistance Center (WAC).
|
WEARY BUT STILL
FIGHTING: Striking workers of REN Transport, 2005
PHOTO
BY DABET CASTAÑEDA |
During the
holidays, the 159 striking workers had tuyo (dried fish) and
bahaw (cold rice). For their daily sustenance, Dupelis said,
“Umaasa na lang kami sa hinahagis na barya ng mga driver ng
jeep at truck na dumadaan sa harap ng picketline.” (We
depend on the coins thrown by jeepney and truck drivers who pass by our
picketline.)
The CIPI
workers started their protest first week of November. They picketed the
factory after learning from workers of Pacific Rare Specialty Metals and
Chemicals, Inc. (PRMCI), a neighboring factory, that CIPI’s building was
being sold to the latter. This came after 489 CIPI workers spent almost
six months on forced vacation leave.
The workers
told Bulatlat in an interview that management did not tell them the
factory was shutting down. “Ang sabi lang sa amin walang gawa,” (We
were just told there is no production) one of them said. Now, the workers
are picketing the company to make sure it does not run away from its
obligations to the workers.
At the very
least, the workers are asking for a decent separation pay. The company is
offering a payment of 10 days per year of service as against the workers
demand of 30 days. As far as the 159 striking workers are concerned, the
company owes them P13,426,705 ($255,649.37, based on an exchange rate of
P52.52 per US dollar).
So far, 330
CIPI workers have been given P5,000 ($95.20) each which constitutes half
of their separation pay. The workers are not sure, however, when the
balance will be paid.
"Tumanda na
kami sa pabrika tapos babaratin lang kami sa separation pay. Hindi naman
yata makatarungan yun,”
(We’ve grown old working in this factory and they will just give us a
pittance as separation pay. That is unjust.) Dupelis said.
Meanwhile,
the regular workers who have been with the company for more than 10 years
and are now in their mid-30s worry that they would not be accepted in
other CEPZ companies because of the hiring cut-off age of 27. They said
some might be lucky enough to get hired but only as contractuals.
Show window
The plight
of Dupelis and her co-workers at the export processing zone reflects that
of workers nationwide, said Bong Labog, national president of the militant
labor organization Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU or May First Movement).
Labog said
EPZ workers comprise half of the country’s total workforce. More than 80
percent of them are contractual or non-regular workers. The Philippine
Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) records show there are 1,069 firms in the
51 EPZs nationwide.
KMU also
estimates that more than 50 percent of the country’s total workforce are
contractual or non-regular. Aside from the EPZs, most of them are employed
in fast food chains, gasoline stations, department stores and garment
companies.
“There are
stiffer working conditions in enclaves,” Labog said, because they serve as
the country’s “show window,” made attractive for foreign investors. As a
matter of policy, Labog said the EPZs implement three anti-worker schemes,
namely massive contractualization, wage freeze and the no union-no strike
policy.
The
conditions of the workers in the EPZs therefore reflect the government’s
labor policies, Labog added.
Strike-free?
The effect
of globalization in a
Third World
country like the Philippines has caused massive retrenchment of workers.
In fact, the records from the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE)
show that from 2002 to 2004 alone, 8,673 companies closed shop, affecting
184,231 workers nationwide.
Bulatlat
tried to secure a copy of the 2005 statistics from the Bureau of Labor and
Employment Statistics (BLES) but was told that the records are strictly
confidential. The BLES official, who asked not to be named, said it needs
clearance from no less than the labor secretary before it could be given
out for publication. “The statistics maybe bad for the economy,” the BLES
official said.
Labog
admitted that the incidences of strikes have been declining since the
1990s. The National Conciliation and Mediation Board (NCMB) recorded only
26 strikes in 2005 while the DoLE has declared the EPZs as strike free.
Labog said
that the decline in strikes was not due to the workers’ passivity but to
heightened suppression of workers and the anti-union policies especially
in companies inside the EPZs. He said that massive retrenchment and
company closures have resulted in an almost 20 percent reduction of the
country’s total working force and, in effect, decreased the incidences of
strikes and other forms of workers’ protests.
Purging
unions
Flory
Arevalo, a regular worker of the Korean-owned Chong Won Fashion Inc. (CWFI),
visited the CIPI picketline together with her co-workers on the same day
Bulatlat went there. Arevalo said that they wanted to express their
support to the protesting CIPI workers and that they fear they might
suffer the same fate.
A
manufacturer of knitted clothes, the CWFI is registered to operate for 15
years. Now on its 16th year in the country, Arevalo and her co-workers
fear their company might close shop this year in order to evade a
collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with their 170-member union.
CWFI employs
800 workers but only 200 of them are regular.
In 2000,
regular workers of the CWFI formed the Nagkakaisang Manggagawa ng Chon Won
(NMCW) but management has continuously declined to forge an agreement with
the union. In March 2005, management offered a Voluntary Separation
Program (VSP), targeting regular workers and active union members and
officers. Around 30 workers accepted the offer.
Arevalo said
the company is poised to subcontract its work and has also suspended for
15 days the union officers and active union members. She also said the
company has fired two of their previous union presidents and eight other
union members.
Henry
Halawig, a paralegal for labor legal services, noted that in the first
district of Laguna province covering the area from Biñan to Calamba (35
kms south of Manila) alone, two companies closed shop when the workers
formed a union.
Unrelenting
Despite the
restrictions, however, Labog said 2005 saw workers struggling to keep
unionism alive. Many sought to keep their unions alive and others tried to
put up unions even in no union-no strike areas.
“The
formation of unions is a basic necessity for workers,” the labor leader
said. “There should be collective strength and effort for their demands to
be effectively implemented,” he added.
However, the
government seems not keen to recognize this. In Laguna, the regional labor
union Pagkakaisa ng Manggagawa sa Timog Katagalugan (Pamantik) recorded
five unions formed in 2004 but they have not been recognized by the DoLE.
But KMU,
Labog said, encourages unions to organize even non-regular workers and to
fight for their regularization. This is usually included as a major demand
in their CBA negotiations.
For Labog, a
“monumental achievement” for the labor movement in 2005 is the
regularization of 1,500 contractual workers of Dole Philippines last
September. “Hindi madaling gawin yun,” Labog said, adding it
happened during KMU’s second CBA negotiation with the Dole management, a
multinational company engaged in the pineapple growing and canning in
Bukidnon province in southern Philippines.
Struggle for
life and limb
Labog also
admits that 2005 was one of the most dangerous years for labor leaders and
militant unionists, saying it has become state policy to eliminate
dissent.
“Ramdam na
ramdam yung malaking pagkakaiba dahil may
security
risks,” (We really feel the big difference because of security risks.)
Labog said. However, despite the dangers, he said the union leaders have
continued organizing albeit in abnormal circumstances.
The biggest
blows to the labor sector last year were the murders of
Ding
“Ka Fort” Fortuna and Ricardo “Ka Ric” Ramos, presidents of Nestle
Philippines and Central Azucarrera de Tarlac Labor Union (CATLU),
respectively.
For the
organized workers, the deaths of two well-known labor leaders were “a
testament to the Macapagal-Arroyo administration’s policy of literally
killing dissent."
Labog said
they represented the two most crucial issues in the country. Fortuna
represented the workers’ struggle against a multinational company while
Ramos represented the struggle for land and wages against one of the
country’s most influential and powerful political clans, the Cojuangcos of
Tarlac province.
Meanwhile,
the Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR) has recorded 27 cases
of assault at the picketline from January to September 2005, affecting
1,457 individuals and involving 11 companies nationwide.
Among the
incidents documented are 17 cases of physical assault that injured 1,011
strikers.
“Pero sa
kabila ng lahat ng pang-aabuso at paninikil, hindi naantig ang mga
manggagwa at tuloy-tuloy pa ring lumaban at nag-organisa ng unyon,”
(But
despite the oppression and suppression, workers are still unwavering and
they continue to struggle and organize unions.) Labog said.
Some of the
more notable strikes this year were those of Lepanto Consolidated Mining
Corp. in Benguet, Henry Sy-owned Shoe Mart Department Store, Ajinomoto and
Rustan’s Makati.
While the
four-year old strike at Nestle in Cabuyao continues at present, the year
2005 also saw the
end
of the bloodiest and most controversial strike in recent history, that of
the 6,000-strong farm and mill workers of Hacienda Luisita.
After it
involved 13 deaths (including a massacre of seven farm workers and that of
one of their union presidents), the strike concluded Dec. 8 with the
workers getting most of their demands. These include P21 million
($399,847.68) for CATLU and P8.2 million ($156,131.00) for the United
Luisita Workers’ Union (ULWU) in wage and other benefits and some P30
million ($571,210.97) in profits from the harvest of standing sugarcanes.
More importantly, the strike has opened the possibility for the farm
workers to finally own the land that is rightfully theirs. Bulatlat
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