MIGRANT WATCH
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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