“Miguel,”
real name withheld, is a news director, anchorman and reporter of a
local radio station. He has been in the media for almost seven years –
he rose from the ranks, as colleagues describe him.
In a
previous job, Miguel was one of those was who fought for decent wages
and benefits. Unfortunately, he along with other employees was
retrenched.
But Miguel
favors organizing media unions. Media members as well as the technical
staff should unite to fight for and ensure job security and benefits, he
said.
“To form a
union within an institution is building the power to bargain with the
management,” he said. “But so far there has been no union here that I
know of.”
Guillermo
Tejida III, desk editor of Visayan Daily Star, also welcomes the
idea. “Unionism in public and private sector is most welcome for this
will lead to collective power on the part of the employees to lobby for
their rights which are often neglected intentionally by the management,”
he said.
It is high
time, Tejida said, that the media got organized adding that public and
private media practitioners alike seem to be closing their eyes to the
reality that they are being abused despite the press’ own advocacy
against these abuses.
“Media
unionism is favorable as it will pave the way for better practice of the
media profession. It will create better ties for a bolder fight for
workers’ rights and bolster lobbying power,” said Tejida.
Constraints on unionization
He said
that in Bacolod and elsewhere in the province, unionism is welcome but
drastic measures might be needed since media practitioners may not
readily fight for their rights knowing that their security of tenure
would be at stake.
Nomer, not
his real name, an engineer and chief technical officer at a local AM
station spoke in behalf of the technical staff. He has been in the
industry for almost a decade now. He said that technical staff people
are vital in the news productions, either in broadcast or in print.
“If a
reporter is absent there are lots of options to pursue the news but
without a technical crew news wouldn’t go out,” he said.
Unlike
many reporters, he said, most technical staffs rely solely on their wage
for their families’ daily expenses. For his part, he chose to take up
sidelines. Fellow workers, however, have no extra sources of income.
Nomer,
like other technical crew in radio stations, is a regular employee
entitled to benefits such as social service insurance, Philhealth and
others but all those benefits are not complied with religiously by their
company. Overtime pay has also been cut off, he said.
“But if we
have a union the management would probably give us recognition since we
have strength in numbers,” he said.
Management
does not really see treat technicians on an equal footing with
reporters, Nomer said.
“If the
broadcasters or reporters would join forces with us then we can be a
force to reckon with,” said Nomer.
Although
production people are the backbone of the industry, they are also the
least prioritized, he lamented.
Danilo
Alcoriza, a columnist and a founding member of the Union of Journalists
of the Philippines (UJP) in the province and of the progressive
Correspondence, Broadcasters, Reporters Association-Action News Service
(COBRA-ANS), underscored the constraints of organizing the local media.
“There are
insurmountable odds in organizing media unions,” said Alcoriza, who is
also Region VI chairman of Coalition for the Unity, Recognition and
Advancement of Government Employees (Courage).
Alcoriza
said that because many media practitioners – such as stringers and
freelancers – have unstable jobs, they easily cave in to the pressures
of management. “These working press people have no security of tenure
and are mostly contract-based,” he said
Alcoriza
further said that even within a media institution, there are gaps
between the editorial people and the production people. This makes
organizing a bit harder, he said.
He said
that most reporters, broadcasters, news writers and editors alike rely
on their outside influence, public relations work and other transactions
related to their profession for additional income generation. Because
they have other opportunities for income, they do not really care about
alleviating the conditions of other colleagues in the media industry,
particularly the production staff, he said.
“The
creation of media groups or organizations usually doesn’t include
technical people,” said Alcoriza. He also said that media groups do not
cater to issues tackling the woes of technical crews, disregarding them
as not part of the industry itself.
He said
these practices tend to create a gap between the two components in the
media industry – between the press and the production. Bulatlat
Surmounting Economic
Woes Together
(Last of
two parts)
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