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Philippine unions fail to help migrant
workers
By Marites Sison
MANILA - Some of Asia's most vibrant and
militant labor unions are found in the Philippines,
where they have not only pushed worker's rights but
shaped political history through their role in the
country's popular uprisings.
Those non-violent
uprisings - the "People Power" revolt that toppled the
Ferdinand Marcos dictatorship in 1986 and the 2001 one
that that ousted the corrupt presidency of Joseph
Estrada - would not have been possible without the
tireless activism and numbers provided by workers'
groups.
But this impressive record of organizing
and action remains limited to issues within the
Philippines, a fact that surprises many since 20 percent
of the country's labor force - some 7 million people -
are overseas migrant workers.
The Philippines,
often called the largest organized exporter of labor in
the world, has been exporting workers for 27 years. Some
800,000 people leave this country of 80 million people
each year to work overseas, as nurses, seafarers,
factory workers, teachers, other professionals or
domestic workers.
The two largest labor groups
in the country - the left-leaning Kilusang Mayo Uno (May
One Movement, or KMU) and the conservative Trade Union
Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) - acknowledge their
lack of presence in the issue of labor migration and in
the countries that employ Filipinos.
"We're not
able to do that [organize migrant workers' unions]
because it's very expensive," said TUCP vice president
Avelino Valerio. "We can't just travel abroad and see
them and talk about issues."
Valerio said that
at best, the TUCP has organized a Center for Migrant
Workers in Manila, "for the purpose of connecting with
Filipino workers around the world". It also gives advice
to returning workers who seek their help in collecting
back payments or in studying labor contracts.
TUCP leaders who go abroad for conferences also
try their best to seek out overseas workers. The group
does lobby work in helping workers get more services
from government agencies like the Overseas Workers'
Welfare Administration.
Larry Perez Jr, an
organizer for the Association of Filipino Workers, a
group with socialist leanings, also cited financial
constraints. But Perez said that this has not stopped
the association from sending one organizer to help a
group of Filipino taxi drivers in Belgium to form a
union this year. He acknowledged, however, that this was
just a start, although a good one.
"It's our
belief that you are a member of the working class no
matter where you are. Therefore, you need to fight for
your rights, wherever you are," he said.
The
association also manages to help overseas workers form a
union by affiliating them with existing labor groups in
their host country. Other Filipinos have joined
inter-racial unions, a phenomenon that is not entirely
new. In the 1930s, Filipino farm workers joined Mexican
farm laborers in seeking better pay and treatment in the
United States.
Forming networks with foreign
labor unions is also a tactic used by the KMU, along
with a non-governmental organization (NGO) on
migrant-worker issues called Migrante.
KMU's Mau
Hermitanio said that in most instances, overseas
Filipino workers manage to form "people's organizations
and associations", not trade unions. He cites the "lack
of free time" among many migrant workers, especially
domestic workers and caregivers who are not granted
enough time off from work by their employers.
For instance, before coming home, Olympia spent
a year in Malaysia without a day off from her routine of
doing domestic work, sunup to sundown, for a family of
six. Fear of deportation and loss of jobs also hinder
many workers from forming and joining unions in host
countries, according to Hermitanio.
Most
labor-receiving countries forbid migrant workers from
forming pressure groups and unions, a fact that
activists hope will change once the United Nations
Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All
Migrant Workers and Their Families takes effect. The
convention is awaiting the 20th ratification in order to
take effect.
The convention provides the concept
of "equality of treatment" between non-migrant and
migrant workers, between women and men migrant workers,
and between documented and undocumented workers and
their families. It extends all human rights to migrant
workers, including the freedom to form associations for
redress of grievances.
"With the convention
coming into force soon, the international community will
be challenged to look at migration from a human rights
perspective and not exclusively as an economic,
political and national security issue," the Global
Campaign for the Ratification of the Convention said in
a statement on December 10, Human Rights Day.
The Association of Relatives of Filipino Migrant
Workers, an NGO for migrant workers and their families
known by its local acronym Kakammpi, said the convention
is key given the "vicious attacks against trade unions
and other workers' organizations".
"Some
quarters would like to think of trade unions as
irrelevant and anachronistic in this era of
globalization. We think they are mistaken," it said in a
statement.
Perez said, however, that beyond the
implementation of the convention, migrant workers need
to compel their own governments to fight on their
behalf.
Valerio added that while Filipinos
overseas are good at organizing, they tend to focus more
on creating social clubs based on regional affiliations
rather than trade unions. "There is no consistency. It
has something to do with our culture where we look out
for ourselves first," he said. "Trade unionism abroad is
not yet in their consciousness."
Such is not the
case in Japan and in some parts of Saudi Arabia,
however, where some workers have formed unions on their
own.
In the absence of large-scale organizing of
unions overseas, the Sisyphean task of helping migrant
workers organize has fallen on NGOs. In Hong Kong, the
Asian Migrant Center (AMC) helped organize the Filipino
Migrant Workers Union in 1998, and the Indonesian
Migrant Workers Union in 1999.
"Empowerment did
not come easy," the AMC said in its yearly report,
adding that fear of arrest and deportation at first made
union officers reluctant to challenge both their host
and sending governments.
But it stressed that
"while organizing and consolidation were difficult and
intensive processes, they are worthy and are necessary
investments for migrant empowerment".
(Inter
Press Service)
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