Inquirer news on the plight of Southern Tagalog workers as told to the ILO

WORKERS from an industrial zone near Manila narrated to a delegation
of the International Labor Organization (ILO) what they said were
abuses they had suffered in factories as a result of a ban on
organizing and other violations of labor rights.

Joycee Rosales, a worker from Japanese-owned Sun Ever Light
Electronics Company, recalled how armed members of the Special Warfare
Actions Group (SWAG) kept eye on union leaders and active members in
production lines in 2004.

She told the ILO representatives soldiers and guards of the
Philippine Export Zone Authority and the company attacked women workers
Nov. 30-Dec. 1, 2001.

“They sexually harassed us and tried to catch us in nets as if we’re animals,” she said.

“They enforced a food blockade and starved us for 33 hours,”
Rosales, a union member in the firm, was quoted as telling the ILO by
the Pambansang Alyansa ng mga Manggagawa sa Timog Katagalugan
(Pamantik), an affiliate of the left-wing labor group Kilusang Mayo Uno.

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