Phils. is again Asia’s most dangerous country for workers; KMU welcomes int’l fact-finding mission on workers’ rights repression

Kilusang Mayo Uno, together with Anakpawis Partylist, stressed calls for the immediate stop of killings, harassments, and other violations of workers’ rights amid recent tagging of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) that the Philippines is still Asia’s most dangerous place for workers.

The Philippines is listed by ITUC as the no. 1 country in Asia and the no. 3 in the world with the most number of trade unionists killed for the past year, and has always remained in the ITUC top listers for several years now.

“The ITUC findings is a validation of our accusations against the Arroyo regime’s murder and oppression of workers,” said KMU Chairperson Elmer Labog.

International investigation
“It is in this light that we welcome the fact-finding mission to be held by the International Labor Organization (ILO) in the country to investigate the political repressions against workers,” said Labog.

The ILO is set to have a high-level fact finding mission in the country after the Phil. government acceeded to pressures in conducting such a mission.

But KMU lambasted the Department of Labor and Employment and the Arroyo adminstration for initially opposing the ILO fact-finding mission and subsequently posturing as most supportive of it now, as it has never iniatiated any investigation against any case of killings or abductions.

Even ITUC Secretary General Guy Ryder said "The fact that certain countries, such as Colombia (1st), Guatemala (2nd) and the Philippines (3rd) appear year after year on the death list shows that the authorities are, at best, incapable of ensuring protection and in some cases are complicit with unscrupulous employers in the murders."

When KMU filed the ILO complaint in 2006, there were already 64 cases of trade-union killings under Arroyo’s presidency. Now the number has climbed to 91.

 “We expect the ILO high-level mission to immediately push through and reflect the real state of repression imposed by the Arroyo government upon Filipino workers,” Labog said.

Killing us softly
“Aside from the more publicized violations of workers’ rights, we also hope that the mission will help highlight various violations of ILO conventions implemented here in the country. For the past years, we have faced various offensives that aim to wipe-out trade unionism itself, promote contractual and flexible labor as a standard rather than secured jobs, and paralyze all forms of resistance that workers can carry out to uphold their rights,” Labog added.

“Unionism has now been on the wane, as only 1.85 million (10.5%) workers are unionized today, down from 3.85 million (3.85%) since Arroyo assumed presidency.” Labog cited the data from the Center for Trade Union and Human Rights or CTUHR.

The ILO committee even noted: The violations of Freedom of Association in the Philippines severely impact the capacity for workers to freely organize, the form or join trade unions, to run elections, to certify unions, to negotiate collective agreements and to take up campaigns or seek legal redress for matters in dispute.
“Also, with the onslaught of massive retrenchments this year, we saw the real lack of job security, as contractualization and flexible labor measures have been implemented in massive scales,” Labog added.

“Killings and blatant brutalities against workers intensify as workers fight more for their basic rights in life and in the workplace.

Labog said they hope that the campaign against such interrelated forms of repression against workers will be brought to the international arena with the ILO high-level fact-finding mission.

“It will be a step forward in the long journey towards justice that has long been denied to the workers and rightfully deserved by them,” said Labog. ###