2009: Year of massive job cuts, wage freeze for Filipino workers; But labor continues to fight back

Contrary to the vibrant picture being drawn by the Arroyo regime, labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno said workers suffered hell last year with wide-scale retrenchments, double-digit unemployment, wage freeze, and new forms of repression. These conditions are the real face of the economic crisis, which big business and the Arroyo government simply passed on the backs of workers.

KMU said 2009 portends a harsher prospect for workers and ordinary Filipinos this year, especially with the Arroyo regime’s failure to create decent and stable jobs and its policy of offering cheap and repressed labor to foreign investors.

No jobs, no job security

More than 4.21 million Filipinos or 11 percent of the total number of workers welcomed New Year as unemployed, if government definition of those not in the labor force is corrected. One out of three workers lack regular and decent jobs, or more than 11 million Filipinos.

“All through last year, the Arroyo government concealed the real magnitude of retrenchments, while facilitating a series of job massacres by offering part-time and temporary work to those on the brink of layoff to try to keep figures look good. It wants to make it appear that only 2.71 million Pinoys are jobless,” said KMU chairperson Elmer “Bong” Labog.

The non-government organization Ecumenical Institute for Labor Education and Research, Inc. (EILER) reported that at least 29,000 were laid-off in the electronics sector, 6,179 in the garments sector and 3,436 in the automotive sector.

Triumph International Philippines alone laid off 1,660 workers, while Ford Phils. slashed its original 400 workers to only 18. In Toyota Motor Phils., a “Monday-no-production day” was implemented since 2008. Moreover, around 3,000 contractuals were retrenched in Integrated Microelectronics, while forced leave was imposed on 1,000 regular workers.

Cosmetic solutions, worse policies on employment

Amidst huge job cuts, the Arroyo regime simply made a show of job fairs, which offered poor, temporary and low-paying jobs to only a fraction of those who went looking for jobs. The government ironically declared these activities a success because of the ever-growing attendance in these – instead of seeing the latter as a reason to admit failure.

In the wake of typhoons, it merely offered emergency employment to displaced workers – jobs that were good for only two weeks.

In February last year, the labor department issued DOLE Advisory No. 2 to supposedly cope with threats of retrenchments. The order, however, actually licensed more brutal flexible labor arrangements – including reduced workhours, job rotation and forced leave. “The policy worsened the already highly contractualized state of Philippine labor and inflicted another attack on unionism.”

The number of Filipinos with informal jobs who are not covered by minimum wage and social protection measures climbed to 16.46 million, or almost half of the total labor force. One out of five Filipinos is employed in the service sector, a proven hotbed of contractualization. These figures attest to the deteriorating quality of work in the country.

Year-round wage freeze

“Despite skyrocketting prices of basic goods, the government staunchly defended its wage freeze policy the whole year. Minimum wage rates in all regions were stuck at 2008 levels,” he added.

KMU said the relatively low inflation rate last year, which is at 3.2 percent, indicates the diminishing purchasing power of Filipinos brought about by stagnant wages and wide-scale loss of livelihood.

“Rather than getting credit for supposedly keeping inflation rates low last year, this regime should be cursed for keeping wages stagnant for the entire year, thus keeping purhasing power close to nil,” said Labog.

The government continued to point to collective bargaining negotiations as the best venue for fighting for and achieving wage hikes. Collective bargaining of workers, however, remained very limited. Existing Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBAs) covered only around 227,000 workers – a miniscule 0.6 percent of the total labor force.

“And even with this very limited bargaining, most companies still turned down proposals for wage hike, citing the crisis as worn-out excuse,” he said.

New forms of repression

Labor rights institution Center for Trade Union and Human Rights documented 270 new cases of human rights violations last year – a 23 percent increase compared with 2008. The number of victims of extra-judicial killings in the trade-union movement climbed to 93.

The previous year also witnessed the use of a new method in extra-judicial killings: harassment to death. Danilo Belano, 57, a long-time organizer of the KMU, was harassed by the military’s intelligence agents until he died of heart attack last November.

In an attempt to preempt and crush strikes, the labor department issued 11 Assumption of Jurisdiction orders last year – more than twice the actual number of strikes that pushed through.

“DOLE’s penchant for AJ orders clearly proves its desperation to create a fascist industrial peace, the peace in the graveyard, wherein workers’ labor rights are maimed and their lives threatened,” the labor leader said.

Various forms of workers’ resistance

Despite suffering grave attacks on life and livelihood, Filipino workers proved their unbreakable resistance last year by waging different forms of struggles inside and outside of workplaces, aside from strikes. This contrasts DOLE’s claim of harmonious relations between companies and workers.

“In boasting of having reduced strike incidents in the country, the DOLE is keeping from the public’s view various forms of protests being waged by workers in the country. Unions actively asserted wage hikes in CBA negotiations by launching pickets. In local and certification elections, workers asserted militant unionism by voting for genuine and critical unions and union officers.

“Workers in Philippine Airlines, North Harbor, Wyeth Philippines, among others, have proven that their collective strength is far superior to any move by the Arroyo government and big businesses to cut back on workforce and quell union organizing,” Labog said.

“Filipino workers have also proven their mettle in confronting the ill effects of the imperialist crisis in various areas of struggle. And with the start of this year, we vow to intensify our campaign against attacks on livelihood brought about by neoliberal globalization,” he added. #