KMU slams ILO thumbs up for Aquino gov’t

“Hasty generalizations from another planet.”

This was how labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno labelled today the praises made by the International Labor Organization’s country director for the Philippines for the Aquino government’s so-called focus on “inclusive growth,” saying no genuine labor body would commend the country’s government on the labor and poverty front.

ILO country director Jeff Johnson made the statement and commended the government’s Conditional Cash Transfer and agricultural development programs in the ILO’s Asia and the Pacific Regional Meeting being held in Kyoto Japan.

“There is no inclusive growth in the country, if we mean by that phrase the inclusion of workers and the poor in development. What we have in the country is growing hunger and poverty for those who should be ‘included’ in growth,” said Elmer “Bong” Labog, KMU chairperson.

“What indicators is the ILO looking at? Wages are being pressed down, there’s a cutback on social security, massive contractualization is a cornerstone policy of the government, prices and exactions from the people are increasing, workers’ homes are being demolished, hunger is rising and unemployment remains high – all because of government policies,” he added.

“How can the ILO praise the Aquino government for inclusive growth and praise the mass migration of Filipinos at the same time? The latter only proves that employment opportunities in the country remain scarce,” he said.

CCT and agricultural development

KMU criticized the ILO’s thumbs up for the country’s CCT and agricultural development programs, saying the ILO is trying to prettify the Aquino government’s image.

“The CCT is a mere band-aid solution to the cancer that is the chronic poverty in the country. It tries to make those exluded from growth a little happier in their exclusion – without trying to end that exclusion,” Labog said.

“There’s no agricultural development in the country, either. Subsidies for farmers have been cut and the president’s family is leading the elite’s opposition to land reform,” he added.

Dole Philippines

The labor leader also slammed the ILO’s praise for Dole Philippines, challenging the labor body to a fact-finding mission on the situation of workers in the pineapple plantation and related functions.

“It is insulting for the workers at Dole Philippines – who are suffering from poor working conditions, contractualization and militarization – to hear the ILO praise the company. The management of Dole Philippines has just taken over the workers’ union this year and installed pro-management union officials,” Labog said.

“We are challenging the ILO to conduct a fact-finding mission on the situation of workers in Dole Philippines. The findings, we are sure, will belie its praises for this most exploitative and repressive of foreign employers in the country,”