Friday, January 8
Rebecca Warden, CUPE 4600:
Today we met with a variety of workers’ groups who belong to COURAGE, one of our host organizations, to learn about labour issues that are now being faced within the public sector. COURAGE (Confederation for Unity, Recognition & Advancement of Government Employees) is a national government employee centre which works to 1) secure better salaries and benefits for government workers through collective & mass action; 2) demand safe and conducive work conditions; and 3) assert and defend the rights to organize unions, participate in policy formations, and exercise full union rights, including the right to strike. From the union office of the National Housing Authority (NHA), to the picket line of the Golden Acres home for the elderly, to the judiciary employees’ union, to the in-the-middle-of-the-freeway street sweepers’ “union office,” to the National Food Authority’s rice packing warehouse, we covered a lot of ground today.
Our morning started out with a number of presentations at the NHA which addressed the increasing privatization of water in the Philippines. We heard from union representatives who explained the processes of water privatization in Metro Manila that began in 1997, as well as the privatization initiatives that are currently happening in the water districts of Laguna province. The speakers made it clear that the privatization of water has failed to deliver on any of its promises: targets for lower prices have not been met, fewer people have reliable access to a clean water source, water quality has been deemed not potable according to international standards, and private enterprises show significantly less cost efficiency (in terms of cost to the consumer) than their public sector counterparts. The privatization of water benefits only the government-supported multinationals (for example, Suez from France and United Water from the UK). Organizations like WATER (Water System Employees’ Response) fight for their belief that water is life and water is for the people.
A COURAGE member and water systems worker from the province of Laguna describes attempts to privatize the water in his province.
Another really powerful part of our day was a visit to a picket line where staff of Golden Acres, a care home for the “abandoned elderly,” are protesting the closure of their location and re-location of staff and residents to a site outside of Metro Manila. They argue that this move is motivated by the high real estate value of the current land; the site is a natural choice for development in the expansion of a neighbouring shopping centre. We learned that the Department of Welfare & Social Justice (which these care-workers are employed within) has only 4000 employees nationwide. This incredibly limited number (compared, for example, to the approx. 28,000 workers we learned are employed by the Department of Justice) vividly represents the lack of social service resources available to the 90 million Filipinos across the country. We expressed our solidarity to the 70 workers of Golden Acres who continue to fight to serve the 227 residents who rely on this facility as an accessible, well-run public social service.
We also had a particularly interesting encounter with the National Food Authority employees today. Beyond learning about some of the pressing current issues that face this department, including land use conversion, the increasing importation of staple foods from neighbouring countries, typhoon-related rice shortages, etc., we were taken to visit a NFA rice storage warehouse. Within the warehouse, we found a team of temporary workers seated around a huge mound of rice, packaging, weighing, sealing, and bagging 1 kilogram bags for a Rice For School program (this controversial program offers rice to students as an incentive for staying in school). We learned that these government-employed workers were working from 7 am – 6 pm for between Php 200-300/day (depending on how many bags they collectively fill at a piece rate of Php 12/bag). These workers are making less than minimum wage, without benefits or any type of job security. It is appalling that the Philippine government places workers under these conditions.
Our day, filled with much more than I can possibly fit in this summary, was rounded off by a dinner at the COURAGE office. This was an opportunity for us to learn about the work that COURAGE is doing to support the government workers in the various sectors we visited. Fair wages, job security (versus the increasing use of casual labour in government sectors such as the street sweepers – another incredibly interesting pit stop in our day), privatization, and transparency are some of the main issues currently being faced. Today’s itinerary proved to offer an incredibly eye-opening window into the Philippines’ public sector.
Under an overpass in Quezon City, Manila, where the office of the street sweepers is located.
