Saturday, January 9
Kelti Cameron, CUPE National and Ontario Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines:
Our delegation travelled two hours outside of Manila, to the province of Cavite. We were hosted by the Workers Assistance Center (WAC), a non-profit organization that organizes workers inside the Cavite special economic zones. WAC was founded in 1995 in response to labour and human rights violations experienced by workers in the newly-formed processing zones. Today there are more than 500 multinational corporations operating in the area; WAC continues to organize these precarious workers.
Export processing zones are protected by high walls and private armed guards. Corporations find it advantageous to operate in these zones because of the relative ease with which they can bust unions and exploit workers. Neoliberal support and pressure for trade liberalization and deregulation, (particularly between the Philippines and countries such as the US, South Korea and Japan) ensure the existence of these tax-free zones, in essence existing to facilitate capital’s need to acquire superprofits. One delegate noted that “this is a neo-liberal project that mulitnational corporations would like to see expanded everywhere, to the point where they are no longer confined to special zones.”
The experience of violence, harassment and human and labour rights violations by workers in these zones is extreme; 80% of these workers are women. Interviews conducted with workers in garment and electronic factories exposed a pattern of systematic violence against trade unionists. Workers at the Chong Won garments factory (the Korean supplier to Walmart and American Eagle among others) experienced the violent dismantling of their picket lines in 2005 as they struggled to be recognized as a union. A picket line in a second garment factory, Phils-Jeon, was also violently dismantled in 2005. Both the president and chief union steward were abducted by armed men as they were sleeping in a tent on the picket line. This had a chilling effect on the union, undermined their ability to struggle for their rights and ultimately busted their union. The abductees were eventually released, albeit psychologically traumatized. Despite the fact that the perpetrators would have had to pass a security checkpoint in the export zone to gain access to the picket line, no investigation was conducted and no one was brought to justice.
Workers from the Chong Won, Golden Will and Phils-Jeon garment factories share their stories of violent trade union repression. They experienced trumped-up charges of theft, abductions and violent picket line dispersals.
Filing false criminal charges against trade union executives is another way employers in the zones are busting unions and penalizing workers for their trade union activity. Workers in the Golden Will garment factory are currently fighting charges of theft in the courts. The existence of a blacklist that permanently bans known union leaders from working within these zones places these workers in a very difficult position.
Workers may or may not receive minimum wage; several workers recounted the violation of basic rights through their experiences of forced overtime(as a rule, Chong Won workers had a 15-hour working day) , dangerous conditions and increasing workplace surveillance. As workers are increasingly being laid off due to the economic crisis many have had to struggle to have the company recognize their right to severance pay and final paychecks; it is not uncommon for a corporation to leave the country overnight, leaving the workers stranded without proper compensation. As the former president of the Chong Won factory explains, “this is why we need a union”.
Union members in the Yazaki-EMI factory, a parts manufacturer for auto industry giants such as Chrysler, GM, and others, recounted the harassment and violence that culminated in the assassination of two of their leaders, including the union president. They began organizing a union during the heyday of the “No Union, No Strike” policy in the Cavite special economic zones, and continue to struggle for a just collective agreement to this day.
Land use conversion is a major issue for workers and peasants in Cavite. WAC organizes workers outside the zones who have lost their farm land to large development projects. The Eagle Ridge Workers Association is a formation of farm workers who now work as groundskeepers on a 72-hole golf course that now occupies the land they used to till.
Trade union activity continues to be met with harassment, intimidation, persecution and violence in the Philippines. This was clear following our discussions today with workers who continue to struggle against this repression. Their courage and determination are inspiring.
