South Luzon workers from TF Logistics Philippines, Inc., and Mitsubishi Motors Philippines Corp. rose victorious after their certification elections, with both unions committed to collective bargaining and continuous worker rights education.
The Philippine Metalworkers Alliance (PMA) started organizing the two unions last year, aiming to grow its industry affiliates in the region. It also secured a union of drivers and mechanics from RVL Movers Corp. last March.
TF Logistics Philippines Supervisory Union (TFLPSU-PMA) successfully conducted its union elections on August 20. This followed the unionization of the company’s rank-and-file workers way back in 2016, with supervisors actively working toward their own collective bargaining agreement (CBA).
Mary Grace, PMA union organizer, noted a provision in the existing CBA that grants yearly salary increases to rank-and-file workers in TF Logistics, almost closing the income gap with supervisors.
John Edward Nilooban, TFLPSU-PMA president, explained, “Our benefits as supervisors were closely tied to the rank-and-file workers’ CBA, but we recognized the need for our own voice. We aim to secure a CBA on our own prerogative.”
Jonathan Punjong, TFLPSU-PMA secretary, added, “We want to be a part of the solution and a bridge for proper communication between our rank-and-file workers and management.”
Combined, the supervisory and rank-and-file unions at TF Logistics represent about 200 workers.
Auto Workers Choose New Leaders
Meanwhile, the Mitsubishi Motors Workers Union-Philippines (MMWU-P-PMA) held elections for its new leadership on July 30. Established in 1965, the union is a founding member of PMA and represents workers involved in manufacturing cars for the company.
The new union officers emphasized the need to fortify awareness and education on worker rights with its roughly 800 members.
Sergio Ward, Jr., MMWU-P-PMA president, said, “Unionization is not a simple matter. Our members need to be re-educated on the importance of our union and their role in it—that the union is more than just the benefits we enjoy.”
In a significant win for equity on Firestone Liberia’s rubber plantation in Harbel, more than 90 percent of contract workers voted Saturday to join the Firestone Agricultural Workers’ Union of Liberia (FAWUL). With 1,660 votes for FAWUL representation, contract workers won the right to negotiate collectively with the employer for, they hope, the same wages and benefits currently enjoyed by directly employed workers who are already represented by FAWUL.
“We owe it to generation after generation of workers who have suffered to secure good jobs and dignity for ALL,” says FAWUL Chairperson Rodennick Bongorlee.
FAWUL’s organizing success is the result of the union’s long-term campaign for equity for Firestone’s contracted workers, whose precarious jobs and low wages, often for the same work as permanent employees, are in stark contrast to hard-won worker rights on the rubber plantation.
A 2008 collective bargaining agreement (CBA) and subsequent agreements were key for workers and labor rights in Liberia, where Firestone is the country’s largest employer. Previous to these agreements, plantation workers had endured working conditions that a 2005 human rights lawsuit against the company described as,”forced labor, the modern equivalent of slavery,” where exploitative quotas resulted in excessive hard labor and children working alongside their parents in lieu of attending school. However, through a series of agreements with the company since 2008, FAWUL won for directly employed workers improved conditions that include reduced quotas, better working conditions and compensation, on-site free schooling for workers’ children, a free onsite health clinic and somewhat improved housing.
But, after 15 years of partnership with agricultural workers on the plantation, the company is increasingly backtracking. By FAWUL’s calculations, since 2019, some 3,500 full-time jobs have been lost to Firestone-imposed transfers to contract positions, lay-offs and forced retirements. In 2019, Firestone fired up to 2,000 employees and required them to sign contracts with “labor contractors,” who in turn hired the former employees to perform the same work under Firestone Liberia’s supervision, but at significantly lower rates of pay, with no benefits and without the protections provided by FAWUL’s CBA.
Without collective voice and effective representation through a union, contract workers have been subject to safety risks and exploitation. Although all plantation workers face grave dangers to their health and safety, low-wage contract workers cannot afford personal protective equipment such as boots, gloves and glasses and are at increased risk related to acid use and snake bite exposure. And inadequate company housing for contract workers—usually a small, two-room brick apartment that houses 15–20 people from two extended families—is exposing contract workers and their families to unsafe crowding and, some workers report, rat infestation.
And, without CBA protection, contracted workers complain of economic exploitation. Contract tappers last month were describing Firestone Liberia’s measurement process for reimbursing latex extraction as “cheating,” and said they are being forced to work excessive overtime regularly without commensurate pay or, sometimes, any pay at all. Contract cup washers, most of whom are women who walk more than an hour to work, say they too are forced to work excessive hours without fair or, sometimes, any compensation. Excessive hours are enforced by threat of discipline or dismissal contract workers told the Solidarity Center—a very serious threat for those trapped in debt bondage to the company.
“We applaud the courage and spirit of the Firestone plantation workers who have steadfastly fought for a union to improve their lives and working conditions,” says Solidarity Center Executive Director Shawna Bader-Blau.
FAWUL in 2007 was awarded the AFL-CIO’s annual George Meany-Lane Kirkland Human Rights Award in recognition of the union’s “extraordinary courage” in successfully organizing more than 4,000 Firestone Liberia workers for the first time in the company’s 82-year existence in the country. An indirect subsidiary of Bridgestone Americas Inc., Firestone Liberia is the largest contiguous natural-rubber producing operation in the world. The company supplies Bridgestone with raw and block latex with which to manufacture tires in the United States. Approximately 25,000 people reside on the Firestone-Liberia plantation, including roughly 8,500 workers with their families. Because Firestone Liberia is an employment-standards trendsetter, plantation wages and working conditions have a direct impact on the livelihoods, rights and dignity of all workers in Liberia.
The Solidarity Center, in partnership with the United Steelworkers (USW), works with Liberian unions in key extractive industries such as mining, timber and rubber, as well as with domestic workers, to support them as they better serve their members and assist workers in forming unions.
Unions of the Sofitel Philippine Plaza Manila say they will continue to fight for job security amid securing an agreement with management to reinstate workers once the hotel reopens, which only materialized after the closure.
The unions said about 70 percent of its members already accepted severance pay due to pressure from management and family financial needs.
Hotel grounds closed on June 30 for renovations, contrary to previous reports of a permanent closure, and 1,200 workers—500 regular staff and 700 contractual–lost their jobs.
However, the unions remain optimistic. Marco Jalandoni, National Union of Workers in Hotels, Restaurants and Allied Industries (NUWHRAIN) secretary general, said, “Our victory is in securing the future of the union. We were able to ensure the return of the remaining union members once the hotel reopens, and our negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement will continue.”
Workers added that amid their persistent demand for negotiations, the hotel held job fairs prior to closing, with the majority of offers contract positions with few regular managerial jobs. Benster Moleno, education and communications officer of the NUWHRAIN-Philippine Plaza Chapter (PPC), said, “Many workers are unqualified for these positions, and job opportunities outside Metro Manila are impractical.”
The unions organized a media campaign with picket actions in front of hotel grounds leading up to the closure, which were followed by local news outlets. Senator Risa Hontiveros called for an investigation after listening to the workers’ plight two days before operations ceased.
Nestor Cabada, NUWHRAIN-PPC president, said, “The hardest thing right now is how those employees without jobs—how the whole union will survive until the hotel reopens. But as we always say: even if there is only one of us standing, the union will remain and continue the fight. We will leave no one behind.”
To focus attention on protecting workers from Central Asian countries who are migrating abroad to earn their livelihoods, the Solidarity Center was part of a broad coalition that organized a high-level conference in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, to coincide with UN World Day Against Trafficking in Persons. The two-day conference, which took place July 30 to 31, provided a forum for sharing best practices and strategies to combat forced labor, included representatives from regional and global representatives of civil society organizations, state institutions and organizations, trafficking experts and the U.S. government.
“Collaboration on labor protections can potentially ensure safer and fairer working conditions for everyone in the region,” says Solidarity Center Europe and Central Asia Regional Program Director Rudy Porter.
As a percentage of population, forced labor in Central Asia and Europe is the second highestin the world–estimated at more than 4 millionpeople. The U.S. Department of State’s 2023 Trafficking in Persons reportdetails forced labor across Central Asia, including in Kazakhstan, where debt-based coercion of migrant workers is reportedlyincreasing. Globally, there were almost 8 million international migrants from Central Asian countries by mid-year 2020, more than 60 percent of whom were in Russia. A Solidarity Center-supported survey of hundreds of Kyrgyz women migrant workers across 19 Russian cities in 2021 documented brutal conditions on the job for these women, including sexual violence.
The conference, “Strengthening National and International Partnerships in Combating Trafficking in Persons,” was co-organized with the UN’s Office on Drugs and Crime, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the Kyrgyz Republic’s Parliament, the EU Mission, the U.S. Embassy in Kyrgyzstan and global funder Winrock International. Also participating were Solidarity Center partner worker rights organizations Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights (KIBHR), Kyrgyzstan’s Insan-Leilek and Migrant Workers Union, and Uzbekistan’s Istiqbolli Avlod. The European Union, OSCE, UNODC and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) cosponsored.
The Solidarity Center participated on a panel on countering forced labor through promotion of fundamental labor rights in the region and highlighted a finding from recently completed research that almost 60 percent of Central Asian migrant workers surveyed do not know what forced labor is—which increases their vulnerability to unscrupulous employers or recruiters. Solidarity Center staff also used the panel as an opportunity to present recommendations emphasizing the role of labor inspectorates, unions and private and state recruitment agencies in combating forced labor.
The conference builds from a milestone convening the Solidarity Center organized in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, last year, where a joint regional action plan on combating forced labor and advancing worker rights was adopted by Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan stakeholders, including government ministries and agencies, non-governmental and civil society sectors, and international organizations.
Forced labor is found increasingly in the private economy, in labor-intensive and under-regulated sectors such as construction, agriculture, fisheries, domestic work and mining, reports the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC). Worldwide, 28 million people were trapped in forced labor in 2021, a number that represents an increase of more than one-third in only five years. Globally, forced labor in the private economy is estimated to generate $236 billion in illegal profits per year, an increase of more than $64 billion since 2014.
The UN’s 2018 Global Compact on migration, which sets out a cooperative framework for achieving safe migration within a rights-based framework, includes a process for implementation andreviewof UN member states’ progress on the issue.
* Currently available in Russian; English translation forthcoming.
Nearly a month into their strike for better pay and safer working conditions, workers at online gaming company Evolution Georgia say they face intimidation and physical violence as the company attempts to break their strike rather than continue contract negotiations. More than 4,000 of the company’s 8,000 workers have walked off the job since July 12, according to their union.
Workers presented 44 concerns to the company, which hosts live games from specially equipped studios in six buildings. Employees in the studios, including shufflers, dealers and game presenters, noted poor working conditions and safety and health problems, including ventilation issues, lack of temperature control and unsanitary toilets. Local media reports that workers suffer insect bites, and their chairs create spinal problems.
“I don’t want to suffer from diseases or bites while working at the company,” said striking worker Lana Dzagania. “I want to be compensated fairly for my work. We should feel comfortable and safe at work, which is why we are here to demand what belongs to us. We demand a decent salary.”
Workers Stage Sit-in, Company Threatens Mass Layoffs
Evolution Georgia threatened, via Facebook, “to make operational changes,” including layoffs, to reduce its presence in Georgia. The company is a subsidiary of the Sweden-based global gaming giant, Evolution, which reported operating earnings of $534.3 million in the first quarter of this year.
Discriminatory Practices and Insulting Comments
Internal leaked chat messages from Evolution Georgia managers revealed insulting attitudes toward employees and discriminatory practices, such as team managers mocking employees for their appearance, weight or skin color. The union says it will investigate and expose these statements by managers, demanding that all managers making such comments be properly disciplined, including termination.
Striking Workers Receive Support
The striking workers enjoy broad support as citizens, artists, musicians and union representatives visit their tents, pitched near one of the company’s branches.
“It is our duty to support these people so that this problem does not affect us tomorrow,” said musician Erekle Deisadze, one of many supporters outside the union. “Otherwise, the problem will persist, and people will remain cheap labor in their own country while the company’s profits continue to increase year after year. That’s why I am here.”
More than 500 Philippine workers and trade unionists joined a march on July 22nd in Quezon City, demanding that President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. declare support in his State of the Nation Address (SONA) for legislation that would further raise the minimum wage.
The Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board approved a 35 PHP (approximately 0.60 US dollar) daily minimum wage hike for workers in the capital region earlier this month. This falls far short of the 150 PHP (about 3 US dollars) wage hike the National Wage Coalition has persistently called for to support workers’ economic recovery amid high inflation, poor job quality and a lack of new and decent jobs.
The Coalition, representing local workers across various industries and sectors, has remained steadfast in demanding livable wages and are advocating for multiple bills that have been introduced but still await action from the government.
The president has yet to engage in dialogue with Philippine Labor representatives and did not mention wages in his SONA.
Coalition member, Center of United and Progressive Workers (SENTRO), noted in an online statement, “[t]he [national government’s] absence of genuine effort to attain long-term solutions against rising costs and the provision of measly increases that leave workers running in place against inflation…” SENTRO added, “We deserve higher wages not simply because of our labor, but because we are human beings who have every right to live peacefully and decently.”
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