Philippines

Forty-four employees of a pasta-making company, Soft Touch Development Corp., were arrested on 15 December 2021 for going on strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike .
They were charged with illegal assembly, disobedience to a person in authority and “alarm and scandal”. They were released from jail after 36 hours, pending further investigation.
The firm maintained that the employees were prohibited from forming a trade union because their employer was the manpower agency that had hired them. Companies frequently use contract labour agencies to keep their workers on short-term contracts and prevent union organising organising The process of forming or joining a trade union, or inducing other workers to form or join one. .
In a video uploaded on Twitter by the workers’ lawyer, police officers were seen using water cannons and truncheons on the strikers and dragging them into a police van. The strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike was called after workers learned they would be laid off on 24 December.

On 2 November 2021, persons claiming to be members of the Quezon City Police Department went to the national office of Sentro ng mga Nagkakaisa at Progresibong Manggagawa (SENTRO) in Manila to supposedly investigate a labour dispute labour dispute See industrial dispute involving its affiliate, the Federation and Cooperation of Cola, Beverage, and Allied Industry Unions (FCCU). The FCCU is engaged in a labour dispute labour dispute See industrial dispute at Coca-Cola Philippines over deadlocked wage bargaining and a national campaign for the reinstatement of unfairly terminated union leaders.
In a statement, SENTRO said the persons concerned had no legal documents officially identifying them, authorising them to be there, or stating the purpose of their visit. They repeatedly asked for information regarding SENTRO’s office, the other unions present there, and their activities.
The so-called police officers also went to the premises of the Trade Union Confederation of the Philippines (TUCP) compound in Quezon City. They inquired about the NAGKAISA Labour Coalition, of which SENTRO is a part.
SENTRO noted that the only effect of their action was to harass trade unionists, and it called on the leader of the Philippines national police to end the intimidation of trade unions and meet with union leaders to engage in meaningful dialogue on how to uphold the right to freedom of association freedom of association The right to form and join the trade union of one’s choosing as well as the right of unions to operate freely and carry out their activities without undue interference.

See Guide to the ITUC international trade union rights framework .

Education trade unions are among those targeted by the Duterte regime’s attacks on human and democratic rights, as highlighted in the Second Report of the Independent International Commission of Investigation into Human Rights Violations in the Philippines (Investigate PH), published in July 2021.
The report identified the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) as one of the main targets of human rights violations. An unrelenting “red-tagging” campaign seeks to vilify public sector trade unions, including ACT, branding them communist fronts.
In addition to public statements against the union, the regime also directly persecuted union leaders. The report gave the example of Rosanilla Consad, ACT Region XIII Union secretary and assistant vice principal of San Vicente National High School. She was arrested on a fabricated charge of attempted homicide in March 2021. Subjected to interrogation without her legal counsel, she was presented in a press conference as a “high ranking” official of the New People’s Army, the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines.
The report also notes that teachers and union leaders have been the victims of extrajudicial killings committed by police and the military.

The phenomenon that has come to be known as “red-tagging” in the Philippines involves an accusation that a trade union organisation, individual union leaders, organisers or members are directly or indirectly involved in the armed communist insurgency. This accusation alone is enough for trade union leaders, organisers or members to be detained and questioned by the military and police. It needs no evidence.
Anyone from the security forces, police or military, with or without uniforms, can tag a trade union leader or organiser as “red”. This adds to uncertainty and heightens fear.
When workers hear of these allegations, they often withdraw their support from the union out of fear of also being tagged as red. They vote no to forming a union, quit their union, or join another union declared politically acceptable by the armed forces.
Employers can use this fear to rid their workplaces of trade unions they don’t like. Workers end up joining only those unions deemed politically safe by the security forces and acceptable to employers. In some cases, employers have invited the security forces to visit the workplace to instil this fear.
As a consequence, workers in the Philippines are no longer free to choose the union they join. They are told whom they cannot and should not support, and national laws guaranteeing the right to freely join a union become redundant.

Unions have condemned the wave of attacks and violence unleashed by the military of the Philippines against union organisers during “counter-insurgency” actions of 7 March 2020. These attacks are an escalation of the concerning trade union repression and human rights situation in the country.
During the 7 March operations, six trade unionists were arrested in Laguna. These arrests took place two days after President Duterte’s address to the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), during which the president instructed the police and army officers to kill armed rebels and communists. Unionists note with grave concern the escalation of the NTF-ELCAC’s operations in southern Tagalog, Laguna and Manila. The task force’s actions have aggravated the environment of physical violence and impunity against trade unionists and have contributed to the troubling culture of impunity, with open sanctioning and “counter-insurgency” raids being used without regard for due process, often leading to deaths.
Unionists also note with concern the escalating practice of red-tagging against trade unionists in Davao. Police officers acting in the capacity of the ELCAC are labelling independent union independent union A trade union that is not affiliated to a national union. Can also be a union that is not dominated by an employer.

See yellow union

leaders as members of the Communist Party and the Red Army, forcing them to disband their union. Harassment and intimidation caried out at workplaces and in industrial zones as part of the NTF-ELCAC “industrial peace mission” are clear interference in industrial relations industrial relations The individual and collective relations and dealings between workers and employers at the workplace, as well as the institutional interaction between unions, employers and also the government.

See social dialogue .
The targeting of human rights lawyers has also increased in severity over recent years. Nine human rights activists were killed in southern Tagalog in the 7 March operations. Human rights lawyers have also become the target of red-tagging by the Philippine security forces. The Philippine police are accused of interfering with the judiciary in Calbayog City to extract information about the lawyers representing defendants allegedly associated with the Communist Party.

Thirty-five-year-old trade union leader Dandy Miguel, chairman of the PAMANTIK-Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU), was killed 28 March 2021 while on his way home in Calamba on his motorcycle. Dandy Miguel was also president of Lakas ng Nagkakaisang Manggagawa ng Fuji Electric and a member of the National Council of KMU.
Dandy Miguel was shot eight times by unknown assassins. Not long before he was murdered, Dandy had lodged a complaint with the Commission of Human Rights about the extrajudicial killings of nine labour and NGO activists on 7 March, also called Bloody Sunday, in Calabarzon.
The Bloody Sunday killings happened after the Philippine president, Rodrigo Duterte, openly called on security forces to gun down communists if they carried guns. But all of the victims were unarmed rights activists and community organisers attached to legal organisations.
Dandy’s death added to the more than 50 trade unionists who have been killed since Rodrigo Duterte came to power in 2016.
The ILO International Labour Organization A tripartite United Nations (UN) agency established in 1919 to promote working and living conditions. The main international body charged with developing and overseeing international labour standards.

See tripartism, ITUC Guide to international trade union rights was due to send a high-level mission to look into the killings of trade unionists, although it had been delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

At dawn, on International Human Rights Day, 10 December 2020, simultaneous raids were conducted by the Philippine National Police in various residences of trade union organisers in Metro Manila, Philippines. With search warrants on hand issued by a City Executive judge, the police forced entry into residences and planted firearms, ammunition and explosive devices. These events then led to the arrest of six trade union activists and a journalist, namely:
  Dennise Velasco of Defend Jobs Philippines
  Romina Astudillo, deputy secretary-general of Kilusang Mayo Uno-Metro Manila
  Mark Ryan Cruz, Regional Executive Committee of KMU-Metro Manila
  Jaymie Gregorio Jr. of KMU-Metro Manila
  Joel Demate of Solidarity of Labour Rights and Welfare (SOLAR)
  Rodrigo Esparago of Sandigang Manggagawa sa Quezon City (SMQC)
  Lady Ann Salem, communication officer of the International Association of Women in Radio and Television (IAWRT) and editor for online news site Manila Today.
All arrestees were charged with illegal possession of firearms and explosives. A local court issued a decision to dismiss the charges against Salem and Esparago on the basis that the search warrants used in the raid against the respondents were “null and void". The counsels of Salem and Esparago filed an urgent motion for the release of the two activists, arguing the court’s dismissal is tantamount to an acquittal from the charges. The PNP is blocking the release in court by all means as of this date.

Unionists have accused state agent Jeffrey Celiz of red-tagging and maliciously branding Mr Lean Porquia as a recruiter of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA). Lean Porquia is a member of the Public Information Department of KMU, and son of slain IloIlo activist Jory Porquia. Mr Celiz included Porquia in his so-called exposé after the latter exposed his true personality, which discredits all his allegations against activists. In a Senate Committee hearing on 27 October 2020, Jeffrey Celiz also tapped another state agent, Joy James Saguino, to testify against Porquia. Saguino also directly implicated Porquia in a series of public forums and media conferences as a recruiter of the New People’s Army, which Porquia absolutely denies. This relentless red-tagging against Porquia puts his life and liberty at risk.

In 2020, the problem of red-tagging, including malicious and baseless accusations linking KMU to the armed group New People’s Army, continued unchecked. In October, the national office of Kilusang Mayo Uno (Filipino independent labour centre) received reports from Pamantik (KMU’s Chapter in Region IV) of new tarpaulin posters seen in different areas of Cabuyao City, Laguna, which linked KMU to the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA), which is currently designated as a terrorist organisation.

Thirty-nine-year-old Zara Alvarez was shot dead on 17 August 2020. Alvarez was coordinator in Bacolod City for Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT). She was among the 600 individuals tagged as “terrorists” in the proscription case filed in Manila Regional Trial Court in 2018. Her name and photo appeared in posters in the streets of Negros as one of the alleged ranking officials of the Communist Party of Philippines. Alvarez and many others were stricken off the list in 2019. However, those on the list were still threatened or vilified by alleged state forces. To this day, no arrest has been made in relation to the murder.

On 22 July 2020, Karapatan-Southern Mindanao Region received reports of posters tagging union leaders in the region as terrorists or terrorist recruiters. The full-coloured poster bears the names and faces of nine leaders, including officers of Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU), namely: Carlo Olalo, secretary-general of KMU- Southern Mindanao Region; Paul John ‘PJ’ Dizon, president of NAMASUFA Workers’ Union and serving as spokesperson of KMU-Southern Mindanao Region; and Romelito Pablo, Southern Mindanao regional coordinator of the National Federation of Labour Unions (NAFLU-KMU).

Republic Act 11479 of 2020 (or the Anti-Terrorism Act) was signed by President Duterte on 3 July 2020 and effectively replaced the Human Security Act of 2007 on 18 July 2020. This Act gravely undermines civil liberties and endangers rights at work by placing workers, trade union activists and other human rights actors and defenders under pressure from the police, the military and other security forces and exposes them to more arbitrary arrests, indiscriminate and baseless attacks, harassment, intimidation and killings.
Under section 4 of the Act, “terrorism” is defined in extremely broad terms, including acts that result in any damage to a public facility, private property and infrastructure or intimidate the public. This could place workers and their representatives in danger of being caught under such an overbroad definition when engaging in peaceful and legitimate trade union activity.
Section 9 of the Act criminalises persons expressing an opinion or other forms of expression in favour of alleged terrorists. In view of the overly broad definition of terrorism, this provision could be used to curtail advocacy and expression by trade unions.
Section 3(c) authorises the government to conduct extraordinary rendition by transferring alleged terrorists or supporters to a foreign nation for imprisonment and interrogation. Again, this section may undermine civil liberties and expose trade unionists to danger given the very broad definition of terrorism.
Furthermore, section 29 denies persons suspected of terrorism the protection of a warrant-based arrest. Securing a warrant or a judicial order prior to arrest or search is critical for safeguarding civil liberties and the right to due process, as it ensures that security forces do not arbitrarily interfere with a citizen’s personal freedom.

Secretary of ACT Region IV-B and public elementary school teacher Maria Cristy Borbe was the victim of harassment by military personnel. For three consecutive days, military personnel harassed Borbe with phone calls, social media messages and unwelcome house visits. The military asked her to “just confess” and “cooperate” with authorities to have her name cleared. These comments by military personnel implied that ACT is a terrorist group supported by Borbe. In addition, ACT pointed out that a poster of allegedly “Wanted Terrorist Recruiters”, which included ACT Davao region secretary and public high school teacher Pilar Barredo, was published in Davao. Raymond Basilio, ACT general secretary, was also the target of constant harassment and has received increasingly alarming death threats on his phone and at his home.

In the midst of the pandemic, Coca-Cola company in San Fernando, Pampanga province, has ordered workers suspected of COVID-19 exposure to self-quarantine without pay. Workers, deeply concerned over the risk of infection, held an emergency union meeting on 28^th March. Union leaders urged workers to comply with the government recommendations and stay home if they feared exposure or contaminating others, stating that they would respect workers’ individual decisions. Management retaliated on 8 April by disciplining seven union officers and members at the San Fernando and Canlubang plants, including Alfredo Marañon, Belarmino Tulabut, and Danilo Pineda, charging them with “economic sabotage”. The three leaders were terminated on 8 May. FCCU-SENTRO General Secretary Brendo Enriquez wrote to Coca-Cola management on 18 May protesting the dismissals. He was also disciplined and later terminated. All the while, management called on the police to break up a peaceful demonstration by workers protesting the dismissal of their union leaders on 9 June.

On 1 June 2020, the KMU (an independent labour movement) launched the “BUSINA for BALIK-PASADA” initiative, a coordinated noise barrage in the greater Manila area. Bus drivers honked their horns at transport terminals, calling for the resumption of jeepney (public transport) operations in their respective routes. Instead of heeding the call of the drivers, local police arrested drivers who had joined the BALIK-PASADA protest. They locked up six members of PISTON (transport federation of KMU), including a 70-year-old driver. The union maintains that the drivers’ demands were reasonable and their protest was legitimate. KMU and PISTON loudly campaigned for the release of the PISTON 6, the continuation of the Balik-Pasada protests, and support for jeepney drivers who have lost their livelihood. The PISTON 6 garnered wide support from the public and were released within days.

On 7 March 2020, President Duterte pronounced his desire to kill all communists in a controversial public address. State forces began coordinated attacks against unionists and activists in Southern Tagalog as well as separate operations in the provinces of Cavite, Laguna, Batangas and Rizal. Eight unionists were arrested and five killed on Sunday March 7. Police shot dead Manny Asuncion, Cavite provincial coordinator of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) Cavite, in a raid of the office of Labour Institution Workers’ Assistance Centre. In Laguna, two unionists and a human rights worker were arrested. Many other union leaders and workers’ activists were also affected by the raids and arrests sweeping the country in the following days. Steve Mendoza, executive vice president of the Organised Labour Association in Line Industries and Agriculture, was arrested in a dawn raid of his home in Cabuya, where police forcibly entered by destroying the gate of the house. Elizabeth “Mags” Camoral of BAYAN Laguna, and former union president of F-Tech, was also arrested in the Defend Yulo Farmers headquarters in Cabuyao. Nimfa Lanzanas of human rights group Kapatid-Timog Katagalugan and a paralegal aide of political prisoners was arrested while she was with her grandchild.
Michael Dasigao and Makmak of Sikkad Montalban were killed in Rizal. Two peasant leaders in Montalban, Rizal, were arrested the same day.
The whole family of fishing community leaders Chai Lemita-Evangelista and Ariel Evangelista, including their 10-year-old son Raymart Evangelista, were arrested in their home in Nasugbu, Batangas. Later the same day, the bodies of Chai and Ariel were found dead, while their son was able to escape.

Two Filipino union leaders were arrested the morning of 4 March 2021 by elements of the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (PNP-CIDG) by virtue of search warrants issued by a Laguna Executive Judge. The police raided the residence of Ramir Edriga Corcolon and abducted him thereafter at around 4:30 a.m. on 4 March 2021 in San Pablo City, Laguna Province. Corcolon is the president of the San Pablo City Water District Employees Association (SPCWDEA) and the Water System Employees Response (WATER) secretary general.
According to witnesses, Mr Corcolon’s home was forcibly entered early that morning by elements who identified themselves to be from the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) of the Philippine National Police (PNP). He was brought to Camp Vicente Lim in Laguna.

The residence of Arnedo Sanggalang Lagunias was also raided on 4 March around 6:00 a.m. He was forcibly taken to Camp Vicente Lim. The police alleged to have found a 45-cal handgun and explosives during the “search”.
Lagunias was secretary of the Honda Workers’ Union (Lakas Manggagawang Nagkakaisa sa Honda-OLALIA-KMU). He was instrumental in launching the workers’ protest in 2019 when Honda Philippines suddenly announced the closure of its main plant in Laguna. Hundreds of Honda workers were dismissed by the company. Lagunias earlier reported that he was being threatened and harassed by elements of the Regional Task Force to End Local Armed Conflict (RTF-ELCAC), particularly by Sgt Romy Aragon last year, and he filed his complaint, along with other union officers, at the Commission on Human Rights in November 2020.

The Filipino authorities have continued their attacks on ACT members as two ACT regional leaders faced new fabricated charges of child abuse and human trafficking intended to silence them. On 3 February 2020, an arrest warrant was issued for one of ACT’s regional presidents. The police continued to profile ACT members, with a new case recorded on 14 February 2020 in Bataan province, Region 3. The names of ACT leaders in the province were listed in a confidential memorandum of the Philippine National Police.

A new “community relations program” of the Philippine National Police (PNP) in partnership with the Philippine Economic Zone Authority is being implemented in different special economic zones and freeport zones in Central Luzon. According to the authorities, the program works as the “first line of defence from radical labour infiltration” and aims to “prevent militant labour groups from organizing workers’ unions in factories and other business establishments".
Trade unions in the Philippines say that this will mean nothing but a tool of repression against the Filipino working class, especially in industrial zones across Central Luzon.” They also denounce the PNP’s deployment of cops in economic zones as a deterrent against “radical labour infiltration”, saying the move aims to “red tag” legitimate workers’ unions.
The unions also have called on Labour Secretary Silvestre Bello III to “do something to end the PNP’s recent attack against labour unions in the country”. Instead of promoting and protecting the basic labour rights of every Filipino worker to join and form unions inside their workplaces, the PNP is clearly violating these rights and is blatantly exposing its institution as anti-labour, according to the unions.

A provincial coordinator of the ACT (Alliance of Concerned Teachers) was arrested in a new crackdown against unions and civil society organisations in the country. The repression operations are ongoing, and ACT fears that more of their members could be targeted. The union had to temporarily close an office to ensure the security of its staff, members and officers.
The anti-union climate under the Duterte regime has caused unionists, teachers and academics to fear for their rights and safety. Raymond Basilio, ACT general secretary, has received multiple death threats since January 2019. The teachers’ union is red tagged by the government. Union activists are unlawfully profiled by the Philippine National Police and put on lists of “terrorists”. Two ACT teachers, in the presence of their students, were recently shot at in their classroom by masked men.
EI and the ITUC are deeply concerned by the latest developments that are further deteriorating the human and trade union rights situation of workers in the Philippines.

On 4 March 2019, 141 contract workers at a cement plant in Davao, owned by Swiss multinational Lafarge-Holcim, were laid off in what the Building and Woodworkers International (BWI) global union described as a clear example of union busting union busting Attempts by an employer to prevent the establishment of a trade union or remove an existing union, e.g. by firing union members, challenging unions in court, or by forming a yellow union. .
Contract workers do not enjoy the right to bargain collectively alongside regular workers, and they do not receive many other benefits, such as annual leave and social security – not even basic health and safety provisions.
With the help of the Davao Holcim Employees Workers Union – Sentro ng mga Nagkakaisa at Progresibong Manggagawa (DAHEWU-SENTRO) – they had been demanding regular employment in line with Philippine law. In February 2019, the union and BWI representatives met with management representatives at the Davao plant to stress the importance of protecting workers’ rights during any possible sale of the assets, and remind them of the need to take action on regularising contract workers.
It was shortly after that meeting with the union that the dismissals took place. The employer then offered 59 of those workers (selecting the non-union workers) an additional two-year contract at the Holcim plant, although 18 rejected the offer.
On 6 March, 80 workers began picketing picketing Demonstration or patrolling outside a workplace to publicise the existence of an industrial dispute or a strike, and to persuade other workers not to enter the establishment or discourage consumers from patronising the employer. Secondary picketing involves picketing of a neutral establishment with a view to putting indirect pressure on the target employer. the factory, demanding direct employment by Holcim on the terms of the collective agreement and compensation. By May they were still picketing picketing Demonstration or patrolling outside a workplace to publicise the existence of an industrial dispute or a strike, and to persuade other workers not to enter the establishment or discourage consumers from patronising the employer. Secondary picketing involves picketing of a neutral establishment with a view to putting indirect pressure on the target employer. , and on May Day the picket line was violently attacked by thugs. The union was convinced that Holcim was responsible for the attack. Later in May they found out that Lafarge-Holcim was planning to sell the factory to notoriously anti-union Filipino conglomerate San Miguel.
The problems continued, and on 12 December BWI and SENTRO filed a complaint against Lafarge-Holcim regarding their lack of respect for workers’ rights at the Davao plant in Davao.

Reynaldo Malaborbor, a union leader and community organiser, was killed on 4 November 2019. He was repeatedly shot in the head by an unidentified man while walking with his wife near their residence at 9:30 p.m. in Barangay Banay-banay. Police said the gunman managed to flee the scene of the crime by foot.
Malaborbor was a longtime activist involved in several labour organisations. Before becoming a peasant farmers’ activist, Malaborbor was a union president in Universal Robina Corporation in Calamba and an organiser for the Trade Unions of the Philippines – February Six Movement. He also served as a coordinator for Makabayan Southern Tagalog during the 2019 elections.
In 2010 he was one of three farmers arrested and accused by the military of illegal possession of firearms and explosives. He spent five years in detention before the case was dismissed in 2015.
Pagkakaisa ng Manggagawa sa Timog Katagalugan-Kilusang Mayo Uno (PAMANTIK- KMU) condemned the killing, which appeared to be part of what human rights groups called a “massive crackdown” on progressive organisations under President Rodrigo Duterte.

On 31 October 2019, 57 people were arrested during simultaneous raids conducted by joint military and police forces against trade unions, civil society groups, human rights activists and women’s groups.
Among the groups targeted in the raids were the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) national trade union centre trade union centre A central organisation at the national, regional or district level consisting of affiliated trade unions. Often denotes a national federation or confederation. and the National Federation of Sugar Workers (NFSW).
The union targets also included bus workers who were holding a union meeting in Bacolod city, capital of the Negros Occidental province, when their building was raided. Elsewhere in the city, eight people, including four children, were held at gunpoint by police. Witnesses there reported that men in plain clothes entered the property and planted firearms. All 43 adults arrested were charged with the illegal possession of firearms.
 Another of those arrested was Mary-Anne Krueger, an organiser for the workers’ association BIEN in the city of Bacolod. Her home, where she lives with her partner Michael de la Concepcion and five small children, was raided by armed Filipino police at 9.00 pm. Michael de Concepcion was also named on the search warrant but was not at home at the time of the raid. According to witnesses, men in plain clothes ran into the property with military police and planted two guns and eight bullets, which were subsequently used as a pretext for the arrest.

On 5 October 2019, management of the Coca-Cola plant in Bacolod City held a meeting for all employees to denounce the union at the plant as a subversive organisation, in a process commonly known as “red tagging”. By labelling unions as subversive or terrorist organisations, the authorities expose their members to violence and repression, while sowing fear among members so that they leave the union.
At the 5 October meeting, plant security personnel, accompanied by two men who described themselves as police officers, introduced a certain Ka Tom Mateo, who described himself as a former armed insurgent now reporting directly to the president with the support of the intelligence service. He said the recognised union was a subversive organisation, attacked the union’s collective agreement and dues structure, and urged members to resign their membership and disaffiliate from the Federation of Coca Cola Unions (FCCU) and the progressive SENTRO national trade union centre trade union centre A central organisation at the national, regional or district level consisting of affiliated trade unions. Often denotes a national federation or confederation. .
On 17 October, two men identifying themselves as military officers visited the home of an elected officer of the Bacolod City Coca-Cola union who works at the factory. According to his sworn testimony, the men referred to the 5 October meeting and Ka Tom Mateo, denounced the union, offered him their cooperation and encouraged him to replace the local union local union A local branch of a higher-level trade union such as a national union. president. They asked why the union president had taken part in the IUF global meeting with The Coca-Cola Company’s global management in September 2018, and they threatened that the government had ways of silencing troublemakers. Threats are taken seriously in the Philippines, where many union leaders and others representing organisations seen as opposing the government have lost their freedom and even their lives since Duterte came to power.

On 15 October, Zhaydee Cabañelez, an active member of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) union, was shot by four masked men, leaving her in a critical condition with two gunshot wounds in the chest and two in the feet.
The attack happened around 8:00 a.m. at Dalet Elementary School in Barangay Lumbayao, Valencia City, Bukidnon, with several witnesses – including school children – around. Cabañelez won the 2016 Outstanding Teacher award in her community from the Department of Education and is also a very active union member. Her husband, Ramil Cabañelez, was also in the classroom at the time and was also shot at but managed to escape unhurt.
The attack came at a time when teachers had been growing in strength and uniting for a substantial salary increase. Following months of red-tagging (accusing anyone critical of the government of being a “dangerous” communist), threats and harassment, the ACT said in a statement that this was the worst attack yet on the union. 

Their ordeal did not end there, though. Zhaydee was taken to hospital to be treated for her wounds. According to the ACT, the couple were being held hostage in their hospital room and were not allowed visitors. A solidarity visit by members of the ACT and staff of the Commission on Human Rights on 23 October was blocked by eight armed police officers stationed at the hospital. The police did allow a reporter from a government news agency access to the couple, however. The couple later informed their union that the reporter misquoted them and twisted their statements.
Police attention seemed to be focused on keeping the two victims isolated and not on investigating and identifying the perpetrators of the crime. Students’ parents reported that the police had not even visited the school.

On 12 September 2019, Ophelia Tabacon, a teacher at the Camaman-an Elementary School in Cagayan de Oro City and a member of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) union, discovered flyers bearing her photograph alongside those of other human rights advocates posted on a wall. The flyers claimed she was a “communist teacher” and accused her of brainwashing minors to turn them into communists. The flyers also accused Ophelia’s son, Sigfyl Tabacon, of being a leader of the “terrorist New People’s Army (NPA)” together with her daughter-in-law Kristin Lim.
The accusations made in the flyer are part of a process known as “red-tagging” whereby anyone considered to be on the left or critical of the government is labelled as a communist and as a dangerous terrorist. Some of the people included in the flyers were accused of trumped-up cases of multiple murder, attempted murder, and other crimes linked to the activities of the NPA. Ophelia Tabacon herself faced trumped-up charges of arson, kidnapping and robbery for her alleged involvement in an NPA raid in Sibagat. Ophelia Tabacon has never been to Sibagat nor has she participated in such activities.
Accusing Ophelia of being an NPA combatant puts her life at risk, making her a target for extra-judicial killing. Shortly after the flyers bearing her photograph appeared she received a note – in a package with more flyers disguised as materials for a seminar she was attending – that amounted to a death threat from the Anti-Communist Terrorist Vigilante (ACTIV).

On 19 August 2019, officers from the Philippine National Police dispersed the picket line of Peerless Products Manufacturing Corporation (Pepmaco) in Calamba, Laguna at around 11:30 a.m. and arrested 18 workers.
According to the Pagkakaisa ng Manggagawa sa Timog Katagalugan (Pamantik-KMU) union, policemen forced the workers into a police van and took them to Calamba City Jail, without explaining what they were being charged with. They were held overnight and released the following day.
The Pepmaco workers had been on strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike since 24 June, demanding regularisation, better working hours and an end to unsafe working conditions, and had already been violently attacked by hired thugs. The dispute continued.

Seventeen workers faced a string of charges following the violent dispersal of a strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike on 6 July at a factory run by condiment giant NutriAsia in Cabuyao City, Laguna.
About 400 workers took part in the strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike , called to press home the workers’ demands for regularisation. The company had been ordered to put its 714 contractual workers on regular contracts in July 2017 by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) but had consistently ignored the order. The workers were also protesting the illegal deduction of wages, forced overtime, underpayment of overtime pay and the harassment and fabrication of cases filed, notably, against union members.
The strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike began at around 5.30 am. Four hours later combined forces of the Philippine National Police (PNP) Laguna, NutriaAsia security guards and hired thugs attacked the strikers. The thugs and security guards used a bulldozer to forcibly open the gate of the plant and threw stones at the workers who were holding their strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike inside the plant. The police used their batons and shields against the workers. In the middle of the commotion, the police arrested 17 striking workers, including Reyniero Maarat (president of the KASAPINA-OLALIA-KMU union) and Jennifer Lagaya (the union’s vice president of education).
All the 17 arrested striking workers of NutriAsia were taken to Cabuyao police station and were later charged with arson, serious and slight illegal detention, malicious mischief, robbery, grave coercion and theft following complaints filed by police and company guards.

In the early morning of 28 June 2019, men wearing face masks attacked striking Peerless Products Manufacturing Corporation (Pepmaco) workers in Laguna, injuring 11 workers.
The Pepmaco Workers Union announced that hundreds of thugs “wearing face masks and in full battle gear” arrived on board two vans and container vans and swooped down on the two strikers’ camps while most of them were resting or sleeping. They immediately swung batons and fired jets of water at the workers, said the union. Rocks were also thrown, according to the strikers. Most of the workers suffered head injuries and were taken to a nearby hospital.
The union was formed after Pepmaco dismissed 36 agency workers in January 2019 and planned to lay off another 200 workers. The workers responded by organising organising The process of forming or joining a trade union, or inducing other workers to form or join one. , with the help of the Metalworkers Alliance of the Philippines (MWAP), and registered the Pepmaco Workers Union on 29 January.
“The employer responded by dismissing key union leaders, and another 148 workers were sacked when they refused to work overtime,” reported MWAP.
The union began the strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike on 24 June, with workers protesting against the mass terminations, as well as contractualisation, union busting union busting Attempts by an employer to prevent the establishment of a trade union or remove an existing union, e.g. by firing union members, challenging unions in court, or by forming a yellow union. , low wages, 12-hour workdays, seven-day workweeks and unsafe working conditions.
There were also health and safety concerns at the plant, which manufactures detergents, toothpaste, fabric conditioner and shampoo. To illustrate these concerns, the union posted photos of workers with skin injuries resulting from the harsh chemicals used in manufacturing the company’s products.

Union organiser Dennis Sequeña was shot and killed on 2 June 2019 in Barangay Bunga in Tanza, Cavite, while meeting a group of workers. He was shot by a gunman who arrived riding in tandem on a motorcycle. The gunman and his accomplice escaped using the same motorcycle. Sequeña was brought by his colleagues to the General Trias Maternity and Paediatric Hospital, but doctors failed to revive him.
Sequeña was a union organiser, an active member of the Freedom of Association freedom of association The right to form and join the trade union of one’s choosing as well as the right of unions to operate freely and carry out their activities without undue interference.

See Guide to the ITUC international trade union rights framework Committee (FOA) of the Nagkaisa Labour Coalition and the Department of Labour and Employment (DOLE)-Nagkaisa Technial Working Group on FOA since 2018. He was also a party list nominee of the labour party (Partido Manggagawa) in the elections. He assisted Cavite workers facing labour problems and advised workers who were unionising as a means to improve wages and working conditions.
His murder brought the total number of labour rights defenders who were killed under the Duterte administration to 43.
The government pledged to investigate the killings of the 43 trade unionists in a meeting with the ITUC in August, but by late November no progress had been reported and the government had yet to accept the ILO International Labour Organization A tripartite United Nations (UN) agency established in 1919 to promote working and living conditions. The main international body charged with developing and overseeing international labour standards.

See tripartism, ITUC Guide to international trade union rights mission to the country. Meanwhile the violence against activists continued with impunity.

Management at Daegyoung Apparel Inc. in the Cavite Economic Zone sought to undermine the new workers’ union. Daegyoung employs some 1,000 workers, mostly women.
The workers formed their union in April 2019 with the aim of resolving workplace grievances such as low pay, lack of benefits, precarious work and violations of labour standards. As soon as management learned of the union, supervisors and line leaders started talking to workers to urge them to withdraw their support or desist from joining the union.
Workers were threatened that the company would shut down if the union continued to press for changes. Management personnel blatantly asked workers to sign anti-union statements at the production lines and held a meeting for workers in the factory canteen where they repeated the threat of a factory closure. Later, workers were asked to go in pairs to management offices where they were subjected to anti-union propaganda.
The union filed a petition for certification elections, which management promptly opposed while offering severance pay to workers.
The union asked the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to mediate. Following DOLE’s intervention, management agreed to respect the workers’ right to freedom of association freedom of association The right to form and join the trade union of one’s choosing as well as the right of unions to operate freely and carry out their activities without undue interference.

See Guide to the ITUC international trade union rights framework .

Raymond Basilio, the general secretary of the Philippine’s teachers’ union – the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) – received death threats on his personal mobile phone during an ACT press conference on 11 January 2019.
The press conference had been called to denounce the constant harassment and threats faced by the union’s members and leaders. The caller, who appeared to know about Basilio’s personal details and about his family, claimed an order had been issued for Basilio’s assassination unless he agreed to cooperate with the caller’s demands.
The ACT also learned of the unlawful profiling of its members by the police. At a solidarity meeting in Manila on 21 February, the ACT reported 34 recorded cases of police profiling, surveillance, and harassment of teacher trade unionists in ten regions. A leaked memo from the Manila Police District revealed that the police were ordered to conduct an “inventory” of all educators who were ACT members.
In a press interview, ACT representative France Castro said: “ACT members fear for further harassment, intimidation, filing of trumped-up cases and death threats as a result of the profiling being conducted by the Philippine National Police.”
Later, speaking at a meeting of the Education International Executive Board held from 2 to 4 April 2019, Raymond Basilio explained that “one day, one man came to me and told me: ‘you are next’”. He went on to say: “I cannot sleep in my own bed anymore, I cannot see my family nor go to the union office where I am probably awaited by public forces. I have to change my email and contacts every two weeks at the latest.”

On 19 March 2019 Eugene Garcia, president of the workers’ union at Pioneer Float Glass Manufacturing Inc. (PFGMI), came home to find the police had just searched his home. The Pasig police claimed they had found a .45 pistol inside his house and charged him with illegal possession of firearms. Mr Garcia vehemently denied the allegation and insisted that the gun was planted by the police. He believed that he was being falsely charged because of his union involvement and the labour dispute labour dispute See industrial dispute that he was involved in at the time.
Garcia and five other workers had a pending case at the National Conciliation conciliation An attempt by a neutral third party, a conciliator, to aid the settling of an industrial dispute by improving communications, offering advice and interpreting issues to bring the disputing parties to a point where they can reconcile their differences. The conciliator does not take as active a role as a mediator or an arbitrator.

See arbitration, mediation and Mediation mediation A process halfway between conciliation and arbitration, in mediation a neutral third party assists the disputing parties in reaching a settlement to an industrial dispute by suggesting possible, non-binding solutions.

See arbitration, conciliation Board (NCMB), and he had been attending a hearing of the Board at the time his house was being searched. The union had been engaged in collective bargaining collective bargaining The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.

See collective bargaining agreement
negotiations with PFGMI management that ended in deadlock. The company had offered to let the workers go in exchange for redundancy pay, but Garcia and some of his fellow unionists declined the offer and chose to pursue the case against PFGMI management.
Garcia was the first Manila-based unionist arrested on trumped-up charges following the Duterte administration’s press briefing on 13 March and the advice sent by the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA) to various government agencies that labelled the national trade union centre trade union centre A central organisation at the national, regional or district level consisting of affiliated trade unions. Often denotes a national federation or confederation. Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU), to which Garcia’s union is affiliated, as a “communist terrorist organisation”, part of a tactic commonly known as “red tagging”.

On 27 February 2019, the president of the Musahamat Workers Labour Union (MLWU), Esperidion Cabaltera; vice president Richard Genabe; and secretary Ronald Rosales were taken from their homes in the Compostela Valley by unidentified armed men.
Cabaltera and Genabe had earlier been the target of military harassment and had filed a complaint at the police station. The day before their arrest, military agents forcibly entered their home. Cabaltera and Genabe were taken to the 10^th Infantry Division camp in Mawab, Compostella Valley. Rosales was taken to the 71^st Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army camp in Barangay Lahi, Pantukan.
During their detention the union leaders were forced to sign a confession saying they were supporters of the New People’s Army (NPA) to clear their names from an alleged “military list.” In reality, they had simply been leading their union’s work to improve working conditions and wages in the banana plantation owned by Musahamat farm. Musahamat is a Kuwait-based multinational firm engaged in the export of bananas and other fruits. It was not the first time they had faced such harassment. The union complained in 2016 about a smear campaign against them linking the union to the NPA.
The soldiers told them that they were being taken in for their membership of the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) national trade union centre trade union centre A central organisation at the national, regional or district level consisting of affiliated trade unions. Often denotes a national federation or confederation. , which had been “tagged” as a terrorist organisation and as a supporter of the NPA. The three unionists were released the following day after signing their “confessions”.

Union president Esperedion Cabaltera and vice president Richard Genabe were arbitrarily arrested and detained in the Municipality of Mawab. Meanwhile, the union’s secretary general, Ronaldo Rosales, was being held against his will by the Armed Forced of the Philippines (AFP) in Pantukan. The three are officers of Musahamat Farm Workers Union, affiliated with militant labour centre Kilusang Mayo Uno. The union, representing more than 200 banana plantation workers, complained to DOLE in March 2016 about unfair labour practices committed by the management of the Musahamat Farms Inc. including union busting union busting Attempts by an employer to prevent the establishment of a trade union or remove an existing union, e.g. by firing union members, challenging unions in court, or by forming a yellow union. , illegal suspension and termination of union officers and members, and withholding of union dues.
“We received initial reports that the three union officers were illegally arrested based on dubious allegations that they are communist leaders. We strongly condemn the red-tagging and illegal arrests of unionists under the Duterte administration. The extension of martial law in Mindanao only refuels the red-tagging by the military resulting to gross trade union and human rights violations,” Rochelle Porras, executive director of the Ecumenical Institute for Labor Education and Research (EILER), said in a statement.
Documentation from fact-finding missions of independent human and trade union rights organisations reveal that AFP members were also responsible for the torture and bloody attempt to burn two small-scale miners in 2017. The young workers, namely Janry Mensis, then 22, and then 16-year old “Jerry”, are members of Kahugpungan sa mga Mag-uuma sa Maco and were wrongfully accused of being members of the New People’s Army (NPA). They were forcibly taken to the camp of AFP’s 71^st IB, where for several days they endured torture and eventually escaped being burned alive.
EILER also condemned the stigmatisation of trade unions as a legal front of the Communist Party of the Philippines and the subsequent declaration as a terrorist organisation under Proclamation 374 and AFP’s whole-of-nation approach. The action is a clear attempt to criminalise the legitimate work of unionists in advancing their socio-economic interests.
EILER emphasised that the right to freedom of association freedom of association The right to form and join the trade union of one’s choosing as well as the right of unions to operate freely and carry out their activities without undue interference.

See Guide to the ITUC international trade union rights framework and the right to peaceably assemble are enshrined in the 1987 Constitution and are recognised under fundamental ILO International Labour Organization A tripartite United Nations (UN) agency established in 1919 to promote working and living conditions. The main international body charged with developing and overseeing international labour standards.

See tripartism, ITUC Guide to international trade union rights Conventions ratified by the Philippines. The military and police should respect these rights at all times.

Workers at Pulido Apparel Company Inc., which supplies global clothing brands, went on strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike on 21 January 2019 in protest at blatant union busting union busting Attempts by an employer to prevent the establishment of a trade union or remove an existing union, e.g. by firing union members, challenging unions in court, or by forming a yellow union. by the company.
Pulido Apparel had closed its San Luis facility in Batangas a month earlier blaming financial difficulties. In January, however, Pulido started rehiring workers at the same factory on two-month contracts, while blacklisting union officers and members. 
The San Luis factory resumed operations on 3 January 2019, and by the end of January at least 61 workers were employed on two-month contracts. All union leaders and supporters remain banned and blacklisted at the company. 
The strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike was by the shop floor union, TF-2, created in June 2018, and subsequently certified by the Ministry of labour as the sole and exclusive bargaining agent bargaining agent A workers’ representative authorised to bargain collectively on behalf of workers in a bargaining unit.

See collective bargaining . It demanded the re-instatement of all workers, including activists who participated in the strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike and picket, and for collective bargaining collective bargaining The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.

See collective bargaining agreement
negotiations to take place as soon as possible. 
To resolve the dispute, the union filed for a preventive mediation mediation A process halfway between conciliation and arbitration, in mediation a neutral third party assists the disputing parties in reaching a settlement to an industrial dispute by suggesting possible, non-binding solutions.

See arbitration, conciliation with the labour court. However, the company’s management failed to attend a hearing of the National Conciliation conciliation An attempt by a neutral third party, a conciliator, to aid the settling of an industrial dispute by improving communications, offering advice and interpreting issues to bring the disputing parties to a point where they can reconcile their differences. The conciliator does not take as active a role as a mediator or an arbitrator.

See arbitration, mediation and Mediation mediation A process halfway between conciliation and arbitration, in mediation a neutral third party assists the disputing parties in reaching a settlement to an industrial dispute by suggesting possible, non-binding solutions.

See arbitration, conciliation Board, which led to the strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike call. 

The house of Paul John Dizon, president of Nagkahiusang Mamumuo sa Suyapa Farms (United Workers of Suyapa Farms), burned down at around 2 a.m. on Saturday 15 December 15 in an act of suspected arson. The office of the United Workers of Suyapa Farms and the house of former union leader Vicente “Boy” Barrios, which was located behind Dizon’s, were also destroyed in the fire.

The union is currently in a dispute with employer Sumifru, a Japanese-owned multinational banana firm in Compostela town. Workers from eight of its nine packing plants went on strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike in September and October after negotiations to regularise plantation workers broke down. The KMU regional head has condemned the attacks, describing them as “a brazen attempt to kill unionists and their families”.

Hundreds of packing plant workers employed by Sumifru, a Japanese fruit exporting company in Compostela town, Compostela Valley province, have endured violence and harassment at the hands of police and security forces during extended strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike action, which included the murder of a union member.
The striking workers, who are members of the consolidated Nagkahiusang Mamumo sa Suyapa Farm-National Federation of Labor Unions-KMU union (Namasufa-Naflu-KMU), began a series of protests and actions on 1 October 2018, calling for the formalisation of their employment, recognition recognition The designation by a government agency of a union as the bargaining agent for workers in a given bargaining unit, or acceptance by an employer that its employees can be collectively represented by a union. of the Namasufa-Naflu-KMU, and their right to collective bargaining collective bargaining The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.

See collective bargaining agreement
. Throughout the prolonged strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike action, several union activists reported serious human rights violations, including violence and intimidation from the police and the military.
On 3 October, striking workers were violently attacked by army officials and police personnel. On 8 October the police and members of the military ordered the workers to leave their strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike camps. On 11 October, military personnel and police officers violently dispersed strikes that were taking place at a number of packing plants. Seven workers were injured and four workers were arrested, including Elizar Diayon, vice president of NAMASUFA, and Errol Tan, an executive member of NAMASUFA. The military intervention came at the request of the Department of Labour and Employment (DOLE), who had intervened in the dispute citing public interest considerations.
On October 31, Danny Boy Bautista, a 31-year-old harvester who had worked at the Sumifru packing plant for five years, was shot four times by unidentified gunman at around 6:00 p.m. in Compostela town, Compostela Valley province. Bautista was an active member of Namasufa, and he served as the group’s marshal since the strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike began in September.
The violent attacks on the striking workers at Sumifru are one of many attempts by government forces to suppress political dissent in the Philippines. As of February 2019, the dispute remains unresolved.

On 20 October 2018, nine striking sugar cane workers and members of the National Federation of Sugar Workers (NAMASUFA) were shot and killed by an unknown group of men while occupying private land in Hacienda Nene to protest delays in land reform and calling for improvements to their living and working conditions. Those killed were all members of NAMASUFA, affiliated with the national independent labour union Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU), which organised the protest. Among those killed were two minors and three women.
Over the past year, authorities in the Philippines have repeatedly made public statements accusing KMU-affiliated unions of being “fronts” for illegal armed groups. There have been a number of attacks, raids, arrests, and killings of members of KMU-affiliated and other left-leaning trade unions in the Philippines in recent years. This attack came one week before the president of the Philippines , Rodrigo Duterte, made a statement on 28 October stating that any further occupations of land by farmers should be dealt with harshly: “My order to the police is to shoot them. If they resist violently, shoot them, and if they die, I do not care.”

In June and July of 2018, a number of peaceful labour strikes by workers at the NutriAsia plant in Marilao, Bulacan, the largest producer of liquid condiments in the Philippines, were violently dispersed by police and security forces. Workers at the plant began striking on 2 June, after management unlawfully dismissed 50 employees. Protesters were also campaigning for the formalisation of their employment status and for the right to form a union. Of the approximately 1,400 workers at NutriAsia, the majority are employed through a number of subcontracting companies, with only 100 workers in a formal employment relationship with the company.
On 14 June, the striking workers picketing picketing Demonstration or patrolling outside a workplace to publicise the existence of an industrial dispute or a strike, and to persuade other workers not to enter the establishment or discourage consumers from patronising the employer. Secondary picketing involves picketing of a neutral establishment with a view to putting indirect pressure on the target employer. the NutriAsia plant were attacked by police and security forces. Twenty-one workers and several other protestors were arrested. They sustained serious injuries and were detained by police for one week after being charged with multiple offences, including illegal assembly. Most of the charges were later dropped. Workers resumed the picket on 16 June, when three truckloads of police arrived and threatened to shoot the workers and their supporters.
On 31 July, the striking workers were again violently dispersed while they were participating in an ecumenical mass for workers and their supporters. Approximately 300 workers and supporters were sitting on the road when the security guards started shoving workers with police shields. Nineteen NutriAsia workers and supporters were arrested as police and security guards forced the picketers to disperse. Among those arrested were Anakbayan secretary general Einstein Recedes and LFS secretary general Mark Quinto.

On 30 July, Jessielou Cadungog, a vice president of the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), survived an assassination attempt in Cebu. It is understood that Cadungog’s car was ambushed by two gunmen on a motorcycle. Cadungog’s driver and bodyguard, William Macaslang, shot back in self defence, killing one of the assailants, who was later revealed to be a policeman. His accomplice was taken into custody. The Philippine National Police in Cebu subsequently claimed the incident was a legitimate police operation targeting the illegal drug trade. It is further understood that Cadungog and Macaslang are now under investigation for the murder of the policeman.
Cadungog has long been an active labour leader, who helped form the port workers’ union and to establish the Oriental Port and Allied Services Corporation (OPASCOR), one of the largest workers’ enterprises in the country. Cadungog was recently elected as a Councillor of Barangay Tejero, Cebu.
This assassination attempt raises grave concerns about the targeting of labour activists, the administration of justice in the Philippines, and the ability of workers to freely exercise their rights of freedom of association freedom of association The right to form and join the trade union of one’s choosing as well as the right of unions to operate freely and carry out their activities without undue interference.

See Guide to the ITUC international trade union rights framework and protest.

Workers at Furukawa Automotive Systems, which manufactures car parts for major automobile brands such as Toyota, Suzuki, and Nissan at its plant in Lipa City south of Manila, are being denied their right to collective bargaining collective bargaining The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.

See collective bargaining agreement
. In January this year, a large majority of workers voted to be represented by a branch of IndustriALL affiliate the Philippine Metalworkers Alliance (PMA). Close to 1,500 workers out of a workforce of 5,000 voted to form a union.
Despite the fact that PMA won the certification election, another union supported by the company is delaying the process of collective bargaining collective bargaining The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.

See collective bargaining agreement
via an application to the labour court claiming that they also have members in Furukawa. Until the intervention of this union is resolved, there can be no negotiation of a collective bargaining collective bargaining The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.

See collective bargaining agreement
agreement.

Quezon City police arrested George San Mateo, the leader of the PISTON transport workers’ union, on 1 December 2017, for a strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike he had organised in February 2017. He was charged with violating the Public Service Act.

Jeepney drivers had gone on strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike to protest the government’s plans to phase out jeepneys over 15 years old by the end of the year. They held another nationwide strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike on 17 and 18 October. At that time President Duterte publicly accused Piston, together with human rights group Karapatan and the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) workers’ union, of being in conspiracy with communist rebels.

The timing of the arrest warrant was considered suspicious, as it came just before transport workers’ leaders were due to meet with Senator Grace Poe, chair of the Senate’s committee on public services, who publicly criticised the arrests.

George San Mateo was released five days later, after posting bail. The stand-off with the government continued, however, with President Duterte warning against any further protests. On 12 December Duterte said he would deploy the military and police to contain the protests, and threatened that protestors should be prepared to face rubber bullets and truncheons.
The Transport Secretary struck a more conciliatory note, suggesting there could be a three-year transition period to phase out the older vehicles.

At the end of May 2017, the Peninsula Employees Union filed for industrial action industrial action Any form of action taken by a group of workers, a union or an employer during an industrial dispute to gain concessions from the other party, e.g. a strike, go-slow or an overtime ban, or a lockout on the part of the employer. at the Manila Peninsula hotel after it continued its rights abuses and refused to negotiate in good faith.
The hotel’s management refused to reinstate the union leader Jenny Marcos, unfairly dismissed for her union activities in 2016. It also persistently refused to comply with a government order to convert hundreds of casual workers to permanent status. To undercut collective bargaining collective bargaining The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.

See collective bargaining agreement
negotiations, the hotel fronted a yellow union yellow union A union set up and/or controlled by the employer to prevent the establishment of a genuine trade union. to challenge the union’s legal status. The company union company union Can be used to describe either an enterprise union or a yellow union. was soundly defeated in an election on 30 January 2017, but management still sought to introduce changes to the collective agreement which would introduce even harsher disciplinary penalties while further slashing working conditions.

Following an international campaign, Jenny Marcos was finally reinstated with back pay back pay Wages or benefits due an employee for past employment. Often awarded when the employee has been unfairly dismissed. Not to be confused with retroactive pay (delayed payment for work previously done at a lower wage rate). in September 2017.

Amertron Incorporated Philippines began firing union members on 21 September 2017 after they formed a union. By mid-October they had fired 532 activists and members.

Workers at the company’s Parañaque factory formed a union, the United Amertronians Organisation (UAO), in January 2017 to protect their interests, notably the persistent problem of low wages.

In June, the company announced its intention to shut the Parañaque plant and transfer production to its non-unionised Clark factory, 120km away, by 2019. Workers were given the option to transfer to Clark, or accept a standard severance package in line with Filipino labour law.

In July, the UAO joined the Associated Labour Unions (ALU), affiliated to IndustriALL global union, and submitted registration documents to the Department of Labour and Employment (DOLE). To improve their bargaining position and achieve a fair severance package, on 15 August the union filed a request with DOLE to be recognised as the sole bargaining agent bargaining agent A workers’ representative authorised to bargain collectively on behalf of workers in a bargaining unit.

See collective bargaining at the company.

The company began harassing union officers and members, threatening them with blacklisting and losing their severance pay if they didn’t leave the union. Union officers were offered bribes to leave the union, and two officers were suspended for distributing union leaflets.

It was when the union filed a complaint with DOLE of unfair labour practice and union-busting that the company responded with the mass layoffs of union members.

On 24 June 2017 Vicente Toca, spokesperson for the newly formed Sitel Philippines Association of Rank and File (SPARK) Workers was summoned by Sitel Philippines Corporation’s vice president Michael de la Peña and the senior director for Partners Communications Christine Matriano to explain himself.

On 21 June SPARK had held a press conference in which they warned that the closure of several accounts at the call centre could affect over 1000 employees. Management wanted to know where he got his information from and accused him of violating the company’s media policy by not getting prior permission.
Paulo Mendez, another SPARK leader, faced a similar interrogation. He was asked about the “people behind” the group and what “other ideals the group is fighting for.” SPARK condemned the intimidatory nature of the questioning.

Eighty long-term contract workers at the Korean-owned Shin Sun Tropical Fruit Corp, including 53 union members, were dismissed on 16 March 2017 after the Department of Labour and Employment (DOLE) ordered that they should be made permanent employees in compliance with the Labour Code.

The workers had been employed for between two and seven years by the company and by law should have been made permanent employees after six months. As contract workers, they received lower pay and benefits. They formed a union and urged DOLE to inspect their workplace. Following the inspection, DOLE declared that the affected workers were regular workers and their employer was Shin Sun, not the hire company. In a blatant attempt at union busting union busting Attempts by an employer to prevent the establishment of a trade union or remove an existing union, e.g. by firing union members, challenging unions in court, or by forming a yellow union. , the company promptly fired the workers and replaced them with new contract workers from another hire company.

On 6 April the workers launched a strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike to demand their reinstatement and regularisation. By May they were still on strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike and the organisers started receiving death threats. On 23 May President Duterte declared martial law on Mindanao, after clashes with Muslim rebel groups. The rebels were based in Marawi City, hundreds of miles away, but on 26 May armed soldiers arrived at Shin Sun, threatened to kill the strikers, and said they had orders to break up the picket. The strikers remained in place.
The soldiers returned on 2 June, using force to break up the picket line, and 12 of the strikers were injured and arrested. Vicente Barrios, leader of the Sumitomo Fruit Company Union company union Can be used to describe either an enterprise union or a yellow union. (SUMIFRU), was beaten and interrogated by the police. He was taken into detention along with Pio Salazar (Freshmax Workers’ Union) and Eric Noble (Shin Sun Workers’ Union). Nine others were arrested and later released.
Martial law was extended until 31 December 2017.

Roderick Mamuyac, 43, a long-standing labour organiser for the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) trade union in the Southern Mindanao Region (SMR), was arrested on 5 February 2017 together with National Democratic Front (NDF) consultant Ariel Arbitrario at a checkpoint in Sirawan, Toril.
The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP)-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) claimed Mumuyac was a liaison officer for the NPA (New People’s Army) in the region, and charged him with multiple murders.
When he appeared before Tagum City Regional Trial Court Judge Virginia Ang on 8 February, however, he was released, as there was no evidence to support the charges. Arbitrario was returned to custody awaiting trial for murder charges dating from 2016. He had been released on bail to take part in peace talks. Mamuyac was accompanying him because the KMU were also involved in the peace talks. The fact that they were travelling together led to Mamuyac’s arrest.
The KMU were concerned the arrest signalled a renewed targeting of labour organisations. President Duterte and the AFP had recently declared an all-out war against so-called “reds” in the Philippines. Experience shows the term “reds” encompasses many progressive organisations including trade unions. Over the years, unionists and labour organisers have been harassed, arrested, jailed, even abducted and murdered, after being tagged as “reds” by the military, and the KMU has a complaint against the Republic of the Philippines with the International Labour Organization International Labour Organization A tripartite United Nations (UN) agency established in 1919 to promote working and living conditions. The main international body charged with developing and overseeing international labour standards.

See tripartism, ITUC Guide to international trade union rights (ILO International Labour Organization A tripartite United Nations (UN) agency established in 1919 to promote working and living conditions. The main international body charged with developing and overseeing international labour standards.

See tripartism, ITUC Guide to international trade union rights ) in relation to military-instigated attacks.
The KMU-SMR said their regional office had been burgled by unidentified men on the Saturday before the arrest, and that several men were still lurking in the vicinity of their offices, appearing to be monitoring the premises and the group’s staff.

Management at the 5-star Peninsula Manila hotel dismissed Jenny Marcos, a member of the Board of Directors of the Peninsula Employees Union, on 3 January 2017. It also suspended Francisco Aliansas, another member of the union’s board of directors, and Cesar Pagaling, president of the union’s supervisors’ chapter, for 15 days. The dismissal and suspensions followed the union’s participation in the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Associations (IUF) Global Housekeepers Campaign.

The union had negotiated improvements in the collective agreement and better working conditions for housekeepers, and in 2015 secured unprecedented government inspections of working conditions at hotels. The Manila Peninsula was ordered to regularise 405 casual employees including 55 housekeepers at the hotel as a result.

Peninsula management resisted implementation of the order, and used the union’s participation in the global housekeeper campaign as a pretext to sack Jenny Marcos and to suspend her two colleagues. Management also supported a yellow union yellow union A union set up and/or controlled by the employer to prevent the establishment of a genuine trade union. to challenge the National Union of Workers in Hotels, Restaurants and Allied Industries (NUWHRAIN) unions’ legal certification for collective bargaining collective bargaining The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.

See collective bargaining agreement
. The company union company union Can be used to describe either an enterprise union or a yellow union. was soundly defeated in an election on 30 January 2017, but management reneged on an agreement negotiated under government auspices which would have suspended rather than terminated Jenny Marcos and allowed NUWHRAIN to contest the disciplinary measures through the customary legal channels. The Department of Labour and Employment (DOLE) assumed final jurisdiction, and was due to impose a binding decision.

Edilberto Miralles, a former president of the R&E Taxi Transport union, was gunned down in a drive-by shooting on 23 September 2016 in front of the National Labour Relations Commission (NLRC) in Quezon City, where he was scheduled to attend a hearing. He was shot by two men on a motorcycle who sped off after the attack. The police did not know the motive for the killing, but some union members believed it could be related to a labour dispute labour dispute See industrial dispute .

Orlando Abangan, an organiser for the trade union organiser Sentro and a community leader for the Partido Manggagawa (PM), was shot at close range by a lone gunman around 8:00 a.m. on 17 September 2016 while he was on his way home in Sitio Lawis, Barangay Maghaway in Talisay City. Orlando Abangan was a dedicated human and labour rights activist and had recently begun organising organising The process of forming or joining a trade union, or inducing other workers to form or join one. informal sector workers for Sentro. He was also an outspoken critic of the government’s “war on drugs”. His assailant seemed to have been lying in wait for him, and fired several shots. His murder came after a spate of extra-judicial killings.

The Japanese-owned company NT Philippines, based in the Cavite Economic Zone, responded to the formation of a workers’ union with union-busting tactics. The intimidation and harassment reached a level where the Confederation of Labour and Allied Social Services (CLASS) felt compelled to file a number of cases against the electronics company, at the Cavite office of the Labour Department, at the Conciliation conciliation An attempt by a neutral third party, a conciliator, to aid the settling of an industrial dispute by improving communications, offering advice and interpreting issues to bring the disputing parties to a point where they can reconcile their differences. The conciliator does not take as active a role as a mediator or an arbitrator.

See arbitration, mediation and Mediation mediation A process halfway between conciliation and arbitration, in mediation a neutral third party assists the disputing parties in reaching a settlement to an industrial dispute by suggesting possible, non-binding solutions.

See arbitration, conciliation Board and at the Arbitration arbitration A means of resolving disputes outside the courts through the involvement of a neutral third party, which can either be a single arbitrator or an arbitration board. In non-binding arbitration, the disputing parties are free to reject the third party’s recommendation, whilst in binding arbitration they are bound by its decision. Compulsory arbitration denotes the process where arbitration is not voluntarily entered into by the parties, but is prescribed by law or decided by the authorities.

See conciliation, mediation Unit, in September 2016.

Since the NT Phils. Inc Workers’ Union was formed, the almost 900 workers at NT Philippines have struggled for regularisation within the company, which had created a bogus in-house agency. The union and CLASS filed a case with the Department of Labour (DOLE), which found in favour of the workers, declared the agency illegal and ordered the company to absorb the workers without losing their seniority rights.

The company failed to comply with the order, however, and instead resorted to union busting union busting Attempts by an employer to prevent the establishment of a trade union or remove an existing union, e.g. by firing union members, challenging unions in court, or by forming a yellow union. tactics and propaganda, threatening that the company would shut down if their buyers knew that the workers were unionising.

Management also removed the union president, Randy Ramos, from the factory and transferred him to a sister company, where it continues to harass him and isolate him from other union officials and workers.

In June 2016 the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Associations (IUF) reported that five years after the union at Mount Malarayat Golf and Country Club won legal recognition recognition The designation by a government agency of a union as the bargaining agent for workers in a given bargaining unit, or acceptance by an employer that its employees can be collectively represented by a union. , management was still refusing to recognise it and to respect the right to collective bargaining collective bargaining The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.

See collective bargaining agreement
.

In 2010 workers at the Mount Malarayat Golf & Country Club in Batangas organised a union with the support of NUWHRAIN, the independent national union of hotel, restaurant and resort workers, in 2010, and the union won legal recognition recognition The designation by a government agency of a union as the bargaining agent for workers in a given bargaining unit, or acceptance by an employer that its employees can be collectively represented by a union. the following year. Management reacted with a legal challenge, however, that falsely claimed that all workers were casuals hired through a labour hire agency. This effectively denied Mount Malarayat Golf and Country Club workers access to their right to unionise and bargain collectively for the next five years.

NUWHRAIN finally won a legal decision on 24 September 2015, and the union officially received a legal order in early 2016. The union immediately submitted its collective bargaining collective bargaining The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.

See collective bargaining agreement
proposal to management, but management again refused to enter into negotiations. The union responded with protest actions that ended on 11 June, when the Secretary of Labour ordered compulsory arbitration arbitration A means of resolving disputes outside the courts through the involvement of a neutral third party, which can either be a single arbitrator or an arbitration board. In non-binding arbitration, the disputing parties are free to reject the third party’s recommendation, whilst in binding arbitration they are bound by its decision. Compulsory arbitration denotes the process where arbitration is not voluntarily entered into by the parties, but is prescribed by law or decided by the authorities.

See conciliation, mediation .

Ever since workers at Seung Yeun Technology Industries Corp. (SYTIC), a Korean-owned electronics firm based in the Cavite Export Processing Zone export processing zone A special industrial area in a country where imported materials are processed before being re-exported. Designed to attract mostly foreign investors by offering incentives such as exemptions from certain trade barriers, taxes, business regulations, and/or labour laws. (EPZ export processing zone A special industrial area in a country where imported materials are processed before being re-exported. Designed to attract mostly foreign investors by offering incentives such as exemptions from certain trade barriers, taxes, business regulations, and/or labour laws. ), formed a union, they have faced a campaign of harassment and intimidation, threats of closure and offers of separation pay.

The union was initially formed to address issues such as having part of their wages paid in the form of meals, illegal deductions from wages for company events and the non-payment of overtime. One union officer was physically assaulted inside the factory, interrogated at the EPZ export processing zone A special industrial area in a country where imported materials are processed before being re-exported. Designed to attract mostly foreign investors by offering incentives such as exemptions from certain trade barriers, taxes, business regulations, and/or labour laws. ’s administrative office about her participation in the union, and finally was faced with a legal case brought by management. Before the case could be heard, however, she was abruptly dismissed in March 2016 together with 19 others for alleged reduced orders, despite the fact that the factory remained on three shifts and later two shifts on forced overtime.

After two mediation mediation A process halfway between conciliation and arbitration, in mediation a neutral third party assists the disputing parties in reaching a settlement to an industrial dispute by suggesting possible, non-binding solutions.

See arbitration, conciliation meetings with management convened by the Department of Labour and Employment (DOLE) failed to find a solution, the workers union called a strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike on 11 April to press for the reinstatement of their colleagues.

Management threatened to close down the factory on 4 May and told non-union employees that they would be rehired once the factory re-opened.

A further mediation mediation A process halfway between conciliation and arbitration, in mediation a neutral third party assists the disputing parties in reaching a settlement to an industrial dispute by suggesting possible, non-binding solutions.

See arbitration, conciliation meeting called by the DOLE led to the reinstatement of 18 of the dismissed workers. The two others agreed to a separation package. The strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike was called off after five days.

Just after midnight on 2 April 2016, gunmen opened fire on a protest camp set up by banana workers in Pantukan, Compostela Valley, narrowly missing three members of the Musahamat (Farm 2) Workers Labour Union. The union is affiliated to the Kilusang Mayo Uno-Southern Mindanao Regional chapter (KMU-SMR), which described the shootings as attempted murder.
The camp was set up by the workers from Musahamat Farm 2 after they voted to go on strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike on 28 March to demand the reinstatement of 52 colleagues. The shooting followed an attempt to burn down the camp.

The union had been in an ongoing dispute with Musahamat, a multinational company that produces and exports bananas and other fruits. In 2015 the union filed a complaint against army officers who had forcibly interrogated union officers. Since that time the KMU-SMR said the banana workers’ union members and leaders had to live and work with daily threats by management and state forces. In February 2016, the union defeated a smear campaign attempting to link them to the New People’s Army (NPA), and won the elections as the bargaining agent bargaining agent A workers’ representative authorised to bargain collectively on behalf of workers in a bargaining unit.

See collective bargaining for workers at Musahamat. Revenge soon followed. After 6 February 2016, 52 contract workers were dismissed and 19 were placed under 30-day suspension. Esperidion Cabaltera, president of the banana workers’ union, said Musahamat is an “incorrigible union buster” which wants to remove leaders and staunch supporters of the KMU union because “it does not want us around demanding our rights”.

The shooting on the strikers’ camp happened less than a day after police opened fire at demonstrating farmers in Kidapawan City demanding rice in the wake of a drought. Two protesters were killed in that incident.

The Musahamat dispute was settled on 15 April 2016, with the reinstatement of the 52 as regular workers.

On 12 April 2016 four members of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) were confronted by police after visiting Verizon offices in the Philippines. They were visiting the Philippines to investigate claims that Verizon was outsourcing outsourcing See contracting-out far more jobs than it claimed from the US to underpaid workers in the Philippines.

A video taken of the confrontation shows that the four union reps were chased off by private security forces and even armed police – who appeared to be tactical officers carrying automatic weapons – who pursued their van through the streets of Alabang and ultimately stopped them for questioning, guns drawn.
“It was like being in a movie – they were dressed all in black with masks and automatic rifles,” said Tim Dubnau, one of the four union reps in the van.

After the escalation eased, the four were taken to the police station and later released, with no charges.

On 30 December, 11 messengers and janitors were dismissed by the Planters Development Bank, recently merged with China Bank Savings Inc., during negotiations for a new collective agreement. Their union, the Planters Development Bank Employees Association (PDBEA,) had sought security of tenure for the workers, most of whom were themselves union officials. The Ecumenical Institute for Labour Education and Research, Inc. (EILER) believed the reason behind the dismissals was to undermine the collective bargaining collective bargaining The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.

See collective bargaining agreement
process and weaken the union. The aim was apparently to replace the dismissed workers with contract labour.

Avon management dismissed 16 worker representatives from its production plant in the Calamba industrial zone outside Manila just a few days before Christmas 2015. The workers had questioned Avon’s employment practices, notably the use of precarious employment and short-term contracts. Only about 120 of the mainly women employees are directly employed, while the other 350 are hired through labour agencies. The agencies workers are paid the minimum monthly wage of PHP 7000 (USD 146). Many of the contract workers have been performing jobs that are part of the core business of the company for years. They work on production lines together with their regularly employed colleagues.

Avon local management had accused the workers’ representatives of conducting an “illegal strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike ” in September 2015 when they were in collective bargaining collective bargaining The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.

See collective bargaining agreement
for an agreement on working conditions that would be effective from February 2014 until January 2017. The final round of negotiations took place in September, and the collective agreement was signed by the union and management on 16 September 2015. Despite the signing of the agreement, the 16 were dismissed at the end of the year.

The Association of Democratic Labour Organisation (ADLO), a federation of the national centre Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU), was faced with what it described as a “vilification campaign” against the KMU at the hands of the Japanese banana exporting company Sumifru . The association was formed in October 2014 to represent its workers at the cold storage unit at the AJMR Sumifru Port in Davao City. The campaign against it appeared to be an attempt to still collective bargaining collective bargaining The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.

See collective bargaining agreement
, and included calls to the union’s individual members instructing them to withdraw their support for the union.
Sumifru favoured the “yellow” union, Southern Philippines Federation of Labour (SPFL), but workers turned their back on it and chose to disaffiliate on 6 August. A month later they formally affiliated to ALDO-KMU, from whom they had been seeking advice and support for the last three years.
On 14 September 2015 the union submitted its proposal for a collective agreement to Sumifru. By law the employer is supposed to send a counter-proposal within ten days. Instead it did nothing until 9 October, when it questioned ADLO-KMU’s right to represent the workers in the negotiations.

It was clear management had no intention of bargaining and finally, on 16 October, the workers held a protest picket to demand that the company present its counter proposal and begin negotiations.

The union was also concerned because Sumifru had begun to hire new workers surpassing the operation’s manning requirement. The move suggested a prelude to their replacement at the workplace, bearing in mind Sumifru’s history of rights violations and union busting union busting Attempts by an employer to prevent the establishment of a trade union or remove an existing union, e.g. by firing union members, challenging unions in court, or by forming a yellow union. .

Carlo Olalo, spokesperson of KMU Southern Mindanao, said that Sumifru has a long and notorious history as a union buster and workers’ rights violator. By the end of the month there had still been no progress, leading to further protests.

Striking distillery workers faced violent repression when they set up a picket line. Contract workers at the Tanduay distillery organised under the banner Tanggulan, Ugnayan, Daluyan ng Lakas ng Anakpawis ng Tanduay Distillers Inc. (TUDLA) launched a strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike on 18 May 2015 in protest at being effectively dismissed for organising organising The process of forming or joining a trade union, or inducing other workers to form or join one. . They set up a picket line outside the Tanduay compound at the gates of the Asia brewery complex.

On the first day, management attempted twice to disperse the workers using water cannon. This followed attacks on the picket line by a combined force of company security guards and the police hitting the strikers with truncheons, and throwing stones and bottles at them. The following day security guards threw bottles and rocks at the picket line, hitting and strikers in the process. The area became littered with shards of glass, and at least 50 strikers were injured.

The contract workers had asked to be placed on permanent contracts. On 22 June the regional office of the Department of Labour and Employment (DoLE) issued an order directing Tanduay Distillers Inc. to regularise the striking contractual workers. The company countered by filing an appeal. On 25 August, the DoLE national office issued a decision affirming its regional office’s order.

The company failed to comply with the order, and on 22 September TUDLA organised another strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike and protest demonstration. Management again responded with violence. When the marching strikers arrived at the brewery, they were greeted with rocks thrown by the company’s security guards, while an Asia Brewery fire truck blasted them with water. A police vehicle at the rear of the march reportedly tried to run demonstrators over. A video released by the Ecumenical Institute for Labour Education and Research, Inc. (EILER) showed the police car arriving at the company gate in full throttle, turning around and getting dangerously close to the protesting workers. One of the police officers also fired two gunshots as warning on striking workers.

Just weeks after the Supreme Court granted the petitions for writ of amparo and writ of habeas data filed by activists from the Confederation of Unity, Recognition recognition The designation by a government agency of a union as the bargaining agent for workers in a given bargaining unit, or acceptance by an employer that its employees can be collectively represented by a union. and Advancement of Government Employees (COURAGE), the harassment resumed.
On 17 August 2015 Raquel Toquero, one of the activists who sought protection from the courts, discovered a fake Facebook account in her name. It had the same cover photo and the same profile picture of her genuine Facebook account. The status posts, however, were different.

Some of her colleagues also found themselves in the same predicament.
Toquero believed state agents were behind it. A week later a man came to her home claiming to be a police officer investigating the case, but did not present any ID, and seemed more interested in asking about Toquero’s activities. During previous visits by people assumed to be government agents, she had been told, “We know who you are. We can help you if you stop what you are doing.”

On 16 September four men who introduced themselves as policemen went to the house of Roman Sanchez, president of the National Food Authority Employees Union, in Los Banos, Laguna. They knew he wasnt’ there, but they questioned his wife.

Later other activists reported similar incidents. The military and the police had been requested to file their responses with the courts. The activists concerned also filed complaints with the Commission on Human Rights and the International Labour Organisation (ILO International Labour Organization A tripartite United Nations (UN) agency established in 1919 to promote working and living conditions. The main international body charged with developing and overseeing international labour standards.

See tripartism, ITUC Guide to international trade union rights ).

On 22 June 2015 a soldier approached Renato Asa, public information officer for the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) national trade union centre trade union centre A central organisation at the national, regional or district level consisting of affiliated trade unions. Often denotes a national federation or confederation. , as he was leaving his home. The soldier tried to recruit him as an informant for the military, and seemed to be threatening that his life would be in danger if he refused. The soldier asked Asa to decide immediately about “cooperating” with the military, “before it’s too late.”
On 29 June, members and leaders of the Confederation of Unity, Recognition recognition The designation by a government agency of a union as the bargaining agent for workers in a given bargaining unit, or acceptance by an employer that its employees can be collectively represented by a union. and Advancement of Government Employees (COURAGE) union filed complaints about very similar cases of harassment with the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) regarding state agents trying to coerce them into stopping their union activities. The complainants said they had been under surveillance by military agents and had received personal visits. An earlier complaint was filed on 8 June for harassment against leaders of the organisation, but the harassment then became more persistent and spread to COURAGE staff and organisers.
The complainants included Elvie Prudencio, president of the National Wages and Productivity Commission Employees Association and national president of the Department of Labour and Employment Employees Union; Erwin Lanuza, president of Kasamaka QC, a union of Quezon City Hall employees and national president of the League of LGU Employees; Benny Angeles, a retired Metropolitan Manila Development Authority employee and a former officer of the KKK-MMDA union; and members of the COURAGE national staff.

A total of 25 complainants reported that they were followed and visited in their homes by men they suspected to be military agents who accused them of being communists and told them that they should surrender before it was too late. They also received what they described as “poison letters”.

In July the Supreme Court granted the petitions for writ of amparo and writ of habeas data filed by the COURAGE activists.

In July 2015 the National Labour Relations Commission (NLRC) Regional Arbitration arbitration A means of resolving disputes outside the courts through the involvement of a neutral third party, which can either be a single arbitrator or an arbitration board. In non-binding arbitration, the disputing parties are free to reject the third party’s recommendation, whilst in binding arbitration they are bound by its decision. Compulsory arbitration denotes the process where arbitration is not voluntarily entered into by the parties, but is prescribed by law or decided by the authorities.

See conciliation, mediation Board (RAB) declared a strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike by workers at Cenapro Chemicals illegal. The workers strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike , in protest at forced overtime, took place in October 2014, and lasted 22 days. It was lifted following the signing of a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between management and union on 8 November 2014.

According to the MOA the management would end forced overtime, hire additional workers, and not take reprisals against the union. Over six months later, forced overtime continued, no relief staff had been hired, and 11 union officers faced dismissal for their role in the strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike .

Workers were concerned about health and safety at the plant, following a string of workplace accidents, including the mutilation of hands after being caught in machinery. They were also concerned that a number of incidents of cancer and cardiac arrest were work related. The company forced it workers to do 16-hour shifts, exposed to harmful chemicals, extreme heat and black dust from charcoal.

Japanese-owned banana export company Sumifru dismissed 177 workers at Packing Plant 90 on 8 June 2015, just weeks after they had taken collective action to pressure management into dropping a piece-rate wage scheme. Sumifru unilaterally began implementing the piece-rate payment system on 23 March in its packing plants in Compostela Valley. Banana Industry Growers and Workers Against Sumifru (BIGWAS), a group of banana packing plant unions, was formed in March in protest at the piece-rate payment scheme that slashed workers’ wages by at least 50 per cent.

On 22 April, the workers’ successive mass actions forced the suspension of the piece-rate scheme, and the dispute was resolved through a compromise agreement. This agreement stated, among others, that the piece-rate scheme would be immediately revoked and there would be “no retaliatory actions against parties.”

However, on 1 June, workers arrived to find the packing plant padlocked, due supposedly to a rent dispute with the landowner. Two days later the workers were told to report for work at a nearby mini packing unit pending resolution of the rent issue between. The union believed there was no rent issue, and that it was a lockout lockout A form of industrial action whereby an employer refuses work to its employees or temporarily shuts down operations. in retaliation for the collective action. On 8 June, company guards suddenly turned the workers away at the gate upon management’s orders.

Vicente Barrios, president of Nagkahiusang Mamumuo sa Suyapa Farm – National Federation of Labour Unions – Kilusang Mayo Uno (Namaufa-Naflu-KMU), which represents the rank and file workers of Packing Plant 90, said that Sumifru had tried and failed several times to bust the unions in the banana packing plants in Compostela. In 2012 Sumifru dismissed all workers at two of the packing plants, but had to reinstate them after it failed to prove grounds for dismissal. The union had been struggling for better conditions for the workers for years, and in December 2006 Barrios narrowly escaped an attempt on his life. One of his colleagues, Jerson Lastimoso, died instantly of multiple gunshot wounds. Barrios also reported that the military had been pressuring him to stop his union activities and to dissociate from KMU since 2004.

The workers went on strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike on 10 June 2015 to demand that all those who had been dismissed be reinstated. They were joined by colleagues at packing plant 92 who went on a sympathy strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike . An agreement was reached after ten days, agreeing to reinstatement and no retaliation, and the strikers returned to work on 19 June.

Some 200 contract workers employed by Tanduay Distillers Inc. were effectively sacked in May 2015, after they tried to form a workers’ association. The company employed nearly 400 contract workers and only 40 regular workers. Most of the contract workers had been employed for between five and 11 years continuously by Tanduay and by law should have been made regular workers. As contract workers, they were paid less than regular workers, in most cases below the minimum wage.

They decided to organise under the banner Tanggulan, Ugnayan, Daluyan ng Lakas ng Anakpawis ng Tanduay Distillers Inc. (TUDLA) to demand regular contracts and better safety protection. In response management forced them to go on a five-day leave starting on April 24, and forced them to sign a waiver that would retract their calls for regularisation. Then on 15 May nearly all workers organised under TUDLA were not given a work schedule, which based on previous practice was tantamount to dismissal.

The Kepco-Salcon Power Corporation, which runs a coal-fired power plant, dismissed two employees, Lowell Sanchez, a safety supervisor and president of Kepco Cebu Supervisors Association, and Nelson Florita, assistant operation division manager, at the end of March 2015 for organising organising The process of forming or joining a trade union, or inducing other workers to form or join one. . Another employee, Alex Poste, president of the Kepco Cebu Employees Association, said the rank-and-file employees also faced unfair labour practices. Some employees had been asked to sign a document promising that they would not join the union.

The two unions – both affiliated with the Workers’ Solidarity Network, the national federation of all power industry unions – filed a strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike notice on 8 April. Their principal demands were the reinstatement of their two colleagues and payment of their back wages, an end to unfair labour practices and voluntary recognition recognition The designation by a government agency of a union as the bargaining agent for workers in a given bargaining unit, or acceptance by an employer that its employees can be collectively represented by a union. by the management of the union to be the official bargaining unit bargaining unit A group of workers within a particular company, establishment, industry or occupation that constitutes an appropriate unit for the purpose of collective bargaining.

See bargaining agent
of the supervisory employees.

During the mediation mediation A process halfway between conciliation and arbitration, in mediation a neutral third party assists the disputing parties in reaching a settlement to an industrial dispute by suggesting possible, non-binding solutions.

See arbitration, conciliation and conciliation conciliation An attempt by a neutral third party, a conciliator, to aid the settling of an industrial dispute by improving communications, offering advice and interpreting issues to bring the disputing parties to a point where they can reconcile their differences. The conciliator does not take as active a role as a mediator or an arbitrator.

See arbitration, mediation process that followed, management refused to give in to any of the unions’ demands. Finally, just as the strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike was to go ahead, agreement was reached on 2 May. The two dismissed workers were reinstated, but in the case of Lowell Sanchez, it was only an administrative reinstatement. He was put back on the payroll pending an investigation into management accusations that the supervisor had been organising organising The process of forming or joining a trade union, or inducing other workers to form or join one. rank-and-file employees, which was expected to last two months.

On 22 April 2015, the Mayor’s office in General Santos issued an order for the union representing Citra Mina workers to cease picketing picketing Demonstration or patrolling outside a workplace to publicise the existence of an industrial dispute or a strike, and to persuade other workers not to enter the establishment or discourage consumers from patronising the employer. Secondary picketing involves picketing of a neutral establishment with a view to putting indirect pressure on the target employer. the tuna factory or face forcible removal. The workers had been picketing picketing Demonstration or patrolling outside a workplace to publicise the existence of an industrial dispute or a strike, and to persuade other workers not to enter the establishment or discourage consumers from patronising the employer. Secondary picketing involves picketing of a neutral establishment with a view to putting indirect pressure on the target employer. for over a year in support of 70 employees who were sacked in waves of repression for forming a legally registered union in 2013 and demanding recognition recognition The designation by a government agency of a union as the bargaining agent for workers in a given bargaining unit, or acceptance by an employer that its employees can be collectively represented by a union. .
Pressure was mounting on Citra Mina. On 23 April the International Union of Food Workers (IUF) and the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF), assisted by Belgian trade unions, demonstrated at the Brussels Seafood Expo to spotlight Citra Mina’s human rights abuses. The European Union is a prime export market for the company’s tuna.

The company also faced hearings in the Philippines’ House of Representatives, which had already chronicled a systematic pattern of rights abuses by the group’s companies, including serious violations of labour standards and trade union rights, the use of shell companies to evade legal obligations, the slave-like conditions on boats, and deaths on the high seas.

Over the next three days, union members and supporters mobilised continuously to show their support for the striking workers and their struggle. The Mayor’s office then rescinded its order - and apologised for its “error”.

The Aquino government’s persistent denial of trade union rights led the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) to organise a picket outside the Department of Labour and Employment on 10 April 2015 in protest. Many of the participants had been dismissed for trying to form trade unions and had been involved in several strikes to protest against union busting union busting Attempts by an employer to prevent the establishment of a trade union or remove an existing union, e.g. by firing union members, challenging unions in court, or by forming a yellow union. over the previous two years at Pentagon Steel Corporation (April 2013), Express Coats (March 2014), Janrey (March 2014) Golden Fortune Construction (December 2014), and Long Hong Recycled Plastics (March 2015).

The KMU drew attention to a report by the Centre for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR), published in 2014, which found that thousands of workers continued to experience violations of their right to form trade unions. Even where workers’ succeeded in forming a union, employers regularly refused to negotiate a collective agreement. Organisers are frequently dismissed and blacklisted. Less than ten per cent of employees in the Philippines belong to a trade union, and of these only 12 per cent are covered by a collective agreement.

In January 2014, the banana company Sumifru suspended employment contracts of 141 union members. However, the labour arbitration arbitration A means of resolving disputes outside the courts through the involvement of a neutral third party, which can either be a single arbitrator or an arbitration board. In non-binding arbitration, the disputing parties are free to reject the third party’s recommendation, whilst in binding arbitration they are bound by its decision. Compulsory arbitration denotes the process where arbitration is not voluntarily entered into by the parties, but is prescribed by law or decided by the authorities.

See conciliation, mediation board ordered their reinstatement and the payment of compensation for lost wages. When the company failed to comply with the order, workers conducted a picket in front of the residence of the company owner Jesus Jamero, who responded by shooting on workers with his gun. The union complained to the police, who failed to act on the incident arguing that workers had provoked the violence with their rally.

The HSBCEU was banned from entering the HSBC premises when negotiations with respect to a new collective agreement were about to start.

At about 8:00am on 2 July 2013, Dodong Petalcorin, President of the Davao City-based Network of Transport Organisations (NETO), an affiliate of the National Confederation of Transport Workers’ Union (NCTU) - Alliance of Progressive Labour (APL) was shot three times in the chest by an assassin as he was leaving his home for the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB). Two other APL leaders were also murdered earlier this year. Following the May 2013 elections, Romy Almacin, a Municipal Councillor and transport leader was shot to death in broad daylight. His murder is believed to be related to his campaign against graft and corruption and illegal logging in that municipality. Emilio Rivera, former Chairman of an independent transport workers’ organisation, Matina Aplaya Transport Cooperative (MATRANSCO), was murdered on 25 January 2013 near the offices of the LTFRB. It is believed his murder was linked to his campaign to expose corruption at the LTFRB and to oust its director. In neither case has the state arrested or prosecuted those responsible for these crimes.

Kagi Alimudin P. Lucman, President of the Notre Dame Village Operators and Drivers Association (NDVODA), which was established in 2009 and affiliated to the NCTU-APL in 2010, was killed on 18 July 2013 by a lone gunman.

The Clark Development Corporation has been refusing to implement a collective agreement concluded with the supervisors’ union in March 2012. In April 2013, the Court of Appeal dismissed the company’s appeal to issue a temporary restraining order against the implementation of their collective bargaining collective bargaining The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.

See collective bargaining agreement
agreement with the workers. The workers announced that they would instigate a strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike after the legal cooling-off period.

Two union leaders have been charged with “revolting” against the government and were imprisoned on 29 April 2012. Unions organised a protest on 18 January 2013 to protest against the systematic imprisonment of union leaders.

The President of the Hong Kong-Shanghai Banking Corporation Employees’ Union (HSBCEU), a vocal critic of HSBC’s outsourcing outsourcing See contracting-out programme was dismissed as a result of his criticism of management.

On 15 January 2013, union officials from the PMI Faculty and Employees Union Alberto Porlacin, Joseph Nelson Sarabia, Violeta Dano, Nelson Estano, Victorino Cabalit, and Joel Langcamon were dismissed by PMI- Bohol Colleges. There was no valid justification for dismissal. The termination came after the union engaged in negotiations over issues such as benefits, work schedules, and grievance procedures. PMI Colleges Bohol increased security and threated the leader of the Student Body Council with dismissal should he support the strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike which was announced as a result of the dismissals.

The Human Security Act classifies a wide range of crimes as terrorist acts if they are committed to “create a condition of widespread and extraordinary fear and panic among the populace, in order to coerce the government to give in to an unlawful demand”. Mandatory sentences are set at 40 years without possibility of parole for terrorism or conspiracy to commit terrorism, and similarly heavy penalties are created for lesser crimes. There are significant concerns among human rights organisations and trade unionists that the overly broad language in the law leaves it open to abuse by local police and judicial authorities. Arrests without warrants are allowed, and indefinite detention is made possible in instances where authorities find there is an “actual or imminent terrorist attack”.

The Labour Standards Enforcement Framework essentially abandons the principle of government labour inspection labour inspection An authority responsible for ensuring compliance with labour laws and legal provisions relating to protection of workers through the inspection of workplaces. for workplaces with more than 200 workers. Instead of a formal inspection, the order only requires self-regulation of labour standards among large companies and in companies where there is a union that has registered a collective bargaining collective bargaining The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.

See collective bargaining agreement
agreement.

Trade union leaders continued to face harassment, arrest, and the loss of their jobs by the filing of false criminal charges. One of the most common tactics used by private employers and government, alike, was to label union leaders and members as terrorists. Faced with a legal system that offers little assistance or due process, trade unions persisted in their efforts.