4 October, 2011Union leaders in metalworkers' organizations in the Philippines met for a national workshop on September 28-29 in Manila to find pragmatic solutions, boost cooperation and share information.
PHILIPPINES: How do you go about building unity amongst local unions when faced with a troublesome past? That was the question facing the leaders from both the Philippines Metalworkers Alliance (PMA) and the Metalworkers Alliance of the Philippines (MWAP) at a National Workshop facilitated by the IMF. To their credit both PMA and MWAP found some pragmatic solutions to benefit workers. These included a new focus on organizing that builds cooperation and not conflict amongst both unions. By sharing information on collective bargaining agreements and developing a dispute mechanism in case of an inter-union conflict the leaders hope to build greater cooperation between their unions at the national level.
One such example was the decision of the unions to request a joint meeting with the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and raise issues of mutual concern. The issues identified amongst the unions are the application and implementation of existing labour laws and workers rights in the Philippines. The increasing contractualisation of workers, differences between a minimum wage and an acceptable living wage and freedom of association and recognition of workers' rights in economic processing zones. All of the issues will also be stated and hand delivered to the Minister in a joint letter.
The participants in the meeting also discussed future strategies to overcome the low density of unionized metalworkers (around 3 percent) the lack of national coordination and the need to create mechanisms to share experiences and strategies to confront many common problems. As a first step both agreed to share information on organizing and union building activities at the national level. Both unions' leaders accepted to meet quarterly in a joint leadership forum. The purpose of the meeting would be to identify organizing targets and to ensure non-competition amongst the unions on agreed targets.
Rob Johnston, IMF Executive Director, informed the participants "With so many workers unorganized in the Philippines our resources and efforts have to be on building density. What I've heard during the meeting is a willingness to accept this and a commitment to do something about it".
Also so attending the meeting were Glen Thompson from the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) and Masahiro Nogi and Shinya Iwai from the IMF Japan Council. All presented national case studies on how their unions deal with inter-union conflicts.