Filipino trade unions set to boost organizing campaigns

During the training workshop on enhancing skills in organizing held on 8-9 November at Quezon City, Philippines union organizers acquired a set of skills and competence to conduct massive organizing campaigns in a challenging environment.

Realizing the need to build unions in order to revitalize trade union movement in the Philippines and to strengthen organizations amid global and national challenging environment IndustriALL affiliates send a strong message to take cohesive action to meet these challenges. ”Unions have to take appropriate organizing strategies and enhance the capacity of their organizers to adop local strategies in a global integrated economy,” said one of the union organizers.

In the Philippines the unionization rate is low. Statistics show a historical decline of membership, from 3.57 million members in 1995 dwon to 1.855 million or almost 48 per cent less in 2006. This means that in 2006 there were only 9.2 per cent of full-time workers organized. This figure has been continually declining over the years and went down to 6 per cent during this year.

The workshop came up with a variety of strategies and organizing models in line with the IndustriALL Global Union’s central goal in building union power through organizing and membership growth by organizing workers covered by IndustriALL sectors and ensuring that women and young precarious workers or agency workers are organized throughout supply chains. Other methods, including “alternative labour tools” and dialogue mechanism as instruments for organizing were also explored.

At the end of the workshop the participants developed a concrete organizing plan and identified targets with detailed actions to be implemented in 2015.