Pinoy Weekly Foreign labor activists raise alarm over union repression, belittle supposed PH growth

Pinoy Weekly

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Posted: 19 Jul 2013 08:44 AM PDT Foriegn labor activists join KMU in a briefing in fornt of Pentagon Steel Corp. (Contributed Photo) Foreign labor activists belied the Philippine government’s claim of a booming domestic economy that benefits local workers. They cited the many reports of continuing trade union repression, including that of the steel workers of Pentagon Steel Corp. in Quezon City. Labor rights advocates from the USA, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Australia and Myanmar were in the country for an international labor conference. They asked President Aquino to stop “corporate-sponsored harassment and blackmailing of unions.” The group questioned the supposed 7.3 percent gross domestic product growth boasted by the Aquino government and said it contradicts the actual state of Filipino workers. “What kind of economic growth is this when workers are treated like machines and not humans, when they are deprived of decent wages and decent jobs, when they are being mauled and gagged?” asked Hang Tung of Hong Kong-based Labour Action China. Tung added that many governments including the Philippines that refuse to uphold freedom to organize render workers more vulnerable to exploitation. “It’s like workers are being gagged while they are being forced to carry the economic burden being passed on by greedy profiteers,” Tung said. The group held the Philippine government accountable for labor rights violations committed against workers and unions. “The union-busting schemes and intimidation of union members in the country only make a mockery of the economic growth being bragged by the President,” said Brian Campbell, a lawyer of the US-based International Labor Rights Forum. Campbell cited the case of workers in Pentagon Steel Corp. who have being in a picket line for three months now. The Pentagon workers are being harassed almost daily, the last of which was on July 13 when a security guard was killed and another seriously injured after the company’s delivery truck ran over them while they were forcibly clearing the gate from picketing workers. “Philippine government’s failure to uphold workers’ rights despite recommendations by international bodies sets a bad example to other countries which are also home to trade union repression,”Campbell said The International Workshop on the Freedom of Association was held from July 16 to 17 in University of the Philippines- Diliman to consolidate experiences and strategies on labor organizing from different countries. ##