In 1989, more than 20,000 workers and public
sector employees marched through the narrow streets of Davao City demanding for
a Php25 legislated wage increase.
The
marchers were a merry mix of leftists, moderates and rightists. But the loudest color was that of the leftist
Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU), then the dominant labor center in Mindanao. KMU
earlier spearheaded an island-wide general strike which paralyzed transport and
commerce in most of Mindanao’s key cities in solidarity with workers throughout
the country who have been demanding for a wage increase for all workers
nationwide.
The
newly restored Philippine Congress thereafter passed a law granting a P25
across the board pay hike. It was
however the last of its kind since the fall of the Marcos dictatorship.
In the
same year, the Herrera Law (Republic Act 6715) was also enacted which amended
the Labor Code of the Philippines. Among
its major provisions is the “rationalization” of wage increases, leaving the
determination of the minimum pay scale to the Regional Tripartite Wage and
Productivity Board created under Republic Act 6727.
It also
granted the labor secretary broad powers to assume jurisdiction over labor
disputes in the name of national security and public interest, a carryover of
the draconian Marcos era- Presidential Decree No. 442 (old Labor Code). Moreover, the Herrera Law, while prohibiting
labor only contracting, provided legal covers how employers can resort to labor
contracting.
Today,
most manufacturing and services companies have almost exclusively contract
employees and workers.
More
than two decades of RA 6715, too, the number of organized workers nationwide
dropped from a high of 2.97 million unionized workers before the law was
passed, it was down to mere 555,000 in 2004 which further dropped to 319,408 in
2010. The 2010 number of organized
workers was a pathetic 10.6 per cent of the total 3,020,168 wage earners in the
country at that time and less than one (1) percent of the country’s 2009 labor
force of 39.39 million (www.bulatlat.com).
In
addition, the real value of wages has ‘stagnated’ if not contracted. According to the Ecumenical Institute
Education and Research, wage index dropped from Php128.5 in 1989 to Php112.9 in
2009. In other words, workers lost
Php15.60 in real value of their daily wage in 20 years of the Herrera Law.
Research
and think-thank group IBON today said the “current NCR minimum wage of Php426
[US$10] is grossly insufficient to provide for even a small family.
“The
largest part of this wage breaks down into just approximately: Php204 per day
for food; Php2,096 per month for rent; Php1,150 per month for fuel, light and
water; Php28 per day (or Php843 per month) for transportation. These account
for some 80% of total spending with the balance going to personal care,
clothing and footwear, education, medical care and others.
“This
indicates the poor quality of life that minimum wage earners in Metro Manila
can afford. IBON added that this contrasts with, for example, the amount spent
by the richest 10% of families in NCR who average Php18,041 per month just on
food.”
Against
this backdrop, trade union centers in the country today have largely become
nominal ‘spokesentity’ rather than the formidable labor voice they once were
immediately after the ouster of the Marcos dictatorship.
The
Kilusang Mayo Uno, which challenged government trade union centers backed and
later seized dominance in the post EDSA labor movement, has seen its clout
greatly reduced and is now back to where it was during the dark years of
martial law.
Its
main organizational and ideological rival, the AFL-CIO backed Trade Union
Congress of the Philippines, did not escape the decapitating effects of the
Herrera Law, ironically authored by one of its leading stalwarts, former Sen.
Ernesto Herrera.
In the
late 80’s, when KMU has more than 600,000 unionized members and tens of
thousands more under its effective influence, it became bold enough to
challenge the government to allow workers to organize along trades. The proposal, while never translated in a
proposed law, was flatly rejected by employers and its rival, mindful of the
growing influence of the militant labor group in the labor movement.
Today,
however, KMU, TUCP and the unions affiliated with the World Free Trade Unions
can only regret why they did not organize along trades, for together with the
rapid and steadily decline of the number of organized workers, strikes have
also dramatically dropped if not disappeared altogether. Newly registered unions dipped from 627 to
just 279 in 2008. From 197 strikes in
1989, these hit almost rock bottom to just 4 in 2009.
With
close to 8 percent of the country’s 39,200,000 (2011 figure) workforce out of
jobs and competing for whatever available job there is in the market, trade
unionism will have to take the backseat in favor of day to day survival as if
the existing laws and conditions are not deterrent enough for trade unionism to
again spring back to life.
But as
its history will suggest, trade unionism, at least the more militant and
progressive side of it, rises and falls along with the crisis political economy
of the Philippines.
Edwin
Espejo
Asian
Correspondent
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