Spotlight interview with Anna Lee Fos

Brussels, 21 November 2005 (ICFTU OnLine): What works in mobilizing Philippine workers? Send them short messages through their cell phones! Anna Lee M. Fos, Research Officer from Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), explains their strategy to combat tactics used to bust local unions in the export-processing zones (EPZs).

For several years the TUCP has been organizing companies in export-processing zones (EPZ) in the Philippines. Currently, what are the most serious violations on workers’ rights in EPZs?

Low wages and bad working conditions can still be seen as the central issue in many EPZs. Companies take a long time implementing a new wage increase. Some immediately comply, others postpone paying while waiting for petitions for exemption. Many of the garment workers in the companies are still paid on a piece-rate mostly on a contractual and apprenticeship bases. They also do not really know how their salaries are being calculated.

Aside from salaries, women are often discriminated against as they must undergo a pregnancy test prior to hiring. Compulsory overtime work is also rampant. Two years ago, some garment workers were given amphetamines-not ordinarily prescribed by doctors- by the management to keep them awake during once a week overnight work as shipments came in. However workers experienced various side effects such as extreme insomnia, nervousness and constipation after taking the drug. People were used like machines which just need to be fuelled in order to function.

Which tactics are most frequently used to discourage EPZ workers from joining local unions?

First, when a union is being built up and union organizers try to get members and meet with workers, the management regularly uses “black propaganda” against the union. The management would say that union organizers and union officers get rich if ever the workers start paying them union dues. Workers identified as union members or sympathisers are being systematically isolated and transferred to another department to avoid getting them in touch with other workers. Some are either promoted or demoted or sent abroad for training. And union officers are typically the first ones targeted for a forced leave, retrenchment, suspension or termination. Overtime work is also a tactic used to prevent workers from meeting regularly.

Another growing trend is that some companies prefer to hire workers who are members of a certain religious groups because they do not allow their followers to participate in union activities.. Members follow whatever their leader says, even who they must vote for during local and national elections. It is thus almost impossible to encourage those members to join unions because they believe it is against the religion they value so much. Employers take of course advantage of that.

Do union-busting practices often bring union officers to the court? Are labour disputes getting more complicated and harder to resolve?

Yes, our union officers now have to contend with both the organizing campaign and the criminal cases filed against them. When needed papers and other requirements for registration in establishing a union are accomplished, the management will then claim that signatures are fake or that no organizational meeting -which is one of the requirements in union registration- was conducted. The union secretary who is certifying and the president who is approving the papers are usually the ones being charged with forgery or fraud. There are also increasing cases of union officers charged with theft or alleged stealing of company properties.

There is another new tactic which is being increasingly used as a way to bust the union and block the conduct of a certification election: companies now resort to a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO). Management, claiming that the conduct of elections will do the company harm, manages to get a TRO issued by the Court of Appeals. Thus the election gets postponed until the court determines whether there is a merit in the petition or not.

But here in the Philippines, this kind of Temporary Restraining Order turns out to be a Permanent Restraining Order because the process takes so long. Several months of delay gives the management time to discourage workers from joining the union.

In the meantime, union officers are required to respond to the management’s allegations. We still have to figure out what is the most appropriate response to this. One of the options is to cancel the existing union registration and register a new one. But it means another delay and starting from zero again.

After a Petition for Certification Election (PCE) is filed, the time of sudden improvements within the company comes: better wages and benefits, training opportunities abroad and improved working conditions. Once the union is registered, almost 90% of the companies file a petition for cancellation of the union registration for alleged fraud.

What EPZ-related programs has TUCP been undertaking in recent years to overcome these difficulties?

We came up with a three-pronged program. The first component consists of coordinating 14 trained union organizers in selected EPZs in the Philippines. This is part of our continuing “anti-sweatshop” campaign. Moreover other non-paid volunteer organizers who are in the best position to provide us with crucial information help out in getting contact persons and identifying companies to be organized. We could organize the workers better when we know the issues at the workplace.

The second component is a community-building program targeting as a priority but not exclusively the displaced workers including women and youth. Those coalitions, located largely around EPZ-areas, are composed of various government and non-government agencies which are implementing the employment programs initiated by the Philippine government. They give us referrals for vacancies and access to loans from local government units or even private institutions for displaced workers to be able to run small-scale business.

The third element is the trafficking program which has involved workers in the EPZs including people in the community. All three components are parts of an interconnected program because through community-building projects we try to address the needs of displaced workers who are prone to be illegally recruited or trafficked as they look for another job inside or outside the EPZ.

How were you able to put workers’ rights on the agenda of such “coalitions” composed of government agencies and civil society organizations?

Those coalitions started as a women- and children-focused alliance. Since 90% of EPZ workers are women, labour unions pushed to expand the scope to other issues such as livelihood, human trafficking or union organizing. Early in the coalition-building process, we had difficulty convincing other partners that workers have rights, too; that organizing is provided by law. Many of them had the impression that trade unions’ main objective is to make trouble.

But now coalitions learned the value of unions, appreciating that whatever problems a member is having with the employers can be brought to the attention of authorities with assistance of the union.

There are now eleven coalitions nationwide in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao organized on a regional or provincial basis. The good thing is that even if the “anti-sweatshop campaign” program ended in 2003, the program is still being carried out and sustained by the coalitions at the local level. Organizing has become part of the coalitions’ continuing advocacy program.

Since it is not possible to organize all EPZ companies, how do you prioritize one over the other? And what strategy have you developed in dealing with the management?

Strategically speaking we prioritize “branded” companies with labels, meaning those with a corporate code of conduct, which normally pledges compliance with national law and written provisions of the code which include those principles embodied in ILO core labour standards. We have tried it many times, and there have been good management responses.

We start sending a letter to the management informing them of any violation of their code of conduct. They seldom meet with workers, unions or concerned government agencies to discuss the allegations contained in the letter. Every time we send a letter to the management, we furnish a copy to all the involved government agencies. Then we make follow-up to check if there has been action taken by these government agencies.

If this still does not work, the last resort will be mounting an international solidarity campaign. Why is this the last resort? Because if buyers know that a particular Philippine company is violating their codes of conduct, they are likely to pull out their orders and, in turn, companies either close, transfer or terminate workers. We see actions around codes of conduct as a way of protecting workers’ rights, as long as this does not lead to job losses.

Anti-union gimmicks in EPZ seem to have evolved. Have TUCP techniques evolved in the same way?

One of the best practices worth mentioning is the “Association of Sanitary Inspectors” which is active in the Laguna area. Local government units employ inspectors to issue sanitary licences to companies including those inside EPZs. They conduct field inspections once a year to determine if companies are complying with sanitation regulations. The TUCP and the Laguna Area Coalition oriented these inspectors and made them understand more what labour standards mean.

The inspectors were persuaded to use a 32-page sweatshop verification questionnaire and the two-page issues checklist based on International Labour Organization (ILO) core standards. The main focus remains on health, safety and occupation and child labor issues and not much on organizing components. Nevertheless those inspectors are allowed to enter companies where unions are not and can really see what is going on inside the factory. These vital first-hand pieces of information help them in their own work and us in pushing workers’ concerns.

What works best in mobilizing EPZ workers?

Going house-to-house still works but it takes a lot of time and money since workers usually do not live close to each other. Moreover, this kind of activity can take place only after the working day at night, on Sundays or during rest days. Distributing leaflets is also good but workers are often tired of reading papers. If they do not feel personally and directly affected by an issue, they don’t read them.

There is a modern and alternative way of reaching out to the worker. This is through “texting” or sending short messages through cellular phones, which is especially appropriate when going door-to-door is difficult. Every time we conduct Focused Group Discussions (FGD) or local-level orientation sessions, we ask workers to fill up a registration form including their cell phone number. We can text them reminders such as “come to the certification election” even if they are not union members yet.

Internet chat and e-groups are also of great help to sustain communication and encourage regular exchange of information on organising strategies and community-based campaigns among union officers, members, volunteers and various coalition partners.

In the same line, we also use the internet-based Chikka (www.chikka.com) which allows us to send text messages for free to a lot of people at the same time. You just go to an internet café and then send the same text messages to scores of workers through this technology. As the management’s anti-union tricks are becoming more “high-tech”, creative and keep changing all the time, today’s union organizers should in response be knowledgeable, innovative and do multi-tasking on almost everything, from labour code to internet surfing.

Interview by Laurent Duvillier