MANILA, Philippines—The International Labor Organization (ILO), the United Nations’ arm for labor concerns, is sending a fact-finding mission to the Philippines to investigate complaints of trade-union rights violations in the country.
The investigation from Sept. 22 to 29 would seek to determine if the Philippines under the administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has been violating its international commitments to respect freedom of association, collective bargaining, and the right to strike.
The government agreed to the ILO mission during the annual International Labor Conference held in Geneva, Switzerland, in June.
The mission is in response to complaints of military involvement in union-busting and the killing of labor leaders, among other things, filed by the labor group Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) in 2006.
KMU spokesperson Wendell Gumban said ILO representatives from Geneva, in coordination with ILO Asia-Pacific, will interview workers’ organizations and inspect two major manufacturing plants in Central and southern Luzon.
They will also meet with the families of victims and survivors of extra-judicial killings, enforced disappearances and harassment related to labor disputes.
The KMU will launch in Manila today “ILO Watch,” an alliance of civil society groups formed to monitor the high-level ILO mission and to intensify the campaign against labor rights violations.
KMU chair Elmer Labog in a statement scored the Department of Labor and Employment for “bragging” about the general state of “industrial peace” in the country, saying that the trade union movement in the country has experienced its “most severe blows” in recent history.
According to KMU, 92 trade union leaders have been murdered since President-Arroyo assumed office in 2001.
The group suspects the killings were “extrajudicial” hits conducted by military-backed death squads, which indicates the Arroyo administration’s disregard for human rights, including labor organizing rights, it said. –Jerome Aning, Philippine Daily Inquirer with a report from Marlon Ramos
March –
IT’S WOMEN’S MONTH!
“Respect and support women
every day of the year/s!”
Invoke Article 33 of the ILO Constitution
against the military junta in Myanmar
to carry out the recommendations of the 2021 ILO Commission of Inquiry
against serious violations of protocols of
Forced Labour and Freedom of Association.
Accept the National Unity Government (NUG)
of Myanmar. Reject Military!
#WearMask #WashHands
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Monthly Observances:
Women’s Role in History Month
Weekly Observances:
Week 1: Environmental Week;
Women’s Week
Week 3: Philippine Industry and “
Made-in-the-Philippines Products Week
Last Week: Protection and Gender-Fair Treatment
of the Girl Child Week
Daily Observances:
March 8: Women’s Rights and
International Peace Day;
National Women’s Day
March 4: Employee Appreciation Day
March 15: World Consumer Rights Day
March 18: Global Recycling Day
March 21: International Day for the Elimination
of Racial Discrimination
March 23: International Day for the Right to the Truth
Concerning Gross Human Rights Violations
and for the Dignity of Victims
March 25: International Day of Remembrance of the
Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade
March 27: Earth Hour
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