Changing face of labor (and management)

Without demeaning Filipino labor, its strength and voice through the years has increasingly been diminished and silenced. This year, sans the din of election campaigning, we note that there are fewer workers who would march the streets or lay their lives for the cause.

The awesome might of organized labor, as the world had once witnessed, seems to have been relegated to the pages of history. What is left in most of our memories are celluloid films yellowed by age or photos of throngs of grisly men pushing forward akimbo to fight for better wages, more humane conditions, and the rights of working women.

Thus all over the world, May 1 (or whenever Labor Day is observed) has become more of a holiday break. It is no different in the Philippines. This year, Labor Day celebration comes with a holiday on May 3, a Monday, to give workers and their families a longer holiday weekend.

History trivia

Now more than ever, it is perhaps fitting to recall the facts behind the celebration of Labor Day. For many of us, the facts behind the militancy of Filipino laborers during the turn of the century can only be read in books, or for today’s tech savvy, through the Internet.

A quick WikiPilipinas search will tell us that “Labor Day in the Philippines was first celebrated in 1903, when the Philippines was still under US rule. That year, more than a hundred thousand workers organized by the Union Obrero Democratica de Filipinas (UODF) marched to Malacañang on the first of May to demand better working conditions.

“The American colonial government was alarmed. The Philippine Constabulary, composed of Americans and Filipinos, raided the printing press of UODF and arrested its president, Dominador Gomez, for illegal assembly and sedition.

“Ten years later, on May 1, 1913, Congreso Obrero de Filipinas was organized. Led by Herminigildo Cruz, it fought for an eight-hour working day, abolition of child labor, just labor standards for women, and liability of capitalists.”

New high point

In the 1980s, in the twilight years of martial law, organized labor unionism reached a new high point. This was an era marked by political and labor unrest, of which the left-leaning Kilusang Mayo Uno movement played a dominant role.

Widespread factory strikes broke out despite the government restrictions on labor unions and movements. It was a time of great repression that saw the rise in popularity of such radical labor leaders as Felixberto Olalia, Bonifacio Tupas, and Crispin Beltran.

With the death of Ninoy Aquino in 1983, and the ensuing change in government from Ferdinand Marcos to Corazon Aquino, key labor leaders joined the post-martial law government. With their help, a suite of reforms was introduced that would pave the way for major alternations in the labor landscape.

Tripartite meetings became the new operating guideline to settling dispute. Labor, management and government would meet to discuss and negotiate. Arbitration was strengthened to allow individual and collective workers to discuss their grievances with a view towards a win-win resolution and avoiding the tedious and expensive litigation process.

Wage increase negotiations were regionalized, which ultimately dealt a killing blow to nationwide protest movements. From 1989 to the present, successive wage orders for the National Capital Region increased the minimum wage from P89 to an effective P362 (inclusive of new allowances).

The latest concession to minimum wage earners was the elimination of income taxes, which represented as much as 25 percent of wages, in 2008 to cushion from high prices caused by volatile crude oil price movements and the global crisis.

Global Pinoy labor

Aside from government interventions that seemed successful at easing labor unrest, the face of the country’s labor profile was also changing. Yearly, as more Filipinos sought work abroad, they found better paying jobs and new opportunities.

The first wave of overseas Filipino workers consisted of blue-collared workers and domestic helpers. Our Pinoys found jobs as drivers, factory helpers, carpenters, electricians, plumbers, cooks, housemaids, and yayas.

Eventually, college graduates landed better jobs in other countries as better-paid professionals. Today, doctors and nurses are joined by engineers, accountants, architects, interior designers, artists, communications and even information technology experts. Filipinos have become a major migrant labor force in the global market.

New opportunities, new values

Like a pressure valve that had lost its steam, the deployment of millions of Filipino workers in jobs abroad – and the consequent repatriation of billions of foreign currency back to the country – had eased the volatility that once marked the Philippine labor sector.

Today, many Filipinos would rather look for jobs abroad that would raise their income levels rather than take to the streets. For those truly qualified, such new and better opportunities in the global job market represented quantum changes in their lives – and this had a way of reinforcing new values and fresh optimism in others.

As we salute the emerging hope inspired by many of our countrymen employed in jobs abroad, we also call attention to the remaining and persistent labor problems in the domestic front that need solutions.

Underemployment, for one, has become even more rampant. The rights of women and children in labor still need to be protected from abuse. Job mismatches that waste our graduates’ academic training require urgent solutions from our bureaucrats.

We need a government that will be able to protect and bargain for better salaries and other forms of remuneration for our overseas professionals who are forced to accept jobs below what they really are worth. We need more better paying job opportunities in the country that will keep our workers from going abroad.

Most of all, we need to help our countrymen learn how to believe in themselves and their abilities to earn a decent wage. We need more Filipinos in the workplace who will do us proud.

Should you wish to share any insights, write me at Link Edge, 25th Floor, 139 Corporate Center, Valero Street, Salcedo Village, 1227 Makati City. Or e-mail me at reydgamboa@yahoo.com. For a compilation of previous articles, visit www.BizlinksPhilippines.net. –Rey Gamboa (The Philippine Star)