Pushing Philippines Towards Equitable Progress

Pushing Philippines Towards Equitable Progress
Welcome Remarks for TUCP
By TUCP General Secretary Ernesto F. Herrera

DOLE Undersecretary Baldoz, JILAF Executive Director-General Takahashi, Labor Attache Jono, JILAF friends, Participants, Guests —

Everyone, but labor, agrees that the economies of the world, including that of the Philippines, is recovering from the global financial crisis.

Governments, employers – are starting to smile again.

But not labor!
Global crisis, or no, labor has not been happy with the previous, current, and developing state of events.

Labor has been unhappy for decades.
Employers are taking their sweet time, re-employing or re-hiring workers, or restoring benefits, with the recovery.  Or bringing incomes, nominal or real, at least to pre-crisis levels.

As a result, workers are in a further disadvantaged position than before the crisis.  The way to decent work has been made harder than before.

It is a continuation of the same things as before.  Although worse.   Some sectors are benefiting disproportionately from the economic growth.  Leaving labor, organized or not organized, formal or non-formal – behind, and bearing the burden of the crisis and, perversely, the recovery.

Wages have not been enough to cope with inflation, before the crisis, and now.  While other sectors appropriate for themselves the humungous share of the economic gains.

Unions and workers’ organizations can be the counter-balance to this inequity; and we are doing this despite the many legal and practical obstacles to the exercise of freedom of association and collective bargaining, including threats, harassment, abuse, intimidation, even violence.

Unions need to do more.

Unions need to exert more efforts to lift themselves, their workers, their companies, the economy and country to higher levels of social responsibility and delivery of results.

This national workshop aims to show what other things trade unions, including Japanese unions, are doing, and can do to help workers and unions out of positions created by hostile environment and the global crisis.

These programs are not among the usual things we do.  We don’t have the same level of competence in these programs as in traditional union concerns like organizing, workers; education, shop stewards, etc.  We need more capacity-building on these programs.  And this workshop is an important part of that capacity-building.

Fortunately, there are progressive unions who have started similar undertakings.  Their experience will be the guide for those other unions who would wish to follow their lead and venture into uncharted waters.

To be sure, these are supplementary programs, and can never substitute for the trade union work we all do.  But they can contribute much to enabling our unions to sustain our core trade union work.

Increasing real wages and increasing workers’ share of real gains in the economy – are the way to promoting equity.

It cannot continue that this country will just tolerate that only owners, employers, directors, managers, supervisors — gain from all these gains in production, productivity, and revenues.  Dapat lahat nakikinabang.  At, dapat, mas lumalaki ang pakinabang ng mga less fortunate, less advantaged, and less positioned – compared sa mga mayayaman na.

So, in behalf of TUCP President D. Mendoza, TUCP General Secretary Ernesto Herrera, TUCP Treasurer Zoilo de la Cruz, Jr., welcome to this national workshop.  TUCP expects much sharing and learning from this workshop.

We take this opportunity to thank JILAF for the over 15 years of engagement with TUCP in joint programs on many subjects, including POSITIVE, Productivity and LMCs, Corporate Social Responsibility, Organizing, HIV-AIDs, Women, xxx

It is programs like these which strengthen Japanese-Philippine relations, demonstrate the value of union-to-union solidarity in reducing dependence, and which would help solve the problems of workers and unions in the two countries.  These programs promote social dialogue and advance decent work.

We wish you a good conference!