Membership Services

OBJECTIVES

The Workers Fund (KMPI) envisions the economic empowerment of workers which is necessary to make meaningful the Philippines’ political democracy.

The Workers Fund:

1. Promotes livelihood projects among the democratic labor centers and their affiliate unions;
2. Promotes all types of workers’ cooperatives, including labor-owned and labor-managed enterprises;
3. Undertakes other socio-economic projects that will improve the social and economic well-being of members;
4. Undertakes projects that will provide workers with affordable housing units; and
5. Promotes workers’ education.

HISTORY

The Federation of Free Workers (FFW), the Lakas Manggagawa Labor Center (LMLC) and the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP). With seed capital from government, the Workers Fund has the vision of institutionalizing their collaboration towards peace and democracy.

The FFW, LMLC and TUCP set up and registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on July 31, 1990 the Kaunlaran ng Manggagawang Pilipino, Inc. (KMPI). The KMPI is the foundation administering the Workers Fund.

The Wokrers Fund/KMPI is a milestone in the brief yet already fruitful and promising unity of democratically inclined labor forces in the Philippines.

PROGRAMS

Cooperatives/Enterprise Development Program

CEDP provides technical and training assistance in the formation and operational management of cooperatives and workers enterprises. Technical assistance spans the pre-organizational activities for the registration of workers’ cooperatives or enterprises, consultancy for on-going ventures, record-keeping and financial management, and business development. It covers areas related to the management, marketing, and production aspect of the cooperative/enterprise operation.

CEDP promotes community-based enterprises in the Workers Villages. Assistance in product development, market linkage, and raw material sourcing is extended to stabilize community-based enterprises. Vocational/technical training on selected trades to enhance employability as well as to equip the workers with marketable skills are undertaken. A job placement referral system in coordination with other agencies is carried out.

Among regular training courses conducted:

• Basic Cooperative Orientation
• Cooperative Enterprise Planning
• Cooperative Accounting and Financial Management
• Credit Cooperative Management
• Organizational Development and Planning for Cooperatives
• Business Identification and Planning
• Basic Business Management

Housing Program

KMPI, in partnership with private developers and housing finance institutions such as the Pag-IBIG Fund, implements Workers Village project. The Workers Village projects assist members have access to socialized housing projects.

The KMPI, in coordination with the labor centers and their affiliate unions informs members of available housing packages, processes loan application documents of interested members and coordinates the turnover the housing units to qualified applicants. The four (4) existing Workers Villages are located in San Jose Del Monte, Bulacan (WV I & II); Dasmariñas, Cavite (WV III); and Tanza, Cavite (WV IV).

KMPI continues to evolve schemes that will respond to the need of workers for affordable shelter. It adopts approaches that are most suitable to the needs and capacities of the specific group of members in need of housing. It engages in policy advocacy to ensure that the workers’ need for housing is adequately addressed by government and policy-makers.

Workers Mart

The Workers Mart is a bulk-buying station for basic consumer products. It purchases large quantities of goods from manufacturers and distributors and sells these to workers’ associations engaged in retail.

A secondary multi-purpose cooperative, the Workers Cooperative, was jointly organized by the three founding labor centers to operate the Workers Mart.

Workers Social Insurance Program (WSIP)

Through the WSIP, the KMPI in consultation with local unions and workers associations pilot-tests social protection schemes that are affordable to members, minimum wage-earner, informal sector workers and rural poor. The pre-need plans that are being tested include health care, pension, education, and life insurance.