Press Release
October 28, 2008
After the big rally led by workers yesterday on the first day of the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD), today it was the turn of women to be at the frontlines of protest against the “commodification of migrant women.”
Women workers and poor from the Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) joined the thousand-strong rally today organized by the People’s Global Action. A hundred members of PM wore nurses’ uniforms while other rallyists dressed up as domestic workers, caregivers at entertainers in a dramatization of the travails of women migrants.
“The trend is towards feminization of labor migration. In the Philippines last year, half of the new hires were women. The feminization of labor migration and the lack of protection for migrant workers results in rising cases of abuse, harassment and rape,” explained Judy Ann Miranda, secretary-general of PM.
She added that “The worsening poverty in the home countries and the bigger female unemployment rate forces women to leave their families just to earn their daily bread. Filipina mothers take care of other people’s children while their own grow up without their physical presence.”
PM is critical of the GFMD since its goal is to promote migration so that remittances can be utilized by governments and exploited by corporations. PM is pushing for an end to the policy of promoting overseas employment; a stop to the deregulation of the labor export industry; and the enforcement of decent work and pay, and the right to organize and bargain for all migrant workers.
“Decades of promoting overseas employment reveal that the social costs and the brain drain offset whatever economic benefits accrue from labor migration. The policy of labor export promotion must be reversed and instead governments must ensure full employment and a living wage for the people, especially women,” insisted Miranda.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Monday, October 27, 2008
Militant workers demand “big-time rollback” of labor export policy
Press Release
October 27, 2008
The militant Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) called for a historic reversal of the strategy of labor export as the government-sponsored Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) opened its first day.
“A one-time big-time rollback of the failed policy of labor export is just as urgent and necessary as the bloated prices of oil. It is time to think out of the box and shift to domestic full employment instead of promoting overseas employment,” declared Renato Magtubo, PM chairperson at the big rally led by Solidarity Action of Labor Against GFMD (SALAG).
PM opposes the GFMD since it alleged that the main problem it is trying to solve is how to profit from remittances not how to protect migrants. “It would have been funny if it were not tragic that the GFMD is steadfastly fascinated with the neoliberal agenda even though the bankruptcy of globalization has been exposed by the financial meltdown and economic recession in the US and the world,” Magtubo asserted.
He added that “Furthermore, the GFMD had allotted more seats for big businesses with interests in the remittances of migrant workers compared to labor groups with an advocacy for migrant issues.”
A thousand members of PM, including members of the Fortune Tobacco Labor Union and unions from Valenzuela City, participated in the big mobilization. About a hundred representatives of labor centers of other countries and global union groups like the ICEM, BWI, IMF, EI, UNI, PSI, ITGLWF, ITF, IUF and the ITUC headed the rally together with local labor leaders and migrants’ advocates.
According to Judy Ann Miranda, secretary-general of PM, “Today organized labor in the Philippines and in the world have linked up in arms in solidarity with the cause of migrant workers who are predominantly unorganized and largely unprotected. The formation of SALAG and the mobilization of global unions is a first step in establishing a global movement of workers and global unions that transcend borders that is a key tactic in promoting migrant workers rights and welfare worldwide.”
PM supports the three SALAG and global union demands for an end to the policy of promoting overseas employment; a stop to the deregulation of the labor export industry; and decent work and pay, and the right to organize and bargain for all migrant workers.
Women members of PM will join a women-led rally tomorrow to again protest the GFMD.
October 27, 2008
The militant Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) called for a historic reversal of the strategy of labor export as the government-sponsored Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) opened its first day.
“A one-time big-time rollback of the failed policy of labor export is just as urgent and necessary as the bloated prices of oil. It is time to think out of the box and shift to domestic full employment instead of promoting overseas employment,” declared Renato Magtubo, PM chairperson at the big rally led by Solidarity Action of Labor Against GFMD (SALAG).
PM opposes the GFMD since it alleged that the main problem it is trying to solve is how to profit from remittances not how to protect migrants. “It would have been funny if it were not tragic that the GFMD is steadfastly fascinated with the neoliberal agenda even though the bankruptcy of globalization has been exposed by the financial meltdown and economic recession in the US and the world,” Magtubo asserted.
He added that “Furthermore, the GFMD had allotted more seats for big businesses with interests in the remittances of migrant workers compared to labor groups with an advocacy for migrant issues.”
A thousand members of PM, including members of the Fortune Tobacco Labor Union and unions from Valenzuela City, participated in the big mobilization. About a hundred representatives of labor centers of other countries and global union groups like the ICEM, BWI, IMF, EI, UNI, PSI, ITGLWF, ITF, IUF and the ITUC headed the rally together with local labor leaders and migrants’ advocates.
According to Judy Ann Miranda, secretary-general of PM, “Today organized labor in the Philippines and in the world have linked up in arms in solidarity with the cause of migrant workers who are predominantly unorganized and largely unprotected. The formation of SALAG and the mobilization of global unions is a first step in establishing a global movement of workers and global unions that transcend borders that is a key tactic in promoting migrant workers rights and welfare worldwide.”
PM supports the three SALAG and global union demands for an end to the policy of promoting overseas employment; a stop to the deregulation of the labor export industry; and decent work and pay, and the right to organize and bargain for all migrant workers.
Women members of PM will join a women-led rally tomorrow to again protest the GFMD.
For a paradigm shift away from labor export to domestic employment, For a global movement of workers to protect migrant rights and welfare
A funny thing happened on the way to the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD). While the excesses and essence of globalization has been exposed with the unraveling of the financial meltdown and economic recession in the US that threatens to go global, the framework of the GFMD remains firmly in the grip of the neoliberal agenda.
The Partido ng Manggagawa (Labor Party) as the independent political party of the working class in the Philippines, oppose the GFMD for its framework on migrant workers is “economic development” not human rights. Behind its stated goals of “maximizing remittances and the benefits of migration” is the opportunist attitude that migrant workers are commodities for sale not humans with rights. Among its participants is a preponderance of big businesses with interests in the remittances of migrant workers.
Just last week a Filipino worker in Saudi Arabia was killed by beheading while another Filipino migrant is scheduled for a similar fate in the coming days. What can the GFMD do to save migrants workers? The main problem it is trying to solve is how to profit from remittances not how to protect migrants.
It is not an exaggeration to say that labor migration today is the modern-day form of slavery. Five hundred years ago the age of mercantilism saw the heyday in the trade of human slaves. In the era of globalization, millions of workers cross borders in search of greener pastures or simply to survive in the face of joblessness and destitution in their home countries.
The pull of a substantial wage differential between the sending and receiving country is enough incentive for massive labor migration. That has of course resulted in significant transfers of wealth and token alleviation of poverty in the home countries. Yet the fact that millions of migrants are involved and the reality of lack of protection for basic worker rights and respect for labor standards results in so many victims of abuse.
In the Philippines, no reliable data exists but it is common knowledge that migrant workers fall prey to excessive fees from labor contractors and employment agencies. Once abroad, many are underpaid or not paid their salaries at all. Some are forced to work 50 to 80 hour workweeks and usually without overtime pay. There are many abusive employers and some labor under unsafe conditions. Contracts are breached and migrant workers are without recourse for redress. In the worst cases, workers end up as bonded labor or sex slaves, if not incarcerated despite being innocent or dying in unsolved murders.
In many receiving countries, basic labor rights and standards are not respected and implemented. Even in advanced countries where there are formal guarantees of workers rights, baiting of immigrants and restrictive immigration policies lead to the proliferation of so-called illegals. As illegal immigrants, they are without the protection of the law and thus easily victimized. Moreover they are hunted by the governments of host countries and if caught deported back home with their dreams broken.
It is a glaring contradiction that in the era of globalization, goods, capital and information flow freely across the world and yet the free movement of labor is restricted. Trade in goods and capital flows are fully liberalized through multilateral agreements but labor migration is highly regulated through unilateral actions. This is one fundamental aspect of the grave inequalities and double standards under globalization.
Fact is neoliberal capitalist globalization is the key link in the flood of labor migration in recent times. There are an estimated 150 million migrants and immigrants around the world. Meaning 2.5% of the global population had to cross borders and oceans just to find their daily bread. In 2005, their combined remittances amount to $167 billion and could reach up to a quarter billion if those sent through informal means are counted.
Around 10% of Filipinos, almost 9 million out of a population of 80 million, are living or working abroad. Undocumented migrants and immigrants will bloat this figure further. About half are contractual workers, now called overseas Filipino workers (OFW’s), principally found in Saudi Arabia, Japan, Hong Kong, United Arab Emirates and Taiwan. The other half has emigrated mainly to advanced countries like the US, Canada, Australia, Japan and the UK. In some families, there are already two generations of migrant workers with the next on the path of becoming the new batch of OFW’s.
More than $14 billion in remittances were sent to the Philippines in 2007 alone or above $1 billion per month. The figure would rise by an estimated 50% if money sent through informal channels were included. Just the official figure of $14 billion in remittances already constitutes 10% of GNP. That amount exceeds both official development aid and foreign direct investments received by the Philippines. Without the influx of dollar remittances, the country’s current account would be negative.
The growth of remittances has been explosive, commensurate to the number of migrants and immigrants. Back in 1993, about half a million OFW’s were deployed while the remittances were worth just $2.5 billion. Yet even then this was considerable since it already equalled half of the foreign debt service.
The Philippine government actively promotes labor migration. In fact, the export of labor is part of the yearly target for employment creation. About a million migrant workers are deployed yearly. Everyday almost 3,000 Filipinos leave to work abroad.
The number of women migrant workers has been increasing and in 2007 they constitute half of new hires. Many are domestic helpers like in Hong Kong, entertainers like in Japan, and nurses like in the US. The feminization of labor migration and the lack of protection for migrant workers have led to rising cases of abuse, harassment and rape.
While the pull factor in labor migration is mainly the wage differential—a fact that exists even before globalization—the push factor is principally the deepening poverty and worsening unemployment brought about by near universal enforcement of neoliberal policies worldwide. The policies of liberalization, deregulation and privatization have led to the collapse of local industry and agriculture. Together with policies of cheap labor, labor flexibility and others associated with globalization, workers are encouraged if not forced to look for work abroad despite all the dangers, hardships and costs.
Still labor migration is a right that workers must enjoy in a globalized world. Even more than goods and capital, labor must be able to move freely across the world. Labor must be mobile in order to seek better wages and working conditions.
We insist on internationally enforceable rights and standards for all migrant workers. All internationally recognized basic labor rights and standards—as enshrined in the ILO conventions including the right to organize, bargain and strike—must be extended to all migrant workers wherever is their host country. The freedom to migrate should be a guaranteed right and discriminatory immigration polices must be cease.
A key element of the promotion of migrant workers rights and welfare worldwide is the establishment of a global movement of workers and global unions that transcend borders, race, gender and nationality. This is the challenge that the international labor movement must face squarely.
We call for an end to the promotion of overseas employment. The decades-long policy of labor export has not redounded to national development and instead has resulted in grave social costs and has exacerbated the collapse of local industry and agriculture. As a means of job generation, it has become a sorry excuse for government to abandon the goals of full employment and local industrialization.
We demand a stop to the deregulation of labor export. While government has promoted labor export, it has left migrant workers at the mercy of the scams of private manpower agencies and the whims of host country regimes. The exploitation for profit of labor export and the train of abuses it necessary entail must halt.
Decades of promoting overseas employment has not led to social progress in the Philippines and other labor-exporting countries. In fact from a long-term perspective, the social costs and the brain drain may offset whatever economic benefits accrue from labor migration.
The policy of labor export promotion must be reversed and instead governments must ensure full employment in their countries. Such a policy change can only be realized as part of a paradigm shift away from neoliberal capitalist globalization. Without falling into the trap of autarky, the domestic economy must be strengthened so that local industry and agriculture can generate decent jobs and a living wage for all the people.
The Partido ng Manggagawa (Labor Party) as the independent political party of the working class in the Philippines, oppose the GFMD for its framework on migrant workers is “economic development” not human rights. Behind its stated goals of “maximizing remittances and the benefits of migration” is the opportunist attitude that migrant workers are commodities for sale not humans with rights. Among its participants is a preponderance of big businesses with interests in the remittances of migrant workers.
Just last week a Filipino worker in Saudi Arabia was killed by beheading while another Filipino migrant is scheduled for a similar fate in the coming days. What can the GFMD do to save migrants workers? The main problem it is trying to solve is how to profit from remittances not how to protect migrants.
It is not an exaggeration to say that labor migration today is the modern-day form of slavery. Five hundred years ago the age of mercantilism saw the heyday in the trade of human slaves. In the era of globalization, millions of workers cross borders in search of greener pastures or simply to survive in the face of joblessness and destitution in their home countries.
The pull of a substantial wage differential between the sending and receiving country is enough incentive for massive labor migration. That has of course resulted in significant transfers of wealth and token alleviation of poverty in the home countries. Yet the fact that millions of migrants are involved and the reality of lack of protection for basic worker rights and respect for labor standards results in so many victims of abuse.
In the Philippines, no reliable data exists but it is common knowledge that migrant workers fall prey to excessive fees from labor contractors and employment agencies. Once abroad, many are underpaid or not paid their salaries at all. Some are forced to work 50 to 80 hour workweeks and usually without overtime pay. There are many abusive employers and some labor under unsafe conditions. Contracts are breached and migrant workers are without recourse for redress. In the worst cases, workers end up as bonded labor or sex slaves, if not incarcerated despite being innocent or dying in unsolved murders.
In many receiving countries, basic labor rights and standards are not respected and implemented. Even in advanced countries where there are formal guarantees of workers rights, baiting of immigrants and restrictive immigration policies lead to the proliferation of so-called illegals. As illegal immigrants, they are without the protection of the law and thus easily victimized. Moreover they are hunted by the governments of host countries and if caught deported back home with their dreams broken.
It is a glaring contradiction that in the era of globalization, goods, capital and information flow freely across the world and yet the free movement of labor is restricted. Trade in goods and capital flows are fully liberalized through multilateral agreements but labor migration is highly regulated through unilateral actions. This is one fundamental aspect of the grave inequalities and double standards under globalization.
Fact is neoliberal capitalist globalization is the key link in the flood of labor migration in recent times. There are an estimated 150 million migrants and immigrants around the world. Meaning 2.5% of the global population had to cross borders and oceans just to find their daily bread. In 2005, their combined remittances amount to $167 billion and could reach up to a quarter billion if those sent through informal means are counted.
Around 10% of Filipinos, almost 9 million out of a population of 80 million, are living or working abroad. Undocumented migrants and immigrants will bloat this figure further. About half are contractual workers, now called overseas Filipino workers (OFW’s), principally found in Saudi Arabia, Japan, Hong Kong, United Arab Emirates and Taiwan. The other half has emigrated mainly to advanced countries like the US, Canada, Australia, Japan and the UK. In some families, there are already two generations of migrant workers with the next on the path of becoming the new batch of OFW’s.
More than $14 billion in remittances were sent to the Philippines in 2007 alone or above $1 billion per month. The figure would rise by an estimated 50% if money sent through informal channels were included. Just the official figure of $14 billion in remittances already constitutes 10% of GNP. That amount exceeds both official development aid and foreign direct investments received by the Philippines. Without the influx of dollar remittances, the country’s current account would be negative.
The growth of remittances has been explosive, commensurate to the number of migrants and immigrants. Back in 1993, about half a million OFW’s were deployed while the remittances were worth just $2.5 billion. Yet even then this was considerable since it already equalled half of the foreign debt service.
The Philippine government actively promotes labor migration. In fact, the export of labor is part of the yearly target for employment creation. About a million migrant workers are deployed yearly. Everyday almost 3,000 Filipinos leave to work abroad.
The number of women migrant workers has been increasing and in 2007 they constitute half of new hires. Many are domestic helpers like in Hong Kong, entertainers like in Japan, and nurses like in the US. The feminization of labor migration and the lack of protection for migrant workers have led to rising cases of abuse, harassment and rape.
While the pull factor in labor migration is mainly the wage differential—a fact that exists even before globalization—the push factor is principally the deepening poverty and worsening unemployment brought about by near universal enforcement of neoliberal policies worldwide. The policies of liberalization, deregulation and privatization have led to the collapse of local industry and agriculture. Together with policies of cheap labor, labor flexibility and others associated with globalization, workers are encouraged if not forced to look for work abroad despite all the dangers, hardships and costs.
Still labor migration is a right that workers must enjoy in a globalized world. Even more than goods and capital, labor must be able to move freely across the world. Labor must be mobile in order to seek better wages and working conditions.
We insist on internationally enforceable rights and standards for all migrant workers. All internationally recognized basic labor rights and standards—as enshrined in the ILO conventions including the right to organize, bargain and strike—must be extended to all migrant workers wherever is their host country. The freedom to migrate should be a guaranteed right and discriminatory immigration polices must be cease.
A key element of the promotion of migrant workers rights and welfare worldwide is the establishment of a global movement of workers and global unions that transcend borders, race, gender and nationality. This is the challenge that the international labor movement must face squarely.
We call for an end to the promotion of overseas employment. The decades-long policy of labor export has not redounded to national development and instead has resulted in grave social costs and has exacerbated the collapse of local industry and agriculture. As a means of job generation, it has become a sorry excuse for government to abandon the goals of full employment and local industrialization.
We demand a stop to the deregulation of labor export. While government has promoted labor export, it has left migrant workers at the mercy of the scams of private manpower agencies and the whims of host country regimes. The exploitation for profit of labor export and the train of abuses it necessary entail must halt.
Decades of promoting overseas employment has not led to social progress in the Philippines and other labor-exporting countries. In fact from a long-term perspective, the social costs and the brain drain may offset whatever economic benefits accrue from labor migration.
The policy of labor export promotion must be reversed and instead governments must ensure full employment in their countries. Such a policy change can only be realized as part of a paradigm shift away from neoliberal capitalist globalization. Without falling into the trap of autarky, the domestic economy must be strengthened so that local industry and agriculture can generate decent jobs and a living wage for all the people.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Workers protests slated to assert “Migrants are humans with rights not commodities for sale”
Press Release
October 22, 2008
The Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) and other labor groups will lead a series of actions in the coming week as part of a parallel event to the official Global Forum on Migration and Development. In their activities, the main call of the militant workers will be “Migrant workers are humans with rights not commodities for sale.”
The activities started today with a big rally at the Rajah Solaiman Park in Malate, Manila that was joined by labor groups, migrant workers, NGO’s and advocates. Among the labor leaders at the rally was Renato Magtubo, PM chairperson, who stated that “With the clear and present danger of the financial meltdown and economic recession in the US going global, the rights and welfare of the migrant workers of the world are imperiled.”
Judy Ann Miranda, secretary-general of PM, added that “Workers oppose the government-led Global Forum on Migration & Development for its framework on migrant workers is ‘economic development’ not human rights. Behind its stated goals of ‘maximizing remittances and the benefits of migration’ is the opportunist attitude that migrant workers are commodities for sale not humans with rights.”
PM however did not support the call for a “zero remittance day” since according to the group it is not an appropriate tactic despite the good intentions of its planners. For PM, the key tactic in promoting migrant workers rights and welfare is the formation of a global movement of workers and unions without borders.
“While government has promoted labor export, it has left migrant workers at the mercy of the scams of private manpower agencies and the whims of host country regimes,” Magtubo asserted in reference to the recent beheading of a Filipino in Saudi Arabia.
Thus on Thursday, workers will picket the Saudi embassy in protest, especially since another Filipino migrant is scheduled for a similar fate in the coming days. “What can the Global Forum do to save migrants workers? The main problem it is trying to solve is how to profit from remittances not how to protect migrants,” insisted Miranda.
Workers protest actions will escalate in the coming days. On October 27, thousands of workers will hold a big rally. While on October 28, it will be the turn of women workers to protest.
The demands of the workers are first, end the policy of promoting overseas employment; second, stop the deregulation of the labor export industry; and third enforce the standard of decent work and pay, and the right to organize and bargain for all migrant workers.
October 22, 2008
The Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) and other labor groups will lead a series of actions in the coming week as part of a parallel event to the official Global Forum on Migration and Development. In their activities, the main call of the militant workers will be “Migrant workers are humans with rights not commodities for sale.”
The activities started today with a big rally at the Rajah Solaiman Park in Malate, Manila that was joined by labor groups, migrant workers, NGO’s and advocates. Among the labor leaders at the rally was Renato Magtubo, PM chairperson, who stated that “With the clear and present danger of the financial meltdown and economic recession in the US going global, the rights and welfare of the migrant workers of the world are imperiled.”
Judy Ann Miranda, secretary-general of PM, added that “Workers oppose the government-led Global Forum on Migration & Development for its framework on migrant workers is ‘economic development’ not human rights. Behind its stated goals of ‘maximizing remittances and the benefits of migration’ is the opportunist attitude that migrant workers are commodities for sale not humans with rights.”
PM however did not support the call for a “zero remittance day” since according to the group it is not an appropriate tactic despite the good intentions of its planners. For PM, the key tactic in promoting migrant workers rights and welfare is the formation of a global movement of workers and unions without borders.
“While government has promoted labor export, it has left migrant workers at the mercy of the scams of private manpower agencies and the whims of host country regimes,” Magtubo asserted in reference to the recent beheading of a Filipino in Saudi Arabia.
Thus on Thursday, workers will picket the Saudi embassy in protest, especially since another Filipino migrant is scheduled for a similar fate in the coming days. “What can the Global Forum do to save migrants workers? The main problem it is trying to solve is how to profit from remittances not how to protect migrants,” insisted Miranda.
Workers protest actions will escalate in the coming days. On October 27, thousands of workers will hold a big rally. While on October 28, it will be the turn of women workers to protest.
The demands of the workers are first, end the policy of promoting overseas employment; second, stop the deregulation of the labor export industry; and third enforce the standard of decent work and pay, and the right to organize and bargain for all migrant workers.
For a global movement of workers as a pillar of migrant workers protection
With the clear and present danger of the financial meltdown and economic recession in the US going global, the rights and welfare of the migrant workers of the world are imperiled more than ever.
The main trend of global migration has been from the Third World to the advanced countries and the main pull has been the promise of a so-called greener pasture across the borders and across the oceans. But the myth of a greener pasture may yet turn out to be a barren wasteland if the worse financial crisis since the 1930’s led to another great depression worldwide.
But every crisis opens up the window of opportunity for change. Today organized labor in the Philippines as one of the leading “labor-exporting countries” emphatically calls for a paradigm shift in the national policy on labor migration towards global protection for the rights and welfare of all migrant workers.
We subscribe to the belief that migrant workers are human beings not commodities for sale.
Thus we call for an end to the policy of promoting overseas employment. The decades-long policy of labor export has not redounded to national development and instead has resulted in grave social costs and has exacerbated the collapse of local industry and agriculture. As a means of job generation, it has become a sorry excuse for government to abandon the goals of full employment and local industrialization.
We demand a stop to the deregulation of labor export. While government has promoted labor export, it has left migrant workers at the mercy of the whims of the so-called labor market and the scams of private manpower agencies. The exploitation for profit of labor export and the train of abuses it necessary entail must halt.
We insist on internationally enforceable rights and standards for all migrant workers. All internationally recognized basic labor rights and standards must be exercised by migrant workers wherever is their host country. The freedom to migrate should be a guaranteed right and discriminatory immigration polices must be cease.
A key element of the promotion of migrant workers rights and welfare worldwide is the establishment of a global movement of workers and unions without regard to borders, race, gender and nationality.
Finally, we oppose the government-led Global Forum on Migration & Development for its framework on migrant workers is precisely “economic development” not human rights. The underlying viewpoint of its stated goals of “maximizing remittances and the benefits of migration” is that migrant workers are commodities for sale not human beings.
Partido ng Manggagawa
Labor Alliance for Better Order and Reform (LABOR)
October 20, 2008
The main trend of global migration has been from the Third World to the advanced countries and the main pull has been the promise of a so-called greener pasture across the borders and across the oceans. But the myth of a greener pasture may yet turn out to be a barren wasteland if the worse financial crisis since the 1930’s led to another great depression worldwide.
But every crisis opens up the window of opportunity for change. Today organized labor in the Philippines as one of the leading “labor-exporting countries” emphatically calls for a paradigm shift in the national policy on labor migration towards global protection for the rights and welfare of all migrant workers.
We subscribe to the belief that migrant workers are human beings not commodities for sale.
Thus we call for an end to the policy of promoting overseas employment. The decades-long policy of labor export has not redounded to national development and instead has resulted in grave social costs and has exacerbated the collapse of local industry and agriculture. As a means of job generation, it has become a sorry excuse for government to abandon the goals of full employment and local industrialization.
We demand a stop to the deregulation of labor export. While government has promoted labor export, it has left migrant workers at the mercy of the whims of the so-called labor market and the scams of private manpower agencies. The exploitation for profit of labor export and the train of abuses it necessary entail must halt.
We insist on internationally enforceable rights and standards for all migrant workers. All internationally recognized basic labor rights and standards must be exercised by migrant workers wherever is their host country. The freedom to migrate should be a guaranteed right and discriminatory immigration polices must be cease.
A key element of the promotion of migrant workers rights and welfare worldwide is the establishment of a global movement of workers and unions without regard to borders, race, gender and nationality.
Finally, we oppose the government-led Global Forum on Migration & Development for its framework on migrant workers is precisely “economic development” not human rights. The underlying viewpoint of its stated goals of “maximizing remittances and the benefits of migration” is that migrant workers are commodities for sale not human beings.
Partido ng Manggagawa
Labor Alliance for Better Order and Reform (LABOR)
October 20, 2008
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Globalization's cheap labor policy, deregulation to blame for food contamination
PRESS RELEASE
Partido ng Manggagawa
9 October 2008
Globalization’s unregulated world of production and the transnational corporation’s TNCs) predilection to outsource cheap labor to reduce production cost and optimize profits is to blame for the recent global scare of food contamination.
This view was expressed by the Partido ng Manggagawa, a militant labor party, following the release yesterday of initial results of the test conducted by the Department of Health and the Bureau of Food and Drug on selected milk and dairy products from China believed to be possibly contaminated with melamine.
The test found another product from China, the JollyCow Slender High Calcium Low Fat milk (1 Liter), positive of melamine contamination. That brings the number to three of 52 products tested positive, according to the DOH.
Partido ng Manggagawa chair, Renato Magtubo, said that while the test results confirmed the scale and frightful reality of food contamination, the hard part of this problem-solving exercise is where to demand accountability and identify policy instruments that gave rise to this kind of problem.
“The government can easily ban the sale, importation and distribution of Chinese made products as a preventive and corrective measure. But how can we prevent the re-emergence, or the appearance of a new problem, which are largely due to the current global production pattern and the world’s plunge to a deregulated regime,” lamented Magtubo.
The former partylist representative explained that under globalization, production and movement of products are ‘internationalized’, so complex yet interwoven. On the other hand, the free market regime freed these products from the usual and stringent regulation, thus jeopardizing quality and obscured accountability on the part of the producers.
“The tale that God created the world and everything else is made in China, is no longer a funny joke. It is a reality that the world must confront. TNCs rushed to China to outsource their production because of cheap labor,” said Magtubo, adding that globalization had made it possible “to de-link their product brands from its national identity, while outsourcing cheap labor from the world’s sweatshops ensured lower production costs and therefore higher rates of return for TNCs.”
Same with the problem of the global financial crisis, the Partido ng Manggagawa also sees the need to re-regulate the global production and trading system by reversing the policy of free market which ensures corporate greed and profits rather than the workers and peoples’ welfare.
Corporate branding
The Partido ng Manggagawa also shared the view of the International Union of Food workers (IUF), a world-wide federation of trade unions representing workers in agriculture and plantations, food and beverages, that behind the melamine milk scandal lies an emerging crisis in ‘corporate branding’.
According to IUF, one of the reasons for the heavy promotion of "global" brands was so that consumers wouldn't know (and would eventually stop caring) where products are made.
The UIF said the major transnational food companies spent the 1980s in a frenzy of mergers and acquisitions, buying up local brands and grabbing bigger market shares. By the mid-90's companies like Nestle, Unilever and Kraft had built up extensive brand portfolios and held the largest market shares in a range of food products -- everything from cooking oil to ice cream, instant coffee and biscuits.
By the end of the 1990s the new logic of financialization set in. The brands themselves became valuable financial assets and their value could be boosted through a blend of Wall Street wizardry and aggressive marketing rather than better manufacturing.
“So there was an irrational shift to rationalization: cutbacks, restructuring and consolidation. Less is more. Now fewer brands were better. By focusing on a few global brands in overseas markets, the financial value of these brands would skyrocket. Nestle and Unilever called these their "billion dollar brands", while Kraft would "shrink to grow" -- with just 10 global "power brands" by 2008,” said the IUF in its editorial posted at www.iuf.org/www/en/.
The IUF contends that the global brands location no longer mattered. Production was relocated overseas (and relocated again and again) while aggressive brand marketing ensured that consumers continued to believe they were buying a locally made product with a global identity.
“The power of the global brand for companies like Nestle, Unilever and Kraft lies in their ability to shift production to countries like China, while loyal consumers believed it was the same product. As an added bonus, the companies could trumpet their ‘green’ credentials and commitment to tackling global warming while loading up the products with thousands of additional food miles. Supposedly behind the familiar local brand stands a caring, concerned global company,” said the IUF.
The IUF also noted that the finance-driven global branding encouraged a tidal wave of casualizing and subcontracting work within the companies' own operations so that even quality control personnel are managed and hired as casual employees through labor hire agencies.
Partido ng Manggagawa
9 October 2008
Globalization’s unregulated world of production and the transnational corporation’s TNCs) predilection to outsource cheap labor to reduce production cost and optimize profits is to blame for the recent global scare of food contamination.
This view was expressed by the Partido ng Manggagawa, a militant labor party, following the release yesterday of initial results of the test conducted by the Department of Health and the Bureau of Food and Drug on selected milk and dairy products from China believed to be possibly contaminated with melamine.
The test found another product from China, the JollyCow Slender High Calcium Low Fat milk (1 Liter), positive of melamine contamination. That brings the number to three of 52 products tested positive, according to the DOH.
Partido ng Manggagawa chair, Renato Magtubo, said that while the test results confirmed the scale and frightful reality of food contamination, the hard part of this problem-solving exercise is where to demand accountability and identify policy instruments that gave rise to this kind of problem.
“The government can easily ban the sale, importation and distribution of Chinese made products as a preventive and corrective measure. But how can we prevent the re-emergence, or the appearance of a new problem, which are largely due to the current global production pattern and the world’s plunge to a deregulated regime,” lamented Magtubo.
The former partylist representative explained that under globalization, production and movement of products are ‘internationalized’, so complex yet interwoven. On the other hand, the free market regime freed these products from the usual and stringent regulation, thus jeopardizing quality and obscured accountability on the part of the producers.
“The tale that God created the world and everything else is made in China, is no longer a funny joke. It is a reality that the world must confront. TNCs rushed to China to outsource their production because of cheap labor,” said Magtubo, adding that globalization had made it possible “to de-link their product brands from its national identity, while outsourcing cheap labor from the world’s sweatshops ensured lower production costs and therefore higher rates of return for TNCs.”
Same with the problem of the global financial crisis, the Partido ng Manggagawa also sees the need to re-regulate the global production and trading system by reversing the policy of free market which ensures corporate greed and profits rather than the workers and peoples’ welfare.
Corporate branding
The Partido ng Manggagawa also shared the view of the International Union of Food workers (IUF), a world-wide federation of trade unions representing workers in agriculture and plantations, food and beverages, that behind the melamine milk scandal lies an emerging crisis in ‘corporate branding’.
According to IUF, one of the reasons for the heavy promotion of "global" brands was so that consumers wouldn't know (and would eventually stop caring) where products are made.
The UIF said the major transnational food companies spent the 1980s in a frenzy of mergers and acquisitions, buying up local brands and grabbing bigger market shares. By the mid-90's companies like Nestle, Unilever and Kraft had built up extensive brand portfolios and held the largest market shares in a range of food products -- everything from cooking oil to ice cream, instant coffee and biscuits.
By the end of the 1990s the new logic of financialization set in. The brands themselves became valuable financial assets and their value could be boosted through a blend of Wall Street wizardry and aggressive marketing rather than better manufacturing.
“So there was an irrational shift to rationalization: cutbacks, restructuring and consolidation. Less is more. Now fewer brands were better. By focusing on a few global brands in overseas markets, the financial value of these brands would skyrocket. Nestle and Unilever called these their "billion dollar brands", while Kraft would "shrink to grow" -- with just 10 global "power brands" by 2008,” said the IUF in its editorial posted at www.iuf.org/www/en/.
The IUF contends that the global brands location no longer mattered. Production was relocated overseas (and relocated again and again) while aggressive brand marketing ensured that consumers continued to believe they were buying a locally made product with a global identity.
“The power of the global brand for companies like Nestle, Unilever and Kraft lies in their ability to shift production to countries like China, while loyal consumers believed it was the same product. As an added bonus, the companies could trumpet their ‘green’ credentials and commitment to tackling global warming while loading up the products with thousands of additional food miles. Supposedly behind the familiar local brand stands a caring, concerned global company,” said the IUF.
The IUF also noted that the finance-driven global branding encouraged a tidal wave of casualizing and subcontracting work within the companies' own operations so that even quality control personnel are managed and hired as casual employees through labor hire agencies.
Labor party won’t buy Nograles’ pitch for cha-cha
PRESS RELEASE
Partido ng Manggagawa
2 October 2008
Transforming the US financial crisis into an opportunity for the Philippines was not just a wishful thinking on the part of the House Speaker but an insidious ploy by the administration to smuggle its charter change agenda.
“The view that the worsening financial crisis in the US may turn into a golden opportunity for the Philippines was more like King Midas’ political imagination rather than sound economic wisdom of Speaker Nograles,” said Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) chair, Renato Magtubo.
Speaker Nograles had said that the US financial crisis offers us the best argument to "lift equity restrictions" on the prohibitive 60-40 constitutional provision that favors only local businessmen, adding that amending the constitution would give Americans and Filipino migrants the opportunity to transfer their investments here.
Magtubo, who was a former partylist representative for labor, pointed out that there was no solid argument to support the claim that Fil-Am’s decisions to bring their investments back home is restricted by that constitutional provision, and thus comes the urgent need to lift it. Even with Americans and other aliens whose investments here are already protected by many foreign investment laws such as the build operate and transfer (BOT).
Magtubo explained that on the contrary, their decision to invest in the country may not be bothered by the Philippine conditions but by the overall investments climate amid capitalism’s continuing dip into global recession.
“In fact, what we must be greatly concerned of are the fate of our OFW’s and emigrants living in the US and other countries badly hit by the financial crisis since the immediate impact of that crisis is the rise in unemployment rate,” said Magtubo.
Magtubo cited a recent report by Reuters based on the findings of some business analysts that US factories are now at “recession levels” causing a rise in the unemployment rate.
The Institute for Supply Management’s index of national factory activity fell to 43.5in September from 49.9 in August. An index of below 50 means contraction instead of expansion. Another report by employment consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. reveals that job cuts brought the third-quarter layoffs total to 287,142, the highest quarter of cuts since the fourth quarter of 2005. The September non-farm payrolls report from the Department of Labor is expected to show a loss of 100,000 jobs, according to a median estimate from economists.
The labor leader said that under this condition, the government must be more concerned with the ‘capacity’ of our OFWs to secure their jobs abroad and weather this crisis than their ‘ability to invest’ their dollars in the country, which they already did by sending most of their incomes back home to support their families.
There are at least eight million Filipinos working abroad, according to the records of POEA. It is assumed that their jobs as well as their income are threatened by this global recession. One in every six Filipino families derives most of their income from OFW remittances, according to studies.
“It should be this kind of risk and prospect that our government leaders should prepare. Otherwise, making use of the crisis as an ‘opportunity’ to revive the charter change campaign, is barefaced political opportunism,” said Magtubo
Accordingly, to prepare the country for the worse impact of the global crisis, the Partido ng Manggagawa called on national leaders to reverse its economic policies that were hinged more on foreign investments rather than on developing our own industry and the real economy.
“It can be done by redirecting the more than P600B debt service payments this year for economic and social services. Banks and pension funds should also be mandated to invest their money in agriculture, industry, housing, and other sectors of our real economy, rather than in ‘casino’ speculative markets offshore,” concludes Magtubo.
Partido ng Manggagawa
2 October 2008
Transforming the US financial crisis into an opportunity for the Philippines was not just a wishful thinking on the part of the House Speaker but an insidious ploy by the administration to smuggle its charter change agenda.
“The view that the worsening financial crisis in the US may turn into a golden opportunity for the Philippines was more like King Midas’ political imagination rather than sound economic wisdom of Speaker Nograles,” said Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) chair, Renato Magtubo.
Speaker Nograles had said that the US financial crisis offers us the best argument to "lift equity restrictions" on the prohibitive 60-40 constitutional provision that favors only local businessmen, adding that amending the constitution would give Americans and Filipino migrants the opportunity to transfer their investments here.
Magtubo, who was a former partylist representative for labor, pointed out that there was no solid argument to support the claim that Fil-Am’s decisions to bring their investments back home is restricted by that constitutional provision, and thus comes the urgent need to lift it. Even with Americans and other aliens whose investments here are already protected by many foreign investment laws such as the build operate and transfer (BOT).
Magtubo explained that on the contrary, their decision to invest in the country may not be bothered by the Philippine conditions but by the overall investments climate amid capitalism’s continuing dip into global recession.
“In fact, what we must be greatly concerned of are the fate of our OFW’s and emigrants living in the US and other countries badly hit by the financial crisis since the immediate impact of that crisis is the rise in unemployment rate,” said Magtubo.
Magtubo cited a recent report by Reuters based on the findings of some business analysts that US factories are now at “recession levels” causing a rise in the unemployment rate.
The Institute for Supply Management’s index of national factory activity fell to 43.5in September from 49.9 in August. An index of below 50 means contraction instead of expansion. Another report by employment consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. reveals that job cuts brought the third-quarter layoffs total to 287,142, the highest quarter of cuts since the fourth quarter of 2005. The September non-farm payrolls report from the Department of Labor is expected to show a loss of 100,000 jobs, according to a median estimate from economists.
The labor leader said that under this condition, the government must be more concerned with the ‘capacity’ of our OFWs to secure their jobs abroad and weather this crisis than their ‘ability to invest’ their dollars in the country, which they already did by sending most of their incomes back home to support their families.
There are at least eight million Filipinos working abroad, according to the records of POEA. It is assumed that their jobs as well as their income are threatened by this global recession. One in every six Filipino families derives most of their income from OFW remittances, according to studies.
“It should be this kind of risk and prospect that our government leaders should prepare. Otherwise, making use of the crisis as an ‘opportunity’ to revive the charter change campaign, is barefaced political opportunism,” said Magtubo
Accordingly, to prepare the country for the worse impact of the global crisis, the Partido ng Manggagawa called on national leaders to reverse its economic policies that were hinged more on foreign investments rather than on developing our own industry and the real economy.
“It can be done by redirecting the more than P600B debt service payments this year for economic and social services. Banks and pension funds should also be mandated to invest their money in agriculture, industry, housing, and other sectors of our real economy, rather than in ‘casino’ speculative markets offshore,” concludes Magtubo.
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