With scores of anti-union actions happening all over the world, particularly assaults on security of tenure and collective bargaining, the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) and Workers Development Foundation Inc, (WDFI), with assistance from the international labour movement, the International Trade Union Confederation-Asia Pacific (ITUC-AP), takes on the challenge of preparing young trade union leaders for their important roles in the labour movement.

“It’s very reassuring to see many young trade leaders get excited and ready over learning new things, building their negotiation and bargaining skills, taking on higher roles in their unions and the labour movement in general”, noted Bro. Ernesto Herrera, TUCP General Secretary.

TUCP and its affiliates get a boost of youthful energy as 25 promising young trade union leaders, industrial relations officers and collective bargaining negotiators from the academe, electronics, agriculture, services, public sector, transportation, and partner local media in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, get updated on collective bargaining developments, and trained on strategies and techniques in collective bargaining and negotiation.

“With many developments in industrial relations, challenges on union organizing and collective bargaining/negotiation, this training could not have come at a more perfect time!, said Bro. Herrera.

The program, developed in partnership with the ITUC-AP, introduced the participants to the collective bargaining process, preparing for negotiations, collective bargaining methods and approaches, and understanding strategies, tactics and counter demands.

“This training taught us many things from the basics of industrial relations, bargaining realities, use and analyses of statistics and many more,” said Ferdinand Sornes, union vice president of an electronics company in Region IV. “This will surely help my union improve, enrich and strengthen our bargaining position in years to come,” Sornes added.

Various hands-on exercises provided the participants with an opportunity to get familiar with and further build their working knowledge and skills in analysing company’s financial information; computing for wage increases and shares in gains in productivity; developing, costing and presenting bargaining proposals.

“Just as the actual negotiation is important, the focus on total preparation for negotiating has never been more important”, said Nicandro Borja, ALU-TUCP regional vice president, reminding the participants that the bargaining process, its outcomes and successes would primarily depend on how well the union prepared.

“It is important that unions know where to get financial documents and analyse them properly.” We were able to include in our CBA a provision regarding union’s right/access to information (such as financial statements), shared Vanessa Acenas, a local union auditor of a water district company in Mindanao.

In the mock negotiation, the participants practiced newly-acquired negotiation styles and techniques, effective communication skills and proper use of data and information in justifying their CBA proposals, under the guidance of veteran trade union leaders and negotiators.

Experts and resource persons from the Department of Labour and Employment (DOLE) and Bureau of Labour and Employment Statistics (BLES) provided information on trends and developments in collective bargaining negotiation and up-to-date analyses of (2009) negotiated CBAs.

Cagayan de Oro City, Mindanao, October 2011 – Not letting momentum pass without renewed action, the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) and Workers Development Foundation Inc. (WDFI),with support from the Japanese unions led by the Japan International Labour Foundation (JILAF), together with 25 young trade union leaders from 17 local affiliated unions in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, joined the country’ countdown to Rio+20 with a National Workshop on Green Jobs and Decent Work on October 17-18, 2011 in Cagayan de Oro City.

“Our engagement in green programs started with great optimism”, said Bro. Ernesto Herrera, TUCP General Secretary, recalling that in 2007 TUCP affiliates and members decided to carry out non-traditional (trade unions’) ambitious sustainable development actions and activities.

“We started with ambitious goals with a serious commitment for action. Looking back from where and how our engagements began, how much we’ve learned, and what we have accomplished to date, that green journey needs more action from trade unions”, pointed out Bro. Herrera.

Together with representatives from the Climate Change Commission (CCC), regional offices (Region 10) of the Department of Labour and the Regional Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB), the largest Japanese national center, the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (JTUC-RENGO), and the Japan International Labour Foundation (JILAF), the program looked at government’s current programs and initiatives on green jobs and appreciated actual, on-the-ground experiences, activities and green and greening programs of unions.

“We are happy to see the extent of engagement, the variety of activities and of how far Philippine unions have gone in green jobs and decent work” said Bro. Yoshiharu Sonezaki, Assistant Director, Social Policy Division, Department of Economics and Social Policy, JTUC-RENGO.

No longer just confined to workers’ education programs, improving occupational safety and health and collective bargaining, the program showed unions, their members and families’increasing and direct  engagements in reforestation, conservation of marine ecosystem, socio-economic projects using sustainable farming practices such as organic fertilizer production, waste management programs, building communities through sustainable livelihood projects, training and employment placement programs and many others.

“This program was a rewarding experience. It provided us with an opportunity to share own initiatives and building on experiences of other unions and social partners; we are pushed to do more in our own greening efforts’, said Tony Tabotano, union president of a local mining company in Mindanao.

Unions as major actors of sustainability

The participants put forward an urgent call for up-scaling current greening efforts, particularly providing more inclusive and sustainable avenues for unions’ participation in discussions, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of green jobs programs, projects and activities.

“Unions refuse to remain bystanders and will fully engage in this time of great environmental challenge. We will continue to participate, collaborate, contribute and make people, businesses and communities accountable for their (environmental) actions”, noted the participants.

Recognizing the importance of a multi-sectoral approach in addressing local climate change concerns, the participants called upon the Climate Change Commission (CCC) to engage workers and their unions in the implementation of the National Climate Change Action Plan.

As initial commitments to the campaign, the participants committed to partner with the Department of Labour and Employment (DOLE) and its regional boards (RTWPBs) in holding more enterprise-level green jobs advocacy activities, documenting unions’ green and greening practices and inclusions of green provisions in collective bargaining agreements.

Participants were from major target sectors such as services, telecommunication, transportation, manufacturing, mining, agriculture, academe, electronics, public sector and local media.

TUCP celebration of the 28 April 2011 International Commemoration Day
for the Dead and Injured Workers

BRIEF REPORT Read the rest of this entry »

March 22, 2011, Quezon City – “I will win. I will be a good worker. I will be better than the next person,” a pledge of excellence of every graduate as they say goodbye, reminisce the last 5-7 weeks of training and look forward with confidence to the changes and challenges awaiting them.

Resembling a traditional graduation ceremony, the 126 graduates of three courses, Finishing Course for Call Center Agents (FCCCA) National Certificate (NC) II, Housekeeping NC II and Pinoy Hilot/Wellness Massage NC II were formally presented to proud parents, trainers and TUCP officials. “It feels good to finally graduate. I am proud of where I came from. I am proud of being a recipient of TWC’s training program,” said Jennylyn Saavedra, a graduate of FCCCA course.

Bro. dela Cruz, TUCP Youth Director, reminded graduates of much bigger challenges in life than completing the training. He stressed that TUCP, TUCP Party List with assistance from the Technical Education and Skills Development (TESDA), prepared graduates to succeed from those employment exams, gruelling interviews and revalidas, and tiring OJTs.

“I’ve had my share of failures, of being rejected after series of employment interviews and examinations. But I never gave up. TUCP Workers College did not only teach us communication skills but also prepared us to accept every rejection as a challenge to do better,” shared Kristina Ocampo, who delivered the graduates’ response on behalf of FCCCA scholars. After almost a month of intensive company (in-house) training, Ms. Ocampo signed a work contract with a Philippine-based call centre.

Joey Apaw speaking on behalf of housekeeping graduates, said he is proud of being a product of TWC and TESDA’s exacting standards. “I am no ordinary housekeeping graduate. I am a TWC person,” Joey exclaimed.

Leonardo Pangilagan of Pinoy Hilot encouraged fellow graduates to practice their skills and help popularize the traditional Filipino way of massage. He also committed to continue his education with TWC and work with TUCP and its advocacy and solidarity work.

Bro. Alejandro Villaviza assured graduates of TUCP’s support in helping them find jobs, bring better services, quality training courses for more families and communities, better opportunities, better protection for and the exercise of their rights, and help them enjoy the fruits of their efforts.

He thanked TUCP Party List Representative Raymond Mendoza and former Senator and TUCP’s General Secretary Ernesto Herrera for getting TESDA support for the college. He particularly acknowledged TESDA’s continued scholarship programs.

“To our new students, we will mould you to be better students and workers. To our graduates, go spread the good news! There is hope; hope for many can start at the TUCP Workers College,” concluded Bro. Villaviza.

Celebrating with graduates and proud teachers and parents were other TUCP vice presidents, Bros. Zoilo dela Cruz, Jr., Victorino Balais, Jesus Villamor, Alvin Fidelson, Sis. Esperanza Ocampo, and TUCP Chair Women’s Committee, Sis. Florencia Cabatingan.

TWC graduates are one with Wisconsin workers

Sis. Anna Lee Fos, TUCP Human and Trade Union Rights Monitoring Officer, briefed the graduates regarding the workplace rights and collective bargaining issues confronting the Wisconsin workers and the youth and other states in the US and called on the graduates’ support. The graduates committed to work with TUCP in all its campaigns and advocacies.

Filipino young trade union leaders demand decent work

“We should not spend a lifetime dreaming of decent work, we should go out and work for it,” young trade union leaders from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, called for targeted, responsive and increased investment on decent employment and genuine participation of youth in decision-making processes.

The program, supported by the International Trade Union Confederation-Asia Pacific (ITUC-AP), in cooperation with the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) and Workers Development Foundation Inc. (WDFI), participated in by around 27 young trade union leaders from TUCP affiliates, partner youth groups and other labor organizations, discussed and assessed the country’s progress in decent work, identified the needs and aspirations of youth and emphasized the roles of unions in achieving the goals of decent work.

The youth leaders reflected on their experiences with government programs and called for serious attention to addressing the systemic problem of high unemployment among the youth and access to decent employment programs.

“Despite the various programs and services for the youth, many young workers still end up in low-paying, poor and exploitative working environments, with limited access to social protection coverage,” noted Mary Lake Pace, Executive Vice President and Youth Representative of Philippine Integrated Industries Labour Union (PIILU) in Mindanao.

Bitz Claros, President, VOICE of the Youth in Call Centres, called for more government attention to improving the occupational safety and health and respect for labour rights in the call centre industry.

“Young people welcome and recognize the potentials and contributions of call centres to employment, but where is decent work without regard for workers’ health, welfare and labour rights?” Claros stressed.

The conference highlighted avenues and the roles of workers and their organizations in advancing decent work promotion through the Social Protection Floor, the Global Jobs Pact, green jobs, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) among others.

Ask us! Engage us!

Joel Centra, President of Youth for Empowerment and Solidarity (YES)/Informal Sector, noted that his many years of working with the local government units taught him about the importance of building partnerships.

“Governments and institutions often assume that they know what we (youth) need. We should assert our role as partners (instead of mere participants or beneficiaries) in the implementation of all youth-related programs,” Centra advised.

Rafael Mapalo, TUCP Youth Director, stressed that youth and decent work, including youth participation in social dialogue mechanisms are among the unions’ priority concerns in the Philippine Decent Work Common Agenda (PDWCA). “We will continue to engage in dialogue, contribute and participate in the implementation and monitoring the progress of PDWCA, particularly on youth,” Mapalo said.

TUCP Deputy General Secretary Cedric Bagtas noted that the program is part of the series of capacity building programs designed to build the knowledge, competencies and capacity of the youth, including the education and research officers, to engage in discussions and implement local decent work promotional programs in their areas of concern.

Experts on youth employment issues and decent work from the Department of Labour and Employment (DOLE) and trade unions also discussed the current impacts of globalization on jobs, union organizing and collective bargaining, wages and living conditions, the state of the global and Philippine environment, the implications of climate change and government’s mitigation and adaptation strategies and developments in the proposed national labour and employment summit and on industrial reforms undertaken by the Tripartite Industrial Peace Council (TIPC).

View the article in the PIA website here

10 December 2010: Manila, Philippines – Five levels below the ground. It was not a bomb shelter. The messengers were not carrying a bomb although their message was to defuse a different kind of bomb. It was the receiving section of the Canadian Embassy. Or so it was said. Read the rest of this entry »

December 1, 2010: Manila, Philippines – The Associated Labor Unions (ALU), the Building and Woodworkers International (BWI) and the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) asked Canada to close Jeffrey asbestos mine in Quebec in a protest around the Canadian Embassy in Manila in 25 November 2010.
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TUCP and its affiliates join the tree planting activity spearheaded by the National Statistics Coordination Board (NSCB) in celebration of the 21st National Statistics Month on October 27, 2010 at Brgy. Hacienda Dolores, Porac Pampanga. Read the rest of this entry »

On 07 October 2010, World Day for Decent Work, Philippine unions pledged to take three priority actions –(a) implementing and monitoring productivity programs at the enterprise level, (b) campaign for living wage in partnership with global union federations and other like-minded organizations, and (c) FP/RH and HIV and AIDS education at the workplace –as workers’ contribution to the achievement of Millennium Development Goal 1B: Achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all, including women and young people), Goal 5: Improve maternal health, and Goal 6: Combat HIV and AIDS, Malaria and other related diseases.

NEDA’s Ramon Paul Falcon served as resource person. Read the rest of this entry »

Philippine Airlines Employees Association (PALEA) rejoins TUCP. PALEA President Gerry Rivera explains the origins of and developments in the long-running PALEA labor dispute with Philippine Airlines during the TUCP General Council meeting on 5 October 2010.  TUCP affiliates pledged support for PALEA’s struggle which would have long-term implications on outsourcing of the work of regular employees, security of tenure and management prerogatives. Read the rest of this entry »