Labor groups push for ‘just transition’ in March for Climate Justice

Echoing the view of global trade unions that a shift to lower carbon economy is not just necessary but inevitable to address the worsening climate crisis, the coalition of labor groups Nagkaisa marched with multisectoral groups in the March for Climate Justice held in Quezon City this morning.

The group denounces corporate greed for spawning both a humanitarian and environmental crisis as manifested in the intensification of exploitative working conditions and the acceleration of climate change.

“When corporations rule under the framework of unlimited greed, workers endure the worst kind of exploitation. And when climate crisis worsened as tons of carbon are emitted into the atmosphere by oil and energy companies, mining and other hard industries, everyone suffers the brunt most particularly the poor people living in most vulnerable countries like the Philippines,” said Nagkaisa in a statement.

The group pointed out that while the country is less in carbon emission, her position of vulnerability can generate a powerful voice for demanding climate justice during negotiations.

“Unfortunately our government tailgated weakly behind the US position of simply having Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC) process instead of playing hardball in pressing a return to binding cuts based on science and common but differential responsibility and which will limit temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius,” lamented Nagkaisa.

The group said that even with INDC process and actual submissions, the UNEP still anticipates a 4-6 degrees Celsius, rendering the COP ineffective.

Workers were also apprehensive of the fact that while governments are active in climate negotiations, the next one in Paris next week, most of them didn’t have a clear framework on how to fine-tune this transition to lower carbon economy in a manner acceptable to the people.

Nagkaisa is pushing the framework for a ‘just transition’ which promotes social justice and employment, requires active government intervention, and demands proportionate responsibility from all stakeholders, including business.

“The Philippines, for instance, has not explicitly declared a timeline to when fossil-fuelled power plants are finally phased out so that the transition is clearly plotted in favour of renewable energy and the creation of climate jobs,” the group said.

The coalition believes further that thousands of climate jobs can be created in the country in the shift to renewable energy, disaster response and building climate resilient communities that includes resettlement in climate-proof buildings and housing projects, as well as the greening of mass transport system.

“Funding is main requirement for this shift. In climate negotiations, the rich industrial nations must be made responsible in funding the transition of most vulnerable nations,” the group added.

Meanwhile, Nagkaisa said transition policies should not, in any way, transgress into the framework of decent work since regular job and social security help build the resiliency of many people against the wrath of Mother Nature.

COALITION OF 49 LABOR GROUPS URGES PUBLIC TO BOYCOTT LUCIO TAN OWNED PHILIPPINE AIRLINES

The Nagkaisa (United), the biggest labor coalition of labor groups and workers organizations from private and public sectors is urging the public to boycott businessman Lucio Tan owned Philippine Airlines (PAL) for embarking on another round of mass layoff, this most recent involve 117 employees working at domestic airports across the country.

It can be recalled that in 2011, more than 2,000 PAL employees lost their regular jobs when Lucio Tan implemented his outsourcing program. PALEA members resisted the outsourcing program until the labor dispute was finally resolved through a Settlement Agreement in 2013. Said Agreement has yet to be fully complied by PAL.

“We are urging our fellow countrymen travelling locally, our Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs), balikbayans and our friends in all non-government organizations and civil society organizations to boycott Lucio Tan’s Philippine Airlines (PAL) and temporarily cease patronizing its international and domestic passenger and cargo services until he recognizes the sanctity of PAL’s collective bargaining agreement as well as the settlement agreement with Philippine Airlines Employees Association (PALEA) and respect for its workers’ rights,” Nagkaisa said in a statement.

The newly retrenched employees were called to a meeting on September 2 and handed on the spot their termination papers and told not to report for work anymore and were immediately replaced by agency-hired workers. This prompted PALEA members to hold mass mobilizations the following week at PAL main office at the PNB Building in Macapagal Boulevard, Pasay City and at its various offices around the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) in protest of the layoffs.

During its annual stockholders meeting held August 27 last month, management reported that PAL earned a total comprehensive income of US$20.4 million for the year 2014. Its main expenses were the purchase of more aircrafts and cost of jet fuel.

The same report said that in 2014 PAL ferried 9.6 million passengers on 73,685 flights during the year compared to only 5 million in 2013 while cargo also largely contributed to the income by carrying 162 million kilograms compared to 94.3 million kilograms in 2013— with increased domestic international flights from the US, Canada, Asia and the Middle East.

“Mr. Tan wants to improve his margin of profits further immediately upon wresting majority ownership of PAL from San Miguel Corporation in September last year by laying off anew its workers and their livelihood. But the coalition of labor groups within Nagkaisa will not allow Mr. Tan’s cruel disregard of PAL workers’ right to security of tenure and his brazen disrespect to its agreement. The coalition vows its full support to affected PALEA members and to all other PAL workers. We enjoin with the union’s fight for regular jobs and respect for collective bargaining agreement,” Nagkaisa said.

The coalition said the call to boycott PAL services is a peaceful and strong way of the general public’s expression of outrage over the anti-labor practice of Mr. Tan. It is also to remind Mr. Tan that firing company regular workers without due process is grave injustice and backing out from agreement is serious moral and legal misconduct.

NAGKAISA labor coalition calls on creation of a tripartite labor laws compliance inspection task force

The lives and the scathing injury of KENTEX workers are the heavy price for the complete breakdown of government’s labor laws enforcement and for the employers’ patent disregard to the mandatory laws on wages, social protection benefits and the statutory basic workplace safety guidelines.

The KENTEX factory workers’ deaths depict the abominable culture of indifference among many public servants and profit-oriented employers to enforce existing guidelines that uphold workers’ basic rights and well-being.

Therefore, we, the undersigned convenors of the NAGKAISA Labor Coalition, collectively call on Labor Secretary Baldoz to establish a tripartite “Task Force Valenzuela” (TFV) to undertake a surprise sweep and unannounced inspection of factories and plants in the City of Valenzuela to crack down on sweatshops.

In the light of the tragedy that befell our fellow workers in KENTEX, we believe that it now becomes imperative to verify employer compliance with all existing labor laws and safety standards, fire and building structure standards and to determine compliance with all other city requirements for the issuance of business permits and operational licenses.

Justice must now not just be for the KENTEX dead and their families but also for the countless workers nationwide who labor under the same pakyawan system (piecework basis) or through unregistered and unregulated labor manning agencies, to be deployed without any statutory benefits, least of all minimum wages, into firetraps where their lives are sacrificed on the altar of profits. Disposable lives and in the case of the KENTEX workers, thrown away.

We strongly believe that the immoral and illegal activities of the KENTEX owners are actually widespread in Valenzuela, and the inspections should begin in the very factory neighborhood where the fire occurred and with those firms also serviced by the unregistered manning agency. The inspections should also cover those firms that undertook voluntary self-assessments of their labor standard compliance. It is never the best way to enforce labor or safety standards by relying on the mere “say-so” of a very self-interested employer and factory owner.

This proposed crackdown in Valenzuela will have national resonance and will hopefully, by making an example of those who will be caught, ensure that labor standard compliance will be honored more in the practice, rather than in its breach.

We urge the DOLE to seize the historical opportunity to render justice not just for the KENTEX workers but to finally break the widespread culture and practice of corporate irresponsibility that made the loss of the workers lives not just immoral but evil and criminal.

– NAGKAISA Labor Coalition

Nagkaisa seeks justice for Kentex workers, blames partial privatization of labor inspection

#Justice4KentexWorkers! Justice for the #72workers killed at the Kentex fire!

Partial privatization of labor inspection, weak certification process and the endemic problem of corruption down to the local levels have consigned workers to precarious working conditions, including unnecessary deaths and accidents, the labor coalition Nagkaisa said in a statement.

The statement was issued in reaction to the statements made by the lawyer of Kentex Corp. and the labor department that the company has been compliant with safety standards.

Also this morning, members of Nagkaisa such as the Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP), Sentro ng Nakakaisang Manggagawa (Sentro), Partido Manggagawa (PM), and the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) offered flowers as an expression of sympathy and solidarity for the dead workers at the Kentex factory in Valenzuela City.

In a protest rally held afterwards, labor groups reiterated their call that aside from compensation, criminal liabilities be exacted among the perpetrators of this terrible crime, including the violation of other labor standards at Kentex.

According to Nagkaisa convenor Josua Mata, the relaxation of labor inspection through “self-assessment” under DOLE’s Department Order No. 57-04 has rendered toothless the supposedly tough safety standards required in workplaces.

The conduct of self-assessment, according to Mata, is voluntary and is based from a labor standard checklist conducted by representatives of employers and workers.

“This partial privatization of labor inspection promoted evasion rather than voluntary compliance, while self-assessment conducted by the management in generally non-unionized workplace simply won’t work,” said Mata.

This self-assessment, according to TUCP, is followed by a weaker compliance certification process under the jurisdiction of DOLE’s regional offices.

On his part, Partido Manggagawa (PM) chair Renato Magtubo noted that the DOLE’s “Labor Laws Compliance System” (LLCS) inaugurated in 2013 and the hike in the number of labor inspectors to almost 600 is still not working. An audit by the International Labor Organization in 2009 revealed that with only 193 labor inspectors to inspect 784,000 companies, an establishment gets inspected only once every 16 years.

“A big loophole in the so-called LLCS is the focus on ‘voluntary compliance’ and ‘self-assessment’ by employers. Voluntary compliance and self-assessment means that the government is asking the wolf to guard the sheep. No wonder the sheep get slaughtered,” Magtubo lamented.

BMP President Leody De Guzman averred that endemic corruption at all levels aggravates the problem of compliance.

“Regulatory capture has always been the antidote to strict compliance to regulation in this country,” said De Guzman.