All Resources in Philippines

This education module on capital mobility explains the capitalist crisis, and assesses the impact of capital mobility on workers and trade unions. The module also provides stories of workers in the global supply chains and their struggles.

This meeting report discussed the prospect of labour organising in Asia.

Unity Statement of the National Oil Palm Conference

Davao City, Philippines

The palm oil industry is promoted as a “sunshine industry” now among the Philippine government’s priorities.  Palm oil is one of the most highly-traded commodities at the global level. Oil palm is touted as a “tree of peace” with its promises of livelihood and development, food security, poverty alleviation and economic stability.

Southeast Asian economies show notable performance in the recent years. In 2013, for instance, the growth rate of the region’s gross domestic product (GDP) is 4.9 per cent compared to the entire world’s GDP growth rate of 3.0 per cent. However, despite this significant GDP growth rate, employment in Southeast Asia did not rise in the same rate as the GDP has risen. It has grown only by 1.5 per cent. Moreover, poverty remains prevalent and income gaps become wider. In other words, the economic growth in numbers does not translate to the improvement of the quality of lives of the people at the grassroots level.

The two-day meeting focused on understanding and mapping the landscape of labour resistance in Asia in the past decade or so, with a special focus on identifying, in each country, (1) emerging forms of labour resistance, (2) emerging actors and players in new labour movements, and (3) trends in emerging alliance building and collaborative initiatives.

This training manual has been produced by the Institute for Occupational Health and Safety Development (IOHSAD) one of AMRC's partners in its long standing training of trainers (ToT) program in the region. IOHSAD is based in Manila and has been working on OSH issues since the 1980's. This manual has been produced by them for their training activities based on material from AMRC and members of the ANROEV network like LOHP and localised based on their experiences in working with workers and victims on OSH.

AMRC in partnership with Homenet South East Asia carried out a training of trainers for informal workers in Manila early 2010. This was the first collaboration AMRC had with Homenet South East Asia and along with Occupational Safety and Health Center (OHSC . The participants were informal workers and a lot of them were home based workers who were from a very diverse background.

Capital Mobility Research Paper Series No 2

By Ecumenical Institute for Labor Education and Research, Inc. (EILER)

Philippines

Recognising that economies in Asia are developing very fast, there is a considerably widening gap in terms of income as indicated by the Gini coefficients per country. For example, in most of the countries including Laos and Vietnam the income gap has been widening while the economy grows. Aside from increasing informalisation of jobs, there are also other indicators indicating that the labor situation has not improved in the last decade. It is true that poverty in Asia is decreasing but relative poverty has been increasing which means that the income gap in society has become more serious. There are more self-employed and own account workers and more women than men in these categories. The situation of women is relatively worse than men in the informal economy because they have no voice and visibility particularly in   decision making processes.  Aside from increasing precarious work, the marginalised informal workers also suffer from privatisation of public goods. Increasing occupational risks comprise another difficulty faced by informal workers.

The Asian Roundtable on Social Protection (AROSP) meeting for Southeast Asian partners happened in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on 27-28 June 2014. It intends to consolidate the AROSP partners’ network in Southeast Asia towards the strengthening of the social protection advocacy in the region. It was attended by 30 participants (14 women and 16 men) representing workers’ organisations in different Southeast Asian countries including Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam.

This map tells the story of Samsung Electronics' Supply Chains and their working condition across Asia. It shows cases of occupational ill and victims in several Asian countries and key issues including labour union busting by Samsung companies and its suppliers and violence towards workers, among others. 

This study was conducted by Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR) between December 7, 2012to March 2013. Personal interviews, focus group discussion and interview of key respondents through email were used to gather data.  Twelve worker-leaders from Agusan Plantation Inc. (API), Agumil (API Milling Plant), and Filipinas Palm Oil Plantation Inc. (FPPI) participated in the focus group discussions while five key informants were interviewed: three were conducted in person and two were done through emails.