As the violence against trade unionists continues to escalate in the Philippines, the Asia/Pacific Regional Organizations of the Global Union Federations have issued a new statement calling on the “the Government of the Philippines, under the technical assistance and guidance of the ILO, to take immediate action to implement effective measures to stop violence against workers and guarantee the rights protected under ILO Convention No. 87.”
- In June 2019 after a report from Philippine’s trade unions to the International Labour Conference, the ILO Committee on the Application of Standards (CAS) requested that the Government of the Philippines accept a “high level tripartite mission” (HLTM). Unfortunately, due to COVID-19 restrictions, the mission is unlikely to take place until 2022 while the violence and repression against trade unionists escalates
- In July 2020 when the Duterte regime passed their so-called “Anti-terrorism act,” the Council of Global Unions (CGU) issued a statement condemning the law: “the Philippines does not need another legal instrument to legitimize illegal arrests and extrajudicial killings”
- On November 30, 2020 on the Global Day of Action to defend democracy and trade union rights in the Philippines, the CGU statement focused on an end to red-tagging, the practice of targeting trade unionists as communists or terrorists
Click here to read the new statement.
IUF Asia/Pacific Regional Secretary Hidayat Greenfield stated, “This environment of fear is deliberately orchestrated by organs of the Government – acting with impunity – to restrict and undermine trade union activity. In this environment of fear, trade union members have resigned from their unions and non-organized workers have been too afraid to vote in favour of unions. This reflects the complete failure of the Government to ensure the rights guaranteed in ILO Convention No.87 are accessible to workers in the Philippines.”
