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Filipino Women Workers

In the Era of Globalization And Crisis

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PHILIPPINE TRIVIA

• Where is the Philippines?Continent? Region?

• How many islands doesthe country have?

• Does it snow in thePhilippines?

• How many languages arespoken in the Philippines?

• What is the main religion inthe Philippines?

• What is the currentpopulation of the country?

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History Ticklers

• Did the British occupy thePhilippines?

• Under the Treaty of Paris,how much did the US payfor Spain to hand over thePhilippines?

• How many Filipinos diedduring the 14-year longPhilippine-American war?

• Which president declaredMartial Law in thePhilippines?

• How did Martial Law end?

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Population & Labour Statistics

► 97.9 million: Population (July 2010)► 38.2 million: Labour Force

34% in agriculture

15% in industry51% in services► 4.2 million: Unemployed► PhP 912 (£12.99): Daily cost of living for family

of 6► PhP 382 (£ 5.44): Official daily minimum wagerates

► PhP 530 (£ 7.55): Wage gap

 

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Did you know that…

• The Philippines is poor because it is rich.• The country’s population is predominantly rural

(70 percent of the total) and two-thirds of thispopulation depend on farming for their livelihood.

• The economy is mainly export-oriented, import-dependent and debt-ridden.• According to the IMF, it is a “newly industrialized

emerging market economy”.

• The biggest population of Filipino expatriates /migrant workers lives in the UK. (Est. 203,000majority of them employed in the health sector)

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CRISIS CRISIS EVERYWHERE& PROFITS TO BE MADE BY

MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS!

 WTO FORMULA:

NAFTA + EFTA + APEC + EPA

= LIBERALIZATION OF THE GLOBAL MARKETS

= DEREGULATION (Labor laws, Foreign plunder and 100%ownership of national resources, tax havens, lack of government protection for workers benefits, local produce,relocation of jobs to countries with cheaper labour )

= PRIVATIZATION (National assets e.g. water, energy,services)

= CONTRACTUALIZATION OF WORK

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DECENT JOBS!

NOT EMERGENCY EMPLOYMENT!

CONTRACTUALIZATIONMEANS:

Low wages

Multiple Job HoldersPart-time work / Less working hoursLack of benefits and protection for workers(e.g. maternity benefits, health insurance, leave,

pension)No job security!

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In 1997, Carmelita Alonzo, a sewing machine operator at VT (Vitorio Tan)Fashion Image Inc, died at the Andres Bonifacio Memorial Hospital in Cavite,Philippines, after 11 days in hospital.According to her co-workers at VT Fashion, "Carmelita was killed by her 14hour workday every day plus overtime of eight hours every Sunday."

(Philippines News and Features, March 19, 1997)The workers denounced the system of quotas set by the company which forcedthem to work 12 to 14 hours per day. According to the Workers AssistanceCenter in Rosario, Carmelita, a 35 year old mother of five, had died because of the strict regime in VT Fashion and its sister company, All Asia Garment

Industries, which force workers to obey a compulsory 14 hour shift.

Living and workingin an export-

oriented, import-dependent, debt-ridden economy…

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 In terms of employment, about one-half of the labor forceis engaged in agricultural activities.

Women agricultural workers receive 51% less pay for doing the

same work as their male counterparts.

In the past several decades, landlessness, in the form of either notowning the land they till or the lack of land to till, has been causinguntold miseries for peasants who make up the bulk of the Philippinepopulation.

For Nanay Ceding, 62, a mother of eight, and her neighbors in asuburban peasant village, copingup with extreme poverty and theerratic climate meant leaving thefamily and the farms for at least sixhours every day. 

Like many other peasant women in her neighborhood, Nanay Cedinghas to go out of the village to do household chores for middle-income families, mostly professionals and businessmen, and officeworkers who find it hard to do the laundry and housekeeping whilethey work the whole day.

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WORKERS LOOKING FOR JOBS:From Rural Areas → Village → City → Overseas

↓• Failed government land reform

program has made landinaccessible to poor farmers

• Looking for work, jobless peasantsgo to the villages to vilages then tothe cities to look for work.

• For those who have the educationand the financial resources, there isthe difficult decision to look for workoverseas.

• Everyday, 3,800 Filipinos leave thecountry to look for work overseas.

• 1.6 million families rely on overseasremittances for their dailysubsistence.

• In 2009, OFWs remitted a record-breaking US$ 16 billion into thecoffers of the government.

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TTD’S:

• GLOBALIZE WORKERS’ SOLIDARITY!

• FIGHT FOR DECENT WORK EVERYWHERE!

• SUPPORT MIGRANT WORKERS’ RIGHTS!

• SOLIDARITY WITH PEOPLES’ MOVEMENTS

FOR GENUINE CHANGE, HUMAN RIGHTS

AND PEACE IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES!

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WOMEN WORKERS IN THE PHILIPPINES FIGHTING FOR JOBS,

LAND, NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY, HUMAN RIGHTS AND PEACE!

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Thank you!

For your SOLIDARITY AND SISTERHOOD!

Maitet Ledesma

IBON Europe

Birmingham, 05 March 2011