Alliance of Progressive Labor, Ban Toxics and EcoWaste Coalition
JOINT PRESS RELEASE

31 March 2009, Quezon City. Labor and environmental groups have joined forces in rejecting a Japanese investment offer for shipbreaking, warning that the “dirty, dangerous, and deadly” venture could spell a toxic nightmare for the workers and environment.

In a joint statement released by the Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL), Ban Toxics and the EcoWaste Coalition, the groups cautioned the government from submitting to external pressure to allow shipbreaking in the country in the guise of generating local jobs.

The Japanese Shipowners’ Association last week urged the government to embark on shipbreaking as the global financial crunch pushed many shipping firms to retire and scrap some 300 of their 5,000 vessels, assuring the authorities of “good business.”

Shipbreaking, the groups explained, involves the dismantling of end-of-life vessels for scrapping or disposal usually at a pier, dry-dock or beach. Shipbreaking yards are situated in poorer countries like Bangladesh, India and Pakistan because of cheap operating costs and weak labor and environmental standards.

“Shipbreaking is not a clean recycling industry, but a dirty, dangerous and deadly business that has been notorious for totally deplorable levels of workers’ injury and death and environmental pollution and destruction,” the APL, Ban Toxics and the EcoWaste Coalition said.

“We surely want jobs, but not the kind of exploitative and perilous work that shipbreaking offers. We urge our government and business leaders to block this hazardous venture and not to play with our workers’ occupational health and safety,” said Josua Mata, APL Secretary-General.

“Japan promised that it will not send toxic wastes to our country under the exchange of diplomatic notes during the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement hearings in 2007. In less than two years since that promise, we are already seeing toxic wastes from Japanese companies being peddled into our country,” said Atty. Richard Gutierrez, Executive Director of Ban Toxics.

The EcoWaste Coalition warned that shipbreaking can turn the country’s ports and beaches into toxic dumpsites for ageing vessels and cause massive chemical pollution in the guise of creating jobs for our people.

“We cannot afford to further damage our frail environment with hazardous wastes and residues from shipbreaking. The authorities should follow the precautionary principle and reject the deceptive offer from Japanese investors to create jobs by setting up dirty disposal sites for their toxic ships,” Manny Calonzo, President of the EcoWaste Coalition, said.

The complicated process of ripping a ship to pieces can expose workers to numerous hazards, including exposure to toxic chemicals such as asbestos, lead, mercury, polychlorinated biphenyls and other chemicals of concern, the groups warned.

Some of the hazardous work activities in shipbreaking include the painstaking cutting by hand of the steel hull that often results in explosions and fires, removal of paint coatings and insulation materials, dumping of residual fuel, oils, lubricants and other flammable liquids, tank cleaning, and welding, and activities involving work on elevated surfaces, enclosed compartments and other dangerous environments.

The groups cited a report by Greenpeace International and the International Federation of Human Rights saying that the global death toll from shipbreaking operations might be well in the thousands due to explosions, fire, suffocation and accidents and occupational toxicity issues.

The Entire Labor Movement Vowed To Fight The Unjust Ruling

“A complete travesty of justice!” This was how trade union leaders reacted to the inclusion of ex-Justice Ruben T. Reyes, who retired last 2 January 2009, as one of those who issued the 9 February 2009 resolution of the Supreme Court’s Second Division junking all motions for intervention and reconsideration filed by various trade unions in the case of NUWHRAIN-APL-IUF Dusit Hotel Nikko Chapter v. Court of Appeals.

Through separate motions for intervention filed by the government unions and another by a host of unions in the private sector, workers are seeking the reversal of the “Velasco Decision” that abridged worker’s fundamental right to freedom for expression. These motions were filed AFTER Justice Reyes retired.

Back in 2002 Dusit Hotel workers were prevented from entering the company premises after cropping their heads as part of their protest actions during a collective bargaining deadlock. Claiming that the workers staged an illegal strike, 90 workers were illegally terminated. In response, the union filed a case of union busting and illegal dismissal.

Unfortunately, the Supreme Court, through the Velasco Decision, penned by Associate Justice Presbitero J. Velasco, Jr., took the Dusit management’s side. Contrary to common sense, the Court ruled that workers who did not engage in work stoppage were considered to have gone on strike since they provoked the hotel into preventing them from working by cropping their heads. It further ruled that the act of shaving one’s head as a means of protest transgressed the limits of freedom of expression and could validly be restricted by law.

The “Velasco Decision” has been severely criticized by the labor movement. During a meeting at the International Labor Organization (ILO) office in Manila last March 11, 2009, the entire spectrum of the Philippine labor movement agreed to file a complaint before the ILO.

“For the first time in many years, the entire labor movement is united on a clear objective – to reverse this unjust ruling,” Reynaldo Rasing, president of the NUWHRAIN-Dusit Hotel Nikko Chapter, said.

The Confederation of Independent Unions in the Public Sector (CIU), Public Services Labor Independent Confederation (PSLINK) and Postal Employees Union of the Philippines (PEUP) were the government unions that filed one the motions for intervention. The other was filed by Manggagawa sa Komunikasyon ng Pilipinas (MKP), National Labor Union (NLU), National Alliance of Broadcast Unions (NABU), Philippine Metalworkers’ Alliance (PMA), Automotive Industry Workers Alliance (AIWA), Workers’ Solidarity Network (WSN), League of Independent Bank Organization (LIBO) and Alliance of Coca-Cola Unions in the Philippines (ACCUP).

Other groups such as the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Manila – Archdiocesan Ministry for Labor Concerns, labor groups from Cebu led by the Bank of the Philippine Islands Cebu Employees Independent Union, and from Bohol led by the University of Bohol Employees Union, likewise filed their respective motions for Intervention.

Former Dusit Hotel workers shave their heads outside the Supreme Court Monday to protest the junking of their plea by the Court of Appeals. GMA News Benjie Castro

Outraged by a decision that undermined workers’ fundamental right to freedom of expression, members of the Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL) today trooped to the Supreme Court to stage an indignation rally.

The protesters shaved their heads in front of the Supreme Court to dramatize their indignation over the Court’s decision to junk their plea for a reconsideration of the November 2008 ruling on the case of NUWHRAIN-APL-IUF Dusit Hotel Nikko Chapter v. Court of Appeals penned by Associate Justice Presbitero J. Velasco, Jr

Back in 2002 Dusit Hotel workers were prevented from entering the company premises after cropping their heads as part of their protest actions during a collective bargaining deadlock. Claiming that the workers staged an illegal strike, 90 workers were illegally terminated. In response, the union filed a case of union busting and illegal dismissal.

Unfortunately, the Supreme Court, through the Velasco decision, took the Dusit management’s side. The Court ruled that the act of several hotel employees in reporting for work with shaved heads constituted an illegal strike because it resulted in a work stoppage when management prevented them from working. The Court ruled that the shaving of heads was not a constitutionally protected form of expression because it embarrassed and defied the hotel’s rules on grooming standards. In other words, that the act of shaving one’s head as a means of protest transgressed the limits of freedom of expression and could validly be restricted by law.

“The SC is now telling workers that any concerted actions such as wearing of black arm bands, prayer rallies, and other forms of dramatic expression of collective actions, can be considered as a strike even if there is no work stoppage,” Reynaldo Rasing, president of the NUWHRAIN-Dusit Hotel Nikko Chapter, said. “This is a dangerous precedent that would inhibit the exercise of workers’ constitutional right to strike,” he added.

With the adverse decision, affected workers lost about 200 million in terms of back wages and benefits since 2002.

The protesters intend to file another motion for reconsideration. “We hope this time Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno would listen and review our case en banc,” Rasing said.

A host of unions apart from NUWHRAIN and APL have expressed interest in the case. Manggagawa sa Komunikasyon ng Pilipinas (MKP), National Labor Union (NLU), Confederation of Independent Unions in the Public Sector (CIU), Public Services Labor Independent Confederation (PSLINK), Postal Employees Union of the Philippines (PEUP), Union of Statistics Employees (USE), National Alliance of Broadcast Unions (NABU), Philippine Metalworkers’ Alliance (PMA), Automotive Industry Workers Alliance (AIWA), Workers’ Solidarity Network (WSN), League of Independent Bank Organization (LIBO), Alliance of Coca-Cola Unions in the Philippines (ACCUP) filed their motions for intervention. However, their motions were denied by the Court’s Second Division as well.

Meanwhile, the Court has yet to act on the motion for intervention filed by the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Manila – Archdiocesan Ministry for Labor Concerns (AMLC).

“This is just the first of a series of rallies that we intend to hold,” Rasing finally said.

Amidst a deepening economic crisis engendered by the global financial meltdown, thousands of women workers belonging to the Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL) poured out into the streets of key Manila, Cebu, Davao, General Santos and Cotabato, on the occasion of the International Women’s Day to demand full employment and equality between women and men.

“The global financial crisis is the final evidence that the neoliberal project – the restructuring of the economy through privatization, liberalization and deregulation – has miserably failed,” Marlene Sindayen, APL Women coordinator, said. “What we need is nothing less than a complete overhaul of the government’s flawed market-oriented economic policies. Unfortunately, the Arroyo regime’s response to the worsening crisis is severely inadequate,” she declared.

The APL Women asserts that socialism is the long-term solution to the systemic crisis of capitalism. They call for a radical shift in the country’s economic paradigm: one that would steer the economy towards “full employment” through State-led industrial development and the completion of the agrarian reform; and, where democratic economic planning, especially for providing universal access to education, health and housing, plays a big role in “stimulating” the economy through social pump-priming.

Recent ILO Global Employment Trends report indicated that global unemployment in 2009 could increase by 18 to 30 million workers, depending on the recovery efforts, and by more than 50 million if the situation continues to deteriorate. The report also said that some 200 million workers could be pushed into extreme poverty.

“The current crisis will hit the women hardest due to the persistence of gender bias. They will be the first to lose their jobs. And as poverty worsens, they will be the first to hit rock bottom,” Sindayen said.

Textiles, garments, electronics and tourism would suffer the most. Unfortunately, women dominate the workforces in these industries. Furthermore, companies will rather retrench women as they usually enjoy added benefits such as maternity leave.

“Any meaningful economic policy response to the crisis must address the gender bias,” Sindayen said. “No matter what policy and programs that government implements, so long as it does not alter the structural roots of inequality between men and women – patriarchy – women will always be at a disadvantage,” she added.

The APL Women also lambasted the proposed stimulus package. “The Arroyo regime’s stimulus package is a sham!” Fatima Cabanag, APL Women community leader declared. She said that it lacks a clear plan on how the funds will actually lead to jobs generation. “This will just end up ‘stimulating’ once more the oversized greed and pockets of Arroyo’s cohorts,” she added.

“We demand that funds for ‘social pump-priming’ should come from the re-channeling of debt servicing for the next 3-5 years,” Cabanag said. She chided the Congress for their dubious claims of re-allocating debt servicing. “Re-channeling of debt servicing will only be real if congress rescinds the Automatic Appropriations Act,” she added.

For their part, youth members of APL Women also ridiculed the PGMA’s claim that education is a primary concern of her regime. “The large number of out-of-school-youth today, disproves the claims of the Arroyo regime,” Mira Capellan of APL Youth, said.

“Today we march to unmasked a ‘kabaro’ and expose her empty words and actions for women in general. Her consistent disregard for women’s issues is a disservice to all of us,” Sindayen ended.

In Manila, at least 1,000 members of APL Women assembled in Welcome Rotonda and marched towards Mendiola bearing empty pots and pans to symbolize the increasing hunger brought by the crisis. In UST, they linked with World March of Women and Welga ng Kababaihan.