Wednesday, May 03, 2006
Oledan: Angles
By Radzini Oledan
Slice of life
FAINT were the voices of women in Monday's celebration of the International Labor Day. On the forefront are labor leaders presenting a generic picture of the economic situation and of the workers' struggle to survive the everyday.
These are the layers of sexism that confront women workers today. By being presented as generic boxes of workers, it veers away from the experiences of Filipino workers, which are most often shaped by gender.
Studies would show that majority of women workers are tracked into the lowly paid service economy doing "feminine" labor, and they often have dead-end jobs with a secondary wage-earner status. In mixed-gender unions and labor movements, their status is also secondary.
Most of these women are in the "informal economy," or those who work outside of established office, shop and factory settings, and are effectively unprotected, if not on paper by labor agencies.
They also earn less than their male counterparts and often have to work on an irregular or seasonal basis due to their gender-assigned responsibilities.
Women "comprise 37.5 percent of the 32 million workers in the Philippines. Majority is employed in the service industry and export processing zones (EPZ) where they are 75 percent of the workforce (Sabaratnam 2000, 5).
Seventy-seven percent of workers in the garment industry are women, and 72 percent in electronics. Also, mostly women work in sales, education, and in domestic labor, in jobs "that earn below the average wage rate."
Women are workers are not only fighting sexism in the workplace and even in labor unions, which are considered to be progressive organizations. And understandably so.
Trade unions are mostly dominated by men and consequently, gender concerns are not integrated into the agenda and sometimes considered as of secondary concern.
For these movers in the labor groups, workers are generic -- experiencing the same impact of the crisis and responding in the same way.
This myopic view on the workers situation hinders the creativity and even appreciation of the small successes of workers in the labor front.
It does not allow the space by which women workers can further develop their agenda in the trade unions, nor does it give importance to enhancing the capacity of women workers to occupy leadership positions. Instead it perpetuate the situation where women workers get stuck to their "feminine roles" in the organization such as handling the finances or administering the operation.
However, we gradually see some changes, as there are more informed workers who are embracing the concepts of equity and equality in everyday life. More men are becoming open to gender issues and more women are beginning to occupy leadership positions in the trade unions.
For this means that information and education drive needs to adapt to the changes. Perhaps, labor groups could go beyond awareness rising on the situation of workers, as these are concepts, which are not alien to everyone in the workforce. It could instead focus more on specific issues such as gender and globalization.
Workers need to understand the current crisis and globalization. They need to understand what is happening around them, and take up the challenge of education with a global focus. Only then could they take relevance and deliver the message that these slogans have meanings on the lives of the ordinary workers.
It would also do well for these groups to translate the analysis and discourse on globalization to which ordinary people would be able to grasp and understand. This could be done by offering local experiences and incorporating it in the education process. Labor groups cannot just stand idle with its sloganeering.
These are complex times, which challenges everyone not only to strengthen the nationalist stance but also develop a global perspective that will enable them to develop new methods and strategies in negotiations. These are angles that should be taken up.
For Bisaya stories from Davao. Click here. (May 3, 2006 issue)
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