LABOR Day yesterday was marked with protest actions and the usual presentation of pro-worker demands. And like in past celebrations, the protest actions were marred by divisiveness, with labor groups and alliances holding separate actions and raising different demands. If there was a difference, it is in labor’s loss of leverage because of the weakening of trade unionism in general.
Government and the employers have actually lost respect for the strength of labor’s unity as shown by the diminution of the benefits they are willing to cede during labor day. The Duterte administration, which has promised real change when it took over last year, didn’t act differently in the first Labor Day celebrated under its rule. The president spewed pro-labor rhetoric but gave out crumbs.
Historically, most workers’ demands are won only when the labor movement is at its strongest. Today is not that time. Membership of workers in labor unions is continuing to decline; so too the number of workers who have collective bargaining agreements with their employers. The problem is that either labor leaders don’t recognize reality or know it but are afflicted with paralysis.
In 2009, a study published by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Foundation and the University of the Philippines School of Labor and Industrial Relations noted that in the midst of the challenging environment the workers are in, unions themselves have contributed to their own decline. Mentioned was the unions’ failure to adapt their organizing strategies to the changed circumstances.
This situation has allowed employers to block at every turn attempts by labor groups to unionize their workers. This has been compounded by the changing setup in workplaces put in place by globalization that in turn fostered an atmosphere of fear of a unionized setup by workers who want to hold on to their jobs.
Meanwhile, we still have to hear of attempts by labor groups to address the divisiveness that has weakened efforts to advance the interests of labor. On this the onus is on leaders of the major labor centers, federations and groups who have refused to reach out to each other to discuss current concerns of the labor movement. They have continued to look outward when the bigger problem is internal.