THE Union Network International-Philippine Liaison Council (UNI-PLC) is appealing for international solidarity for the Filipino sugar workers and small farmers amid threats of unrestricted sugar importation of the government.
In a statement, UNI-PLC executive vice president Roland de la Cruz said that the Philippine government needs to hear from Uni Global Union affiliates and other global unions in order to protect the jobs and livelihood of the hundreds of thousands Filipino sugar workers and small farmers.
UNI-PLC believes that pushing through with the unrestricted sugar importation will cause closures of sugar mills, massive dislocation of workers and widespread unemployment of workers and farmers.
De la Cruz cited that close to 700,000 Filipino workers are directly employed in sugar plantations, sugar mills and sugar refineries and bioethanol distilleries along with 63,000 small sugar farmers.
He said that the sugar industry is plagued with problems among which are low sugar yield per area of land, lower sugar recovery over quantity of milled cane and the high cost of inputs.
“If unrestricted importation of sugar is permitted without adequate regulation and safety nets, cheaper sugar from more efficient and high sugar-yielding countries like Australia, Brazil and Thailand will flood the domestic market and displace workers and small farmers,” de la Cruz said.
Early this week, the National Congress of Unions in the Sugar Industry of the Philippines, which he also led, launched a one million signature campaign with a letter of appeal to President Rodrigo Duterte against the move of his financial managers to liberalize the sugar industry to address the high prices of sugar in the market. (TDE)