A senatoriable requested this writer to supply him a list of labor issues he can expound in his campaign sorties. Promptly, I quickly reviewed my compilation of trade union materials. As a result, I stumbled on an old publication, Labor’s Legislative Agenda, a book published by the UP School of Labor and Industrial Relations (SOLAIR) in 1987, or three decades ago.
The book has a long list of labor legislative reform proposals that were formulated by members of the Labor Advisory Consultative Council (LACC) in partnership with the academe. The proposals were based on the results of a series of LACC-SOLAIR brainstorming workshops that culminated in a big National Conference on Labor’s Legislative Agenda (LLA) in May 1987.
Why the need for an LLA or Labor Agenda in 1987?
A brief historical backgrounder is in order. The unions were euphoric and in a celebratory mood in the years 1986 and 1987. The 1986 People Power Revolt, which brought down the authoritarian Marcos regime, was seen by most unions as emancipatory. On the instance of then Labor Minister Augusto Sanchez, the different competing labor federations formed a unified LACC so that labor would have one powerful voice in society. The Corazon Aquino Administration also eased some of the restrictions on union formation and registration as well as the rules on the conduct of strike.
More importantly, the Aquino Administration came up with a New Constitution that was seen by the unions as “pro-labor”. Under Section 5, Article II, the charter mandates the State to promote “social justice to insure the well-being and economic security of all the people”. Under Section 1, Article III, the charter also guarantees the right of the people “to form associations or societies not contrary to law”. As if these are not enough, the 1987 Constitution has provisions (under Section 3, Article XIII) that are quite explicit and emphatic on the various rights of the workers. The said Section provides for the following:
“The State shall afford full protection to labor, local and overseas, organized and unorganized, and promote full employment and equality of employment opportunities for all.
“It shall guarantee the rights of all workers to self-organization, collective bargaining and negotiations, and peaceful concerted activities, including the right to strike in accordance with law. They shall be entitled to security of tenure, humane conditions of work, and a living wage. They shall also participate in policy and decision-making processes affecting their rights and benefits as may be provided by law.
“The State shall promote the principle of shared responsibility between workers and employers and the preferential use of voluntary modes in settling disputes, including conciliation, and shall enforce their mutual compliance therewith to foster industrial peace.” (underscoring supplied)
Given the foregoing historical backdrop, the LACC-affiliated unions were encouraged to develop a full-blown Labor Agenda that could give life to the above provisions of the Constitution. The Labor Agenda covers three areas: labor relations, employment and economic policies, and human rights and social justice.
A cursory review of the 1987 Labor Agenda is eerily shocking to this writer. Many of the proposals advanced by the unions then (1987) are still the same demands being aired or articulated, sometimes angrily, by the unions today (2018). Key 1987 proposals worth citing here as follows:
In the area of labor relations – the Labor Code should “provide that workers, without distinction whatsoever as to their status or tenure, should have the right to establish and…join organizations of their own choosing”. Today, the trade union movement covers a miniscule percentage of the labor force because unionism is considered the right of only the regular employees, who constitute a minority in the formal labor market because of widespread short-term hiring practices (project, contractual, endo). The legislative proposal recognizing the right of workers in the informal sector (which accounts for the bulk of the labor force) to form their own associations has been languishing in Congress.
On labor relations in the public sector, the Corazon Aquino Administration allowed the revival of public sector unionism. However, the enabling law on public sector industrial relations, as proposed by the LACC and the late Dean Froilan Bacungan of the UP College of Law, has not been acted upon. Hence, labor relations in the public sector is sometimes compared to the purgatory because the rules governing union-agency relations are not firmly established.
In the area of employment and economic policy, the LACC’s position was dramatically opposite to the NEDA program of trade and economic liberalization. The LACC’s proposal: comprehensive nationalist industrialization that promotes the development of local industries and the domestic market as well as the participation of labor. Also, the LACC’s demands include stricter rules, with penal sanctions, against “illegal” subcontracting arrangements, which are better known today as “labor-only contracting” or LOC. The LOC problem has remained despite the various Department Orders clarifying the rules on what are the permissible and what are the prohibited practices in the outsourcing of work.
A major economic policy proposal of organized labor then was the repudiation of the fraudulent foreign debt bequeathed by the Marcos regime. As is well known, the Corazon Aquino and the succeeding Administrations fully respected the Marcosian debt legacy, allocating annually huge budgetary outlays to service the debt and imposing new tax measures such as the VAT to be able to pay the debt. The huge debt burden was one reason for the sluggish growth of the economy in the 1980s up to the mid-2000s. These were lost decades for the country in terms of growth and development. One major outcome for the workers: chronic unemployment, underemployment and poverty.
In the area of social justice and human rights, the main issues then were the rise of “vigilante” groups and the absence of agrarian and urban land reform. The LACC proposals: outlawing of the vigilante groups and the implementation of genuine land reform. Today, the vigilante groups have been replaced by the DDS and other shadowy groups prowling the streets in the name of an anti-drug crusade, while various farmers’ organizations lament the weaknesses of the CARP program, which has failed to deliver redemption of the farmers from poverty.
Re-reading the 1987 Labor Agenda makes one weep. The LACC is no more because the federations went back to their separate ways. But the saddest thing: Not much has changed in the labor, economic and human rights landscape of the country – in over three decades.