Militant labor group Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) said it will ask the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) and International Labor Organization (ILO) to look into the worsening “terrorist-tagging” of its members.
KMU chairperson Elmer Labog made the declaration in response to the supposed growing attempts by government authorities to link their members to leftist groups.
The most recent of the said attempts was the orientation conducted by the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA) at the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) on Monday.
The meeting was attended by the senior officials of DOLE and its attached agencies.
Labog said NICA has been going around government agencies to “brand legitimate organizations as communist front” pursuant to Executive Order 70.
“KMU denounces this relentless vilification campaign by the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) and intelligence agencies to tag KMU and our member unions as terrorist organizations,” Labog said.
“Our member unions are legitimate organizations of workers who are advancing legitimate struggles and grievances. Unionism is not terrorism,” he added.
Aside from the red tagging, he said about 2,000 of their members in Mindanao are now being harassed by government personnel.
“They are being kidnapped, harassed or coerced to leave our local federations,” Labog said.
He said they are determined to bring these cases before the CHR and the ILO for the violation of International Convention 87 on right of workers on Freedom of Association and 98 for right to organize and collective bargaining.
Labog said he will also be bringing the issue at the International Labor Conference of ILO in Geneva, Switzerland on June.
“Hopefully, the welfare of Filipino [workers] will be part of the agenda [of the ILC],” Labog said.
He said the independent body of ILO tasked to monitor freedom of association cases will send another high level investigation group in the Philippines like during the administration of former President and now House Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
Last year, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) flagged Philippines as one of the worst countries to work due to “state violence and suppression,” of workers and trade unionists.