Dusit Hotel Nikko workers re-enact the Stations of the Cross

Dusit Hotel Nikko workers re-enact the Stations of the Cross during a protest rally outside the Supreme Court in Manila Monday. Benjie Castro / GMANews.tv

Labor and green groups spurn "dirty, dangerous and deadly"

Alliance of Progressive Labor, Ban Toxics and EcoWaste Coalition
JOINT PRESS RELEASE

31 March 2009, Quezon City. Labor and environmental groups have joined forces in rejecting a Japanese investment offer for shipbreaking, warning that the “dirty, dangerous, and deadly” venture could spell a toxic
nightmare for the workers and environment.

In a joint statement released by the Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL), Ban Toxics and the EcoWaste Coalition, the groups cautioned the government from submitting to external pressure to allow shipbreaking in the country in the guise of generating local jobs.

The Japanese Shipowners’ Association last week urged the government to embark on shipbreaking as the global financial crunch pushed many shipping firms to retire and scrap some 300 of their 5,000 vessels, assuring the authorities of “good business.”

Shipbreaking, the groups explained, involves the dismantling of end-of-life vessels for scrapping or disposal usually at a pier, dry-dock or beach. Shipbreaking yards are situated in poorer countries like Bangladesh, India and Pakistan because of cheap operating costs and weak labor and environmental standards.

“Shipbreaking is not a clean recycling industry, but a dirty, dangerous and deadly business that has been notorious for totally deplorable levels of workers’ injury and death and environmental pollution and destruction,” the APL, Ban Toxics and the EcoWaste Coalition said.

“We surely want jobs, but not the kind of exploitative and perilous work that shipbreaking offers. We urge our government and business leaders to block this hazardous venture and not to play with our workers’ occupational health and safety,” said Josua Mata, APL Secretary-General.

“Japan promised that it will not send toxic wastes to our country under the exchange of diplomatic notes during the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement hearings in 2007. In less than two years since that promise, we are already seeing toxic wastes from Japanese companies being peddled into our country,” said Atty. Richard Gutierrez, Executive Director of Ban Toxics.

The EcoWaste Coalition warned that shipbreaking can turn the country’s ports and beaches into toxic dumpsites for ageing vessels and cause massive chemical pollution in the guise of creating jobs for our people.

“We cannot afford to further damage our frail environment with hazardous wastes and residues from shipbreaking. The authorities should follow the precautionary principle and reject the deceptive offer from Japanese investors to create jobs by setting up dirty disposal sites for their toxic ships,” Manny Calonzo, President of the EcoWaste Coalition, said.

The complicated process of ripping a ship to pieces can expose workers to numerous hazards, including exposure to toxic chemicals such as asbestos, lead, mercury, polychlorinated biphenyls and other chemicals of concern, the groups warned.

Some of the hazardous work activities in shipbreaking include the painstaking cutting by hand of the steel hull that often results in explosions and fires, removal of paint coatings and insulation materials, dumping of residual fuel, oils, lubricants and other flammable liquids, tank cleaning, and welding, and activities involving work on elevated surfaces, enclosed compartments and other dangerous environments.

The groups cited a report by Greenpeace International and the International Federation of Human Rights saying that the global death toll from shipbreaking operations might be well in the thousands due to explosions, fire, suffocation and accidents and occupational toxicity issues.

Retired Justice Participated in SC Decision, Curtailing Workers Right to Freedom of Expression

The Entire Labor Movement Vowed To Fight The Unjust Ruling

“A complete travesty of justice!” This was how trade union leaders reacted to the inclusion of ex-Justice Ruben T. Reyes, who retired last 2 January 2009, as one of those who issued the 9 February 2009 resolution of the Supreme Court’s Second Division junking all motions for intervention and reconsideration filed by various trade unions in the case of NUWHRAIN-APL-IUF Dusit Hotel Nikko Chapter v. Court of Appeals.

Through separate motions for intervention filed by the government unions and another by a host of unions in the private sector, workers are seeking the reversal of the “Velasco Decision” that abridged worker’s fundamental right to freedom for expression. These motions were filed AFTER Justice Reyes retired.



Back in 2002 Dusit Hotel workers were prevented from entering the company premises after cropping their heads as part of their protest actions during a collective bargaining deadlock. Claiming that the workers staged an illegal strike, 90 workers were illegally terminated. In response, the union filed a case of union busting and illegal dismissal.



Unfortunately, the Supreme Court, through the Velasco Decision, penned by Associate Justice Presbitero J. Velasco, Jr., took the Dusit management’s side. Contrary to common sense, the Court ruled that workers who did not engage in work stoppage were considered to have gone on strike since they provoked the hotel into preventing them from working by cropping their heads. It further ruled that the act of shaving one’s head as a means of protest transgressed the limits of freedom of expression and could validly be restricted by law.



The “Velasco Decision” has been severely criticized by the labor movement. During a meeting at the International Labor Organization (ILO) office in Manila last March 11, 2009, the entire spectrum of the Philippine labor movement agreed to file a complaint before the ILO.

“For the first time in many years, the entire labor movement is united on a clear objective – to reverse this unjust ruling,” Reynaldo Rasing, president of the NUWHRAIN-Dusit Hotel Nikko Chapter, said.

The Confederation of Independent Unions in the Public Sector (CIU), Public Services Labor Independent Confederation (PSLINK) and Postal Employees Union of the Philippines (PEUP) were the government unions that filed one the motions for intervention. The other was filed by Manggagawa sa Komunikasyon ng Pilipinas (MKP), National Labor Union (NLU), National Alliance of Broadcast Unions (NABU), Philippine Metalworkers’ Alliance (PMA), Automotive Industry Workers Alliance (AIWA), Workers’ Solidarity Network (WSN), League of Independent Bank Organization (LIBO) and Alliance of Coca-Cola Unions in the Philippines (ACCUP).



Other groups such as the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Manila – Archdiocesan Ministry for Labor Concerns, labor groups from Cebu led by the Bank of the Philippine Islands Cebu Employees Independent Union, and from Bohol led by the University of Bohol Employees Union, likewise filed their respective motions for Intervention.

Workers Renewed Their Commitment to Bonifacio’s Struggle Calls for Political and Economic Regime Change, Not Charter Change!

Thousands of workers belonging to the Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL) and its allied labor organizations marched in the streets of Manila, Cebu, Davao, Cotabato, General Santos and Cagayan de Oro to commemorate the 145^th birthday of Gat Andres Bonifacio. The workers renewed their commitments to the struggle for social change as they vowed to fight Charter Change and to push for a comprehensive set of policy reforms that would ensure full employment.

We are facing what many people expect to be the worst global economic crisis since the Great Depression in the 1920s. And yet rather than unify the country behind a comprehensive plan that can help us cope with the coming economic tsunami, the Arroyo regime once again opted to launch another bid for Charter Change.

“This is a useless and divisive exercise that serves no other purpose but to extend the term of a moribund government,” Daniel L. Edralin, APL Chairperson, said.

Change the Economic Regime

“What we need is a radical change in the country’s economic regime,” Edralin said. The global financial crisis is the final evidence that the neoliberal project – the restructuring of the economy through privatization, liberalization and deregulation – has miserably failed. While it created incredible riches for a very few, it has condemned many millions into joblessness and poverty.

“Neoliberalism is dead,” Edralin declared. “It is time for alternative economics – a Worker’s Alternative,” he added.

The labor leader explained that the APL is pushing for a comprehensive set of policy reforms aimed at: providing relief for workers; protecting workers’ jobs; and, more importantly, generating decent jobs for all by reviving the domestic economy. It also calls for the completion of the agrarian reform and the development of a clear industrial policy.

“Government should bailout all workers who would be displaced by the financial crisis by providing them with financial support,” Edralin said. Some members of APL affiliates are already suffering from shorter workweek as factories have started cutting back on its production.

To protect workers’ jobs, the “Workers’ Alternative“ calls on government to rescind its Rationalization Plan (EO 366) that threatens to lay-off 30% of workers in the public sector. It also demands that government should study how to keep factories going even if its owners have decided to fold up.

To promote full employment, it is necessary for the country to revitalize its domestic economy through massive public spending for: infrastructure development that will help the rural economy (irrigation systems, farm to market roads, etc.); socialized public housing especially in the urban areas; and provision of basic social services such as education and health.

“We can finance all these by declaring a moratorium on debt servicing and by repudiating illegitimate debts,” Edralin said.

Change the Political Regime

All these would require an effective and activist government that enjoys the full support of the people. And there lies the rub as the Arroyo regime is completely incapable of playing this role. “The Arroyo regime is too corrupt, too power hungry and too unpopular to be able to play this role,” Edralin said.

Worst, the Arroyo regime continues to wage a deadly war of extermination against all its political “enemies”. At the top of its hit list are leaders of mass organizations.

“We need to defeat the Arroyo regime’s efforts to extend its term through Charter Change, but more importantly, we need to end its term as soon as possible,” Edralin declared.

A Better World is Possible

The labor movement’s struggle for a better world is a continuation of the revolution started by Andres Bonifacio. After all, their revolution was a struggle against all forms of oppression. To end oppression in the country would need nothing less than a systemic change.

“As global capitalism totters, more and more people see that socialism is the viable alternative,” Edralin finally said.