ABSTRACT
This chapter talks about the story of the rise of a homeworker movement in the Philippines. It describes which strategies worked to make homeworkers visible, which organizing techniques were successful, how the government became an ally, and what income generating interventions yielded results. Traders and middlemen exploit homeworkers, paying low piece rates, penalizing them if they fail to deliver, and often not paying them at all for various reasons. The chapter shows that home-based workers were predominantly middle-aged women in their productive years that carried the triple burdens of housekeeping, child care, and income earning. Home-based workers were invisible to public policy-makers and were not counted in the national census and income accounts. After attending the technical meeting in Bangkok, a rural homeworker together with a social researcher and activist proposed to conduct systematic consultations with garment homeworkers in Bulacan province to create awareness among them.
