ABSTRACT
The reconfiguration of international value chains and increasingly flexible production systems in a number of labour-intensive sectors has led to increasing insecurity for workers in many developing countries (see e.g. Carr and Chen 2004; Beerepoot 2005; Bezuidenhout et al. 2007; Mehrotra and Biggeri 2007). The trend towards the informalization of work within global export production allows producers to maximize the flexibility of work and minimize labour costs (in terms of remuneration and employment benefits) (Barrientos and Kritzinger 2004). For labour unions, the increasing informalization of work means that a larger part of the workforce falls outside their traditional scope. Labour unions have great difficulties reaching informal workers, who are generally ‘invisible’ – scattered, difficult to contact and often have low levels of education (Kuiper and van der Ree 2005). Even when they identify and contact them, labour unions face the challenge of making workers aware of their rights and of the benefits of unionization (ibid.). Organizing informal sector workers is not a simple task that can be carried out along the lines of traditional labour union organization (Pearson 2004). Reaching them generally requires new forms of labour organization and strategies by unions. Social movement unionism (SMU) is regarded as a relatively new approach
for organizing both formal and informal sector workers within broader coalitions of civil society actors at the local community level (see e.g. Moody 1997; Waterman 2004; von Holdt 2002; Hirschsohn 2007). This chapter examines how international restructuring of production and the decline of labour-intensive manufacturing has forced labour centres (national umbrella organizations of labour unions) in the Philippines to rethink their organizational strategies in order to maintain their membership base and representativeness. A part of that rethinking of union strategies is the adoption of social movement unionism by labour centres in the Philippines. The Philippines is often considered as one of the countries where social movement unionism
found its original conceptualization (see Scipes 1992; section 2 and Chapter 2 in this volume). This chapter examines three initiatives in which labour centres organized displaced workers from the garments sector in Metro Manila using their particular conceptualizations of social movement unionism. Organizing displaced workers was a learning experience for all the labour centres, as they had limited practical experience. The experiences of these labour centres in organizing these workers and the lessons they provide for unions elsewhere trying to reach workers during and after displacement will then be identified. For this research, semi-structured open-ended interviews (which took on
average one hour each) were carried out with 24 representatives of the five main labour centres in the Philippines (general secretaries, grassroots organizers and union officials) in the period April to June of 2007. These labour centres are the Maoist Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU), the left-wing National Confederation of Labour (NCL), the Alliance of Progressive Labour (APL), the progressive Christian Federation of Free Workers (FFW) and the moderate Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP). The interviews focused on how the various labour centres interpret the concept of social movement unionism and make use of it in their activities. Additionally the focus was on their response to the current process of industrial decline in the Philippines and their strategies for organizing workers when confronted with these pressures. Particular attention was paid to the decline in the garments sector and how it stimulated the development of grassroots initiatives aimed at supporting displaced workers. Using semi-structured interviews meant that the interviews were conducted in an open framework that allowed for focused, conversational, two-way communication. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed by grouping the data from the individual interviews under the key research themes. The interviews with labour centres provided information on three separate initiatives of small groups of displaced women in different parts of Metro Manila who, without being linked to each other in any way, formed their own manufacturing cooperatives after their displacement from export companies. For the labour centres involved this was a practical experience in organizing displaced workers at grassroots level using their interpretation of social movement unionism. It should be noted that these initiatives are rather unique and are the only three initiatives we came across during the research project. The chapter will proceed as follows. In section two, we provide a theo-
retical introduction to union responses to the changing landscape for labour. Section three focuses on how these processes can be observed in the Philippines and examines the crisis within the Philippine labour movement. Section four concentrates on initiatives by unions to organize displaced workers from the garments sector using their conceptualization of social movement unionism. Finally, section five focuses on the learning experiences for unions when organizing these types of workers and provides some concluding comments.
