News Feature: Philippine trade unions right on
top of “greening” enterprises, workplaces
by Anna Lee M. Fos
by Anna Lee M. Fos
True to their promise for renewed joint
collaboration, Japanese and Filipino unions are continuing to support
nationally-identified issues and concerns in the Philippines. As a follow up to
2011’s program on decent work and green jobs, this year’s activity (third of
its kind since the program was launched in 2010) paid more attention to engaging
social partners and scaling up existing initiatives and opportunities for green
and decent work promotion and creation.
Many things have changed dramatically in the
world of work barely six months since the last program was implemented in 2011.
These changes challenge unions to take bolder, innovative and concrete
responses to accelerating and sustaining earlier gains in green jobs and decent
work.
“The constant attention of the Philippine trade
union movement to the issue of decent work and green jobs and the continuing
support of Japanese unions testify to the high level of awareness and readiness
of trade unions to contribute to climate change adaptation and mitigation,”
noted Bro. Herrera, President of Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP).
The program which receives support from the
Japanese unions in collaboration with the Japan International Labour Foundation
(JILAF) aims to build the capacity of Filipino workers to effectively engage
locally, regionally and nationally in the climate change debate, initiatives
and in decision making processes.
“We are proud that TUCP was granted the
privilege and opportunity to carry out pioneering sustainable
development-related efforts in Asia and in the Philippines,” said Bro. Greg del
Prado, TUCP’s General Council member, one of this year’s participant. He
stressed that workers’ (including their families’) welfare and protection will
remain higher in TUCP’s priority agenda.
Participants, while recognizing the importance
of green jobs, called for a truly sustainable development process which
addresses both social and broader environmental dimensions of jobs. They
proposed that any greening strategies at the national, regional and local
levels should ensure that workers and their families’ interests are taken into
account.
Unions under the TUCP and its affiliates commit
to support more enterprise level workers’ education programs; conduct baseline
survey to assess extent of decent work and greening activities in unionized
enterprises using the trade union-developed action checklist on decent work and
green jobs; develop easy-to-understand information materials on decent work and
green jobs; integrate green clauses in future CBA negotiations; and designate
focal persons at the level of the labour federation and the local unions in
charge of green jobs and decent work.
Together with representatives from the
International Labor Organization (ILO) Philippine Office, Climate Change
Commission (CCC), regional offices (Region VII) of the Department of Labour and
the Regional Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB), the largest Japanese
national center, the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (JTUC-RENGO), and the
Japan International Labour Foundation (JILAF), the program looked at strategies
of greening jobs and advancing decent work at the workplace, reviewed major
steps taken by the government towards climate change adaptation and mitigation,
and assessed actual, on-the-ground experiences, and greening programs and
activities of unions.
The program was attended by 33 participants from
TUCP’s affiliates in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. They came from major sectors
that are particularly important for a transition to a green economy such as
transportation and agriculture, and other sectors equally vulnerable to
environmental disasters including manufacturing, academe, hotels and
restaurants, banking, informal sector, call centers, among others. (FEA/TUCP/PIA-Surigao
del Norte)
