Among the plans of new leadership ALU-TUCP eyes unions in BPOs

CEBU, Philippines - The new leadership of the Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP) wants to organize the workers in the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry.

With over 300,000 workers in the BPO industry nationwide and with a projected 600,000 BPO workers in 2016, ALU-TUCP is keen to organize these people.

Gerard Seno, who recently assumed as national executive vice president of ALU-TUCP, said that it is difficult to organize this sector but it will be something that they will look into.

“This is a new industry. Lisud pa ni e -organize ang BPO but this is something nga among sudlan,” (It is hard to organize the BPO sector, but this is something that we are going to get into), Seno said in a press conference.

Country’s biggest

The 58-year-old ALU-TUCP is the country’s biggest labor federation with nearly 200,000 labor union members. It has around 800 existing Collective Bargaining Agreements in the country. Majority of its members are in Mindanao.

Its members are situated in the various industries like utilities, transport, shipping, and agriculture, said TUCP Partylist Rep. Raymond Mendoza.

Mendoza, who is also the national vice president for Mindanao Affairs, said that they are now organizing the more or less 300,000 workers in the banana industry.

The banana industry is the number one exporter in Mindanao in terms of volume and value.

Security of tenure

Meanwhile, ALU-TUCP is asking the House of Representatives for the passage of the Security of Tenure Bill filed by TUCP Partylist, which is still pending for second reading.

The proposed bill aims to criminalize labor-only-contracting and mandates the strict implementation of rules and regulations pertaining to labor relations and standards most especially on hiring and employment status of regular and non-regular workers.

ALU-TUCP gives its support for the passage of the proposed measure as its contribution to the fight against labor contractualization in the country.

The newly-formed Nagkaisa! or United also urged for the passage of the bill. Nagkaisa! is an issue-based broad coalition of labor unions and workers organizations working together to advance worker’s rights and interests.

It is composed of TUCP, Sentro, Federation of Free Workers, Partido ng Manggagawa, Makabayan and PSLink. To date, there are more than 40 labor federations in the coalition.

—/NLQ (FREEMAN)