THE AFL-CIO MEDDLES IN THE PHILIPPINES
Scipes, Kim
The AFL-CIO Meddles in the Philippines The AFL-CIO suffered a major defeat last March not in the United States but in the Philippines, where workers overwhelmingly rejected a tepid union sponsored...
...He returned in July from his third visit to the Philippines, where he conducted research for a book he is writing on the KMU...
...Kim Scipes (Kim Scipes is a long-time labor activist and member of the Graphic Communications International Union, AFL-CIO...
...In August 1988, two vigilantes pulled guns on Tony Quizon, the president of the KMU affiliate...
...And it sponsored anticommunist and "human-rights" seminars for the workers to denounce the KMU and preach the "Christian" values of the TUCP...
...Much of this ideological orientation is fueled by AAFLI, which claims the KMU is a communist front and routinely red-baits KMU supporters...
...The latest battle between the TUCP and the KMU took place at the Atlas Consolidated Mining and Development Corporation on the island of Cebu...
...In 1985, a KMU affiliate won collective-bargaining rights at Atlas and negotiated an agreement with the company...
...The Asian American Free Labor Institute (AAFLI) is the AFL-CIO's operational arm in Asia...
...The largest copper mine in all of Asia, Atlas employs about 10,000 workers...
...Between March 1987 and April 1989, ten union members were killed and seven others wounded...
...Since 1983, AAFLI has given more than $5.7 million to the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), which was formed by Ferdinand Marcos in 1975 to control the labor movement...
...Comparable to the Federation's infamous American Institute for Free Labor Development (AIFLD), which for decades has undermined popular unions in Latin America, AAFLI has insinuated itself into Philippine labor struggles...
...It also believes workers must organize as a political force in society to help determine the best way for the country to develop...
...The Philippine Department of Labor and Employment certified the election results a month later...
...Through its own radio station, it provided massive pro-vigilante propaganda...
...The TUCP actively participated in the campaign...
...But for the last two years, an alliance of management, local government, the Philippine Constabulary, TUCP, and right-wing death-squad vigilantes have tried to wrest control away from the KMU local...
...The TUCP believes workers should collaborate with their employers and the government to help develop the Philippines...
...The KMU vision of development focuses on what is best for workers and peasants, not managers and multinationals...
...Despite the repression and the meddling, the KMU affiliate won 5,025 votes to the TUCP affiliate's 292 in the March election...
...miraculously, both guns misfired...
...The AFL-CIO Meddles in the Philippines The AFL-CIO suffered a major defeat last March not in the United States but in the Philippines, where workers overwhelmingly rejected a tepid union sponsored by the U.S...
...The KMU insists that workers must organize against management on the shop floor to defend their interests...
...AAFLI much prefers this style of unionism to the one offered by the progressive, militant, and nationalist Kilu-sang Mayo Uno (May First Movement) Labor Center or KMU...
...It accepts the plans of the government to entice multinational corporations to their land of low wages and bountiful natural resources...
...There were five attempted murders, two stabbings, twelve shootings, and twenty-one death threats...
...labor federation in favor of a more radical union...
Vol. 53 • November 1989 • No. 11
