The economic circumstances of the working class in the Philippines

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Women Worker in Garment Factory Producing for GAP and Benetton Dies from Excessive Work
Asia Monitor Resource Center, 14 April 1997. On March 8, International Women&*#39;s Day, a sewing machine operator at V.T. (Vitorio Tan) Fashion Image Inc, died at the Andres Bonifacio Memorial Hospital in Cavite, the Philippines, after 11 days in hospital.
Codes of Conduct and Carmelita: The Real Gap
From the Asia Monitor Resource Center, 13 June 1997. US Dept. Labor investigates labor conditions in Philippines garment industry. The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) ignores sweatshop conditions. In a commentary, Kim Scipes expands on the TUCP as an instrument of government, and raises issue of US AFL-CIO's relation to it.
Philippine Labor Attache Admits Philippine Government Has Failed to Stop Collection of Illegal Placement Fees
Asia Pacific Mission for Migrant Filipinos, 17 January 1999. Admitting that the government has failed to stop collection of illegal fees from placement agencies and brokers, a Philippine Labor Attache asks church NGO's to approve government's kowtowing to the demands of unscrupulous businessmen and legalize their plundering of would-be and deployed overseas Filipino workers in Taiwan.
Filipino workers shortchanged in 2001
IBON press release, January 2002. The government's National Wages and Productivity Commicssion (NWPC) gloated recently that about five million workers benefited from the recent pay adjustments. This accomplishment is trifling if set against the total workforce of 29 million.
Garment workers drugged to stay awake for 3 days
By Luige del Puerto and Romel Lalata, Philippine Daily Inquirer, 3 July 2003. In the uncertain world of subcontracted companies, work is normally seasonal and even then comes in fits and starts, wages below par, and working conditions hardly improved from those of a century ago.
Customs employees threaten to strike over lifestyle checks
By William B. Depasupil, The Manila Times, Tuesday 26 August 2003. The lifestyle check is a prelude to the lateral privatization of the Bureau of Customs just like what they are doing to the Bureau of Internal Revenue. It is part of a demolition job by foreign agencies such as the IMF and the World Bank to discredit the customs bureau and picture its officials and personnel as corrupt.
‘A union foothold in the export processing zones’
ICFTU Online, 10 September 2003. A briefing on the headlong rush toward ever-lower prices which is sapping the fundamental rights of workers. It focuses on export processing zones (EPZs), which account for 80% of the total export trade. On the one hand investors in EPZs are offered financial incentives, but on the other there are low wages, punishing working hours and a miserable life for workers, most of whom are women.
Forced overtime is forced labor
By Ernesto F. Herrera, The Manila Times, Thursday 9 October 2003. Forced overtime, job stress and job security are the burning issues affecting today's beleaguered work-force. In the garments industry, employers contend that it's better to be working more than the normal eight hours than less hours or not at all; if they can't hack it, workers should quit. There are a lot unemployed people willing to take their place.