The Building and Wood Workers’ International (BWI) calls on all its affiliated organizations and partners to support human rights in the Philippines..
At the 4th BWI World Congress, the delegates passed a resolution entitled, “Condemn Extra-Judicial Killings in the Philippines,” which called on BWI to condemn the use of violence, intimidation, and authoritarianism by the current administration under Rodrigo Roa Duterte.
Since then, there have been additional killings and targeting of trade unionists. It is urgent that we mobilize our affiliates to send a strong message to the Philippine government. The BWI is joining the Global Unions in coordinating a Global Day of Action on 10 December, International Human Rights Day.
We are calling on the Philippines government to do the following:
1. Stop the attacks and red-tagging of legitimate trade union organisations and labour activists;
2. Implement the recommendations concluded by the Committee of Application of Standards of the ILO in June 2019
3. Accept the High-Level Tripartite Mission of the ILO to visit the country at the soonest possible time.
We also support the call of BWI’s affiliates in the Philippines to urge the intervention of Labour Secretary, Silvestre Bello of DOLE with the military and police forces for:
1. Discussions and investigations at the national and regional Tripartite Monitoring Bodies on the recent arrests and raids, red-tagging of labour organisations;
2. Expedition of the 43 cases of extra-judicial killings submitted by the trade unions;
3. Enforcement of the Guidelines on the Conduct of the DOLE, DILG, DND, DOJ, AFP and PNP Relative to the Exercise of Workers' Rights.
To join the campaign, you can do the following:
1. Coordinate a demonstration or action in front of the Philippines mission or embassy on 10 December. In preparations for this action, we have prepared a Global Unions poster which can be used on this day.
2. Send a Protest letter to the Philippines Government. The model letter which can be modified for your organization’s use can be found here.
3. Take pictures with the campaign poster and publish them on your social networks. The posters are found here. You can use the following hashtag #StopRedTagging #StopTheAttacks #StandWithPhilippines #HandsOffTradeUnions #HandsOffWorkers #HandsOff
