ISSUE 12, SEPT 2010 Manila, Philippines

Diminishing Strike Levels, An Indicator of Industrial Peace?

The current labor relations situation in the Philippines reflects some dismal figures in terms of worker representation. In the latest Labor Force Survey conducted by the Bureau of Labor and Employment Statistics (BLES), existing unions as of December 2009 was 17,665, covering less than two million workers or a little over five percent of the total employed persons in the country. Of these organized workers, only around 225,000 workers are covered by existing collective bargaining agreements (CBAs), which implies that merely about eleven percent of the organized workers have a relatively improved working condition through collective bargaining. Despite the slump in CBAs for the past years, strike incidence has been on a steady decline. According to the data of the Bureau of Labor Relations (BLR) and the National Conciliation and Mediation Board (NCMB), the number of strikes and lockouts per year from 1975 to 2007 (notices filed and actual strike and lockout) considerably dropped. From an all-time high of 581 actual strikes and lockouts in 1986 and 1,715 notices of strike and lockout in 1987, the trend in incidence of strikes and lockouts in the country has sharply been on a downturn, with the figure in 2007 showing only a total of 340 notices of strike and lockout, and six actual strikes and lockouts. In 2009, only four strikes were declared, and five in 2008. Concept of Industrial Peace Industrial peace, according to a Philippine labor relations expert, does not mean the absence of labor disputes because conflicts are realities in labor relations. Industrial peace implied a condition whereby differences between labor and management in the form of strikes and lockouts were minimized, if not totally avoided. Problem Description The concept of industrial peace has loosely been anchored on the incidence of strikes and lockouts. Low or
This paper was written by Benjamin M. Dalumpines III, research associate at the Institute for Labor Studies.
ISSUE 12 Diminishing Strike Levels, An Indicator of Industrial Peace?

Policy Prescriptions Many indicators may serve as equally important measures for industrial peace, including: full exercise of the right to freedom of association; voice representation; quality of CBAs; effective social dialogue; efficient dispute mechanism; productivity; investor confidence; and stable peace and security situation. Towards actually promoting industrial peace Considering the abovementioned indicators, the full exercise of the right to freedom of association of workers, complemented by industry signals and firmlevel productivity, can be a better gauge of industrial peace. Programs aimed at educating workers (especially unorganized ones), regarding the freedom of association, the active promotion of collective bargaining and grievance machinery should still be one of the priorities of the government. The issue on the (in)efficiency of NLRC, brought about by its case backlogs, must also be addressed by the government, whether it is a result of NLRC being understaffed or the lack of statutory prescription on the disposition or resolution of cases. Labor standards enforcement should be further strengthened to meet the needs of workers whose conditions of work are being violated. Settling working condition concerns efficiently upon inspection eases the dispute settlement mechanisms of a bulk of strikeable cases. Continuous promotion of social dialogue through informal union-management communication, LMCs (bipartism) or tripartite councils and conferences (tripartism) must also be a priority of the Department.

declining strike incidence is believed to be an indicator of industrial harmony, while an increasing strike incidence implies a difficult industrial relations situation. The researcher, by analyzing the downtrend of strike and lockout incidence and by redefining industrial peace in the context of a changing labor market, challenges the above notion by providing a more relevant set of indicators of industrial peace that truly reflects the realities in the industrial make-up of the country.

Analysis In gauging industrial peace, informants to the study pointed out that strike incidence alone is not a good measure. The low incidence of strikes over the years is a result of a variety of reasons. Although the decline could be attributed to the maturity of labor and management and the effectiveness of labor dispute mechanisms, other more compelling reasons have actually caused the downturn. Foremost of these reasons are the low state of unionization and the intervention of the government through assumption of jurisdiction. Policies in freedom of association, which lay down the environment for workers to stage legitimate strikes, seem to have a hand on this state. Economics is also a primary driver in the decline in strikes, resulting from the fear of workers to lose their jobs (employment security) or the non-feasibility of launching a strike due to financial constraints. Industrial peace, hence, should be ascribed not only to the increase or decrease in strike incidence. Other indicators which would practically show the true state of

labor relations in general such as the quality and coverage of CBAs, effectiveness of labor dispute mechanisms, effectiveness of social dialogue, and enforcement of labor standards are deemed to be equally important measures. Together, these indicators would not only depict silence but will also somehow illustrate the harmony between the actors in tripartite relations. It must be taken into consideration that these indicators rest on the premise that freedom of association and free collective bargaining are fully operational in law and are vibrantly carried out in practice. Freedom of association, or the promotion or protection thereof, should therefore be the locus of policy, as it emanates from such right several other rights and privileges workers can benefit from. Business sustainability as another indicator of industrial peace may also be considered. As what some of the respondents emphasized, viability, competitiveness and productivity of business are leverages of the management during CBA negotiations.

ISSUE 12 Diminishing Strike Levels, An Indicator of Industrial Peace?