Focus: Their Solidarity Saved Us

Abstract

18 | International Union Rights | 24/3 FOCUS | FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION Their Solidarity Saved Us In the early 1990s, a libel case in the UK attempted to stop British activists from challenging a UK company for its behaviour in the Philippines. William Baird Plc was not happy that British consumers were being asked to boycott the clothing it made, sold under well-known brands in popular department stores. However, the case never went to court and, while troubling to deal with, nor did it silence the campaign. This was due largely to the actions of Filipino trade unionists - an inspiring example of international solidarity from the global South to the North. Reporting trouble in the Philippines For some eight years 1983-90, a bi-monthly magazine called International Labour Reports (ILR) published news and features on the expanding global economy and workers’ rights worldwide. Based initially in Manchester and then at the workers’ education centre Northern College in South Yorkshire, ILR had solid backing from British unions such as the Transport and General Workers’ Union (TGWU, now part of Unite) as well as aid agencies which funded us, for example to send bulk copies to the labour movements of South Africa and the Philippines fighting vicious regimes. Plus we built a substantial subscriber base of several hundred unions, activists, researchers, and others across the world. However, in March 1990, ILR was struck by a libel writ issued by Baird. Baird brought the case against Mayday Publications Ltd., the workers’ cooperative which published ILR, and the three named authors of an article in the magazine that month. At the same time, Baird hit a sister organisation Women Working Worldwide with a similar writ for a solidarity leaflet it was circulating, calling for a boycott of Baird products. Baird was producing under such labels as Telemac, Planet, Precis, Windsmoor and Dannimac and selling to retailers like Debenhams, C&A, Littlewoods, M&S, and BHS. So, although the company’s name was barely known by the British public, its clothing certainly was. At the heart of the cases lay a long-running dispute between Baird and the workforce at its subsidiary International Garment Manufacturing Corporation Ltd. (IGMC) in the Bataan Export Processing Zone in the Philippines. Along with many other foreign firms, Baird would have been attracted there by the cheap labour costs. It acquired IGMC in 1978, and the coats and jackets that its 1200+ workforce made there went largely to Europe, North America and Australia. From early on, the IGMC workers formed a strong union and engaged in collective bargaining, backed up by occasional strikes, managing to improve wages and working conditions. However, the situation in the Bataan EPZ generally was bad for workers, leading to a general strike in January 1987, which was dealt with by force when marines wounded and killed several people. Meanwhile, Baird was also expanding elsewhere in the region, opening another factory in the capital Manila and one in Indonesia. In January 1988, Baird suddenly dismissed some 200 IGMC workers, including key union officers, and issued its first threat to close the factory. It said this was due to financial losses, which the workers found hard to believe because of the amount of contracts coming in. The reduced workforce now had to work even harder to achieve similar outputs, and by February there was a sit-in inside the factory as well as a picket outside. The following month, Baird laid out the terms under which it would keep the factory open, moving now to individual targets for workers, piece-work, etc., with agreements to be signed by each worker, thereby ditching the collective agreements. The situation staggered on for eighteen months but then, on 20 September 1989, Baird suddenly issued a letter to the workforce announcing the total closure of its Bataan factory by 3.45pm that day, throwing the remaining 1000, mostly women, workers out of work. Now its stated reason was the workers’ go-slow. Since late July, the workers had been demanding a wage increase of 25 pesos a day (about 40 euro cents). The workers claimed the raise was required following a rise in the minimum wage. But the company said this threatened its viability. The...