International Workers Day Statement
Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians
National Statement
May 3, 2011

The Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians (CPFC) greets International Worker’s Day with heightened militancy and marks the day as a significant time to reclaim and advance the struggles of the working class all over the world. Initially wrought 125 years ago, International Worker’s Day was born out of the demands and struggles of American workers for an 8 hour work day and safe working conditions during an era where workers’ lives were characterized by long working hours and unsafe conditions that led to countless abuses, injuries and deaths. Today, these same issues arise and worsen as the neoliberal agenda of globalization increases its attacks on the lives of the working class peoples all over the world. Now more than ever, in this time of economic crisis and uncertainty, CPFC encourages all workers to build genuine solidarity to intensify the struggles and resistance against the increasing onslaught brought upon by the neoliberal agenda of globalization.

CPFC maintains that advancing the working class struggle can only be realized by placing the struggles of the workers in and from the Global South at the forefront. In Canada, as the Federal government continues to implement anti-worker and anti-people policies, racialized workers from the Global South and working class communities suffer first and are the hardest hit. The Federal government’s rapid implementation of neoliberal policies that prioritize corporate private interests have led to the privatization of public services, healthcare and the casualization of labour.

Instead of generating stable and meaningful employment for all workers, the Federal government implements regressive labour and immigration programs, such as the Temporary Foreign Workers Program and the Live-in Caregiver Program, to systematically recruit workers from the Global South and relegate them into sources of cheap labour. Palpably seen through the lived realities of the Filipino Canadian community, Canada’s 3rd largest visible minority group and largest source of temporary foreign workers and live-in caregivers, the CPFC maintains that the institutionalization of these labour and immigration programs are manifestations of Canada’s concerted efforts to amplify labour contractualization and flexibilization. We recognize that the systemic subjugation of temporary foreign workers through denying them genuine settlement and integration in Canada is an effort to cheapen the wages of all Canadian workers and to maximize profits.

Recognizing that our presence as a transnational community is a direct product of neoliberal globalization, we at CPFC stand in solidarity with the over 10 million overseas Filipino workers who toil in 150 countries as they are forcefully displaced by neoliberal labour programs such as the Philippines’ Labour Export Policy. We also stand in solidarity with the Filipino workers of the Hanjin shipyard in their struggles against their deplorable working conditions which have led to the recent death of 31 year old Alvin Danulag and 24 other workers. Hanjin, the world’s 4th largest ship-building and Korean-owned company, employs over 15,000 workers in the Philippines. Its lack of compliance to occupational health and safety standards, its exploitation of workers by paying them less than the legislated minimum wage and its practice of contractual employment concretely illustrate imperialism’s rapacious assaults on workers. We are alongside MAKABAYAN (Manggagawa para sa Kalayaan ng Bayan/Workers for People’s Liberation), the leading progressive force of the Philippine labour movement, in their efforts to organize Hanjin shipyard workers and Filipino workers to fight for their rights and demand for safe working conditions.

We, the Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians, stand in solidarity with all workers in Canada and beyond. We condemn any government strategy of exploiting workers through labour programs that perpetuate a life of permanent impermanence. We will continue to expose and oppose the neoliberal agenda of globalization and strive towards our genuine settlement and integration.

Workers of the world unite!
Expose and oppose the neoliberal project!
Stop the global contractualization of labour!
Down with imperialism!

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Organizations under the CPFC:
National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada
SIKLAB Canada (Sulong Itaguyod Karapatan ng Manggagawang Pilipino sa Labas ng Bansa/Advance and Uphold the Struggle of Filipino Canadian Workers)
UKPC/FCYA-National (Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada/Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance-National)
Philippines-Canada Task Force on Human Rights

For more information, contact:
Joy C. Sioson
(416) 519-2553
pwc-on@magkaisacentre.org
www.magkaisacentre.org