CWA Celebrates Philippine Solidarity Month

CWA members have a long history of solidarity with workers in the Philippines. As CWA Secretary-Treasurer Ameenah Salaam notes in a video message celebrating Philippine Solidarity Month, nearly ten years ago call center workers in the Philippines reached out to CWA during our 49-day strike at Verizon and said they were receiving calls that normally would have gone to call centers in the U.S.

Members of the BPO Industry Employees Network (BIEN) held solidarity actions during our strike and even hosted a delegation of Verizon workers who visited the Philippines and investigated working conditions, forcing unwanted attention on Verizon’s complicity. That solidarity ignited a friendship between our organizations that continues to this day.

The global call center outsourcing industry is designed around the race to the bottom to find the lowest wages in the world. Workers in the Philippines face harsh conditions, and trade unionists and human rights defenders have been imprisoned and killed for standing up for their rights.

CWA is encouraging the U.S. Congress to reintroduce and pass the Philippine Human Rights Act. This legislation would end U.S. military aid to the Philippines until the government ends its human rights abuses and repression of union activity.

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This post originally appeared on cwa-union.org.