USTR: Philippines Labor Working Group Calls for "Increased Concrete Actions"

On December 12, the United States and the Philippines held the first meeting of a Labor Working Group under the U.S - Philippines Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA), which was established by President Biden and President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos in May 2023. 

U.S. officials encouraged "increased concrete actions and bilateral engagement" to protect union organizers against violence and harassment, promote workers’ rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining, and facilitate dialogue among U.S. and Philippine governments, worker organizations, and employer organizations to inform the objectives of the Labor Working Group.  

The Philippine government has responded harshly to workers' efforts to organize and collectively bargain by subjecting trade unionists to extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests, intimidation, harassment, and more abuses through a process known as “red-tagging.”

In a statement, Communications Workers of America President Claude Cummings Jr. notes "The Philippines has been ranked one of the deadliest countries for workers by the International Trade Union Confederation for a number of years. Our union has continued to work in solidarity with workers in the Philippines, to speak out against the atrocities against trade unionists within the country."

The Labor Working Group was formed to "provide an important opportunity for the United States and the Philippines to work together on implementation of internationally recognized labor rights, and to facilitate exchange and dialogue among U.S. and Philippine governments and labor unions, as well as employer organizations."
 
The meeting was led by Josh Kagan, Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Labor Affairs and Benedicto Ernesto R. Bitonio, Jr., Undersecretary for Labor Relations, Policy and International Affairs, Department of Labor and Employment of the Philippines. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Deputy Undersecretary for International Labor Affairs, Thea Lee, and the U.S. Department of State’s Special Representative for International Labor Affairs, Kelly Fay Rodríguez, also participated in the launch of the Labor Working Group.

The Labor Working Group will continue to meet in 2024 in support of our broader TIFA agenda and aim to reconvene in the first half of the new year.