Labor sector’s Christmas wish-list for P-Noy: Empower Workers

23 December 2011, Quezon City—In the spirit of the Christmas season, the Associated Labor Unions-TUCP National Vice President Gerard Seno is grabbing this opportunity and issuing this statement as labor sector’s wish-list for President Aquino to be doing for workers’ sake by January 2012:

At the heart of every Filipino family unit is a working and toiling parents who aspire for their children’s future be far better off than what they are today.

The ALU-TUCP believes that labor and workers’ welfare are in the heart and mind of President Aquino.

Now that there are four years left into his 6-year term, we, the workers, therefore, are reminding President Aquino that today is the time to begin devoting all his energies towards beginning to rebuild and empower every Filipino family by:

1. Either reduce the prices of basic commodities and electricity rates to protect the erosion of family income or increase the current daily wage rate by approving into law the across the board wage increase petition in Congress;

2. Address Philippine government’s multi-institutionalized failure to make the Philippines competitive in the region due to the following factors: endemic corruption in the bureaucracy particularly the illegal smuggling, the high-cost of operating a business in the country, inadequate infrastructures for quick and free flow of goods, worsening security and order, and government’s assignment of all workers’ social benefits to employers.

3. Certifying as urgent/priority the pending job security of tenure bill;

4. Uphold labor tripartism participation in formulation of key government policies and frameworks;

5. Protecting informal economy workers particularly the domestic workers. Ratify ILO Convention 189 or Domestic Workers Convention;

6. Make sure a full implementation of ILO Conventions 87 and 98 that champion the freedom of association and collective bargaining;

7. Ratify International Labor Organization’s Maritime Labour Convention of 2006 (MLC, 2006). The Maritime Labour Convention of 2006 was adopted by the ILO in February 2006 as a response to the global nature of workers’ employment in the maritime industry, to comprehensively address the working and living conditions of seafarers and to set out the minimum standards for decent work for domestic seafarers. Alan A. Tanjusay, ALU Policy Advocacy Officer

4,000 Central Bank Employees Feared Exposed to Cancerous Asbestos Due to Its Improper Removal and Disposal

The Associated Labor Unions (ALU) appealed to the Labor department to intervene and save thousands of Philippine central bank employees from an ongoing improper removal and disposal of cancerous asbestos and asbestos-containing materials at the BSP building in Manila.

“This is to bring to your attention and immediate intervention on the possible exposure of asbestos disposal workers and the thousands of employees of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas in Manila for improper removal of asbestos from its building,” said Gerard Seno, ALU national vice president and coordinator of ALU advocacy Ban Asbestos Philippines, in his letter to Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz and BSP governor Amando Tetangco Jr. dated December 12, 2011.

Witnesses accounts, still pictures and video of workers on-site taken during BSP renovation and repair work showed blatant safety removal and disposal protocol violations contracted by Safeco Environmental Services Inc.

Some of the health and safety violations identified by the campaign were: (1) workers doing actual removal and disposal work are not wearing proper and sufficient personal, protective equipment which would protect them from primary and secondary exposure to asbestos dust, (2) the two sites in which abatement activities are being done were devoid of enclosures and air devices that ensures asbestos dusts are confined within, (3) the plastic containes and vacuum cleaner used in the procedure are improper and sub-standard, and (4) the labelling of asbestos and asbestos-containing debris is deplorable.

Safeco should be held liable for this serious safety lapses that gravely endangers the lives of BSP employees, Safeco workers, and to BSP’s highly populated surrounding neighbourhood, Seno added. Around 100 Safeco workers worked on rotation since the renovation began on January this year while there about 4,000 regular and contractual BSP employees.

Asbestos in BSP are located in ceilings as insulators against changing weather. It is also used to coat pipes and steel trusses. Primary symptoms of asbestos-related diseases includes shortness of breath, wheezing, persistent cough that gets worse over time, blood in the sputum coughed up from the lungs, pain or tightening in the chest, difficulty swallowing, swelling of the neck or face, loss of appetite, weight loss, fatigue, and anemia. These are apparent 10 to 30 years later after exposure.

Since 1977, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Labour Organization (ILO) maintained that there is no safety threshold to it, meaning even a small amount of exposure to all kinds of asbestos dust either inhaled or swallowed can cause incurable cancers and various diseases such as lung cancer, mesothelioma, asbestosis, and pleural plaques and effusions. Recently, there are growing anecdotal evidences showing exposure to asbestos dust also causes cancer in the ovary and the larynx.

ALU’s Ban Asbestos Philippines began its advocacy in 2004. It partners with Building and Wood Workers International (BWI) and the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) in advocating to ban and phase out asbestos and asbestos containing materials in the country. Alan A. Tanjusay, ALU Policy Advocacy Officer

ALU’s Ban Asbestos Philippines Decries Serious Breach in Asbestos Removal Protocols in the Central Bank Building in Manila

The Associated labor Unions’ Ban Asbestos Philippines today called on Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz to intervene on the alleged serious breach in the asbestos removal procedures in the central bank building in Manila and save workers and employees from more significant exposure to its cancerous dust.

“We call on the government, particularly with the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz to conduct an immediate site inspection of the asbestos removal being conducted by an asbestos-removal service provider at the 17th and 19th floor of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) building located in Manila and impose the necessary government intervention and prevent disposal service provider workers and central bank employees from further primary and secondary exposure to the cancerous asbestos dust,” said Gerard Seno, ALU National Vice President.

Based on the video and still pictures taken during an asbestos abatement procedures atop the BSP building, workers from Safeco Environmental Services Inc. wears insufficient personal protective equipments. There is absence of necessary and prescribed enclosures of the areas where asbestos dusts and asbestos-containing materials are being removed, lack or absence of prescribed container plastic bags which should store all asbestos and asbestos-containing materials. There was also none of labels indicating that those recovered are asbestos and asbestos-containing materials, Seno said.

He emphasized further and said: “Due to these serious flaws, we can say the workers may have been significantly exposed. Yet, we cannot also discount the possibility there were secondary exposure to unwitting BSP employees. Somebody must be made to account for such a very irresponsible and unfortunate situation.”

Since 1977, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Labour Organization (ILO) maintained that there is no safety threshold to it, meaning even a small amount of exposure to all kinds of asbestos dust can cause incurable cancers and various diseases such as lung cancer, mesothelioma, asbestosis, and pleural plaques and effusions, 10 to 30 years upon exposure. Recently, there are growing anecdotal evidences showing exposure to asbestos dust also causes cancer in the ovary and the larynx.

Primary symptoms of asbestos-related diseases includes shortness of breath, wheezing, or hoarseness, persistent cough that gets worse over time, blood in the sputum coughed up from the lungs, pain or tightening in the chest, difficulty swallowing, swelling of the neck or face, loss of appetite, weight loss, and fatigue and anemia.

The WHO estimated that around 125 million people are exposed to asbestos, most of these are workers in the construction industry. This figure translates to 107,000 people die every year due to cancers and other diseases caused by first and second hand exposure to asbestos dust. Alan A. Tanjusay, ALU Policy Advocacy Officer, Associated labor Unions’

Toxic Wire Gauzes Used in Schools Are Unlabelled & Openly Sold in Manila, ALU Asks DENR to Impose Statutes

The Associated Labor Unions’ ban asbestos campaign urged the Environment department today to conduct an inspection of the toxic wire gauzes openly sold in Avenida, Manila and impose the safety product labelling as required by the Chemical Control Order for asbestos.

“This is request to you Mr. Secretary to conduct an immediate inspection of all asbestos-containing wire gauzes being sold in the open specifically along Avenida in Manila for serious violation of labelling and handling provisions of the Chemical Control Order for asbestos and require its local or foreign manufacturers for safety label,” said Gerard Seno, ALU National Vice President in his letter to Environment Secretary Ramon Paje.

“By requiring safety labelling of asbestos-containing products as required by the Order such as wire gauze, the DENR can actually save million of teachers and students from significant exposure to cancerous asbestos dust fibers. Safety labels will serve prior information for teachers and students for them to make the necessary preparations and handling of wire gauze to prevent primary and secondary exposure,” Seno added who is also Program Coordinator of ALU’s Ban Asbestos Philippines, a campaign to responsibly ban and phase out of asbestos in the Philippines.

Last week, the campaign revealed that a sample of a wire gauze used in high schools and colleges, and laboratories, contains 3 per cent of the deadly Chrysotile asbestos in a testing and analysis conducted by a private laboratory using polarized light and dispersion technique. This wire gauze was bought in Avenida.

“All manufacturers, TSD facilities and premises, transporter, haulers, and disposers or asbestos-containing materials and asbestos-containing waste must comply with the labelling requirements hereinafter stated. Visible signs will be required on all packaging for all asbestos and asbestos-containing products as described…The signs must clearly mark that the product contains asbestos and disposal of friable asbestos containing wastes is regulated under this CCO,” Section 9 on labelling requirements of the CCO says.
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The Chemical Control Order for Asbestos was issued in 2000 by the DENR to control and regulate the hazardous phenomenon that asbestos pose to the population.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the World Health Organizations (WHO), the World Bank (WB), and the International Labor Organization (ILO) maintained that all asbestos are cancerous and there is no safety threshold to it. They estimated that around 125 million people are exposed to asbestos, most of them workers in the construction. This translates to 107,000 people die each year due to cancers and other diseases caused by first and second hand exposure to asbestos dust 10 to 30 years after inhalation.

In the Philippines, despite difficulty to diagnosed asbestos-related diseases, the Lung Center of the Philippines and the Philippine Cancer Society has recorded 12 cases of mesothelioma, asbestosis, and lung cancers. One of which is a 21-year old. There are hundreds of workers claiming for compensation after they alleged to contract asbestos related cancers and diseases while at work. Alan A. Tanjusay, ALU Policy Advocacy Officer, Associated Labor Unions