Trade Union Development

Unions weren’t recognized easily, it progressed through three revolutionary stages before it was even recognized by the government. Trade union repression happened between 1901 and 1907 when the UOD quickly dissolved before their advocacies materialized. The Spanish Penal Code was one of the early signs of prohibiting nationalistic beliefs of demanding accountability from governments by imprisoning those who object. After the long hard fight, unions were recognized according to Act No 1868 which pave the way for the Bureau of Labor in the Department of Commerce and Police to acknowledge protests, strikes, and labor difficulties: this is where mutual aid organizations blossomed which later overshadowed by social movement unions that resulted to a rapid increase of labor organizations, and the expansion of the industry of urban workers in the capital. Quezon is known for playing the middle ground of preserving the economy in favor of the foreign investors and the demands of the local tenants and laborers, therefore, resulting in granting them at least a minimum amount of social security and justice.

Developments were seen especially in the postwar era. The Committee on Labor Organization duly recognized affiliations of Communist and non-Communist unions that prospered between 1945 and 1950–100,000 members approximately joined forces in pressing labor demands together with a well-known union called Federacion Obrera de Filipinas (FOF). Hukbalahap also emerged but became the key to a divergence between Communist and non-Communist affiliated groups because of the rebellion they imposed against Japanese rule. The Military Intelligence Service scattered and looked for its members which became the birth of the misconceptions regarding communism and unionism.

Filipino trade unionists needed accountability, protection, and security, not band-aid solutions such as incentives. Former President Ramon Magsaysay appointed Adevoso who said that the “...government will not interfere with labor unions, but will confine itself to indicating the direction and providing the incentives for sound labor organization” Such mentality was also seen how difficult it has been for labor organizations to press charges against abusive officers as 10% of the members were only allowed to bring such up. Labor unions were a minority and always have been under the administrators’ complacency.

The collective bargaining issue was the eye-opener for Filipino workers that their struggles aren’t heard not because they are not given the right to, but because of foreign-dominated economic policies that weaken the base of government corporations. Only the government could help Filipino employees offset the disadvantages being imposed. The postwar period couldn’t make the government counterbalance the expansion of private-owned firms. These political and private elites take advantage of the government's economic activity, which incurred fewer reasons to create humane labor policies. Labor leaders aren’t also the ones to blame for why unions seem to be fragmented nowadays as changing leaders’ attitudes in decision-making and skills in legislation do not guarantee effective implementation of collective bargaining if such leaders don’t have any connections within the judicial and administrative.

There are two factors why unions struggle in representation; one, political elites seek to locate power on their own, and secondly, the government’s less urgency and band-aid solutions in stopping protests and strikes. It all boils down to their incompetence. Even if we had adopted the American model of progressive ideological influences, we couldn’t materialize it when workers are still being sold to a disadvantage in exchange for self-interests.