2014 KASAMMAKO LABOR DAY STATEMENT

2014 LABOR DAY STATEMENT

KASAMMAKO or the Unity of Filipino Migrant Workers Associations in Korea, on this Migrant Workers Labor event, expresses deep sympathy and condolences to the bereaved families of all casualties of the Sewol-ho ferry accident.

KASAMMAKO gives full support and solidarity to all migrant workers in Korea and around the world in asserting our labor and human rights and urge governments of the Republic of Korea and of our home countries to respect and uphold these rights. We believe that the proletarian working class is the leading force in the economic, political and social change in society and the world. We continue to work in alliance with other democratic and progressive forces that struggle to stop modern-day slavery of workers in the neo-liberal globalization.

Since last week, the US President Barack Obama is moving around the countries of Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines to strengthen the United States’ stranglehold on national sovereignty, the coveting and exploitation of the natural resources of countries in the region, and ensures that these countries will remain strong defenders of the geo-political and military presence in Asia-Pacific. The US only secures its interests and does not care about the plight of ordinary people in Asia.

We oppose the US “Pivot to Asia”, which is a multi-layered offensive that includes the further deployment or “rebalancing” of US military forces and military bases into the region and the drive to forge a long-sought Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA). This will also consolidate and expand its strategic alliances with selected countries in the region. These objectives are part of the long-term efforts of US imperialism to advance its economic, political and military interests and reassert its preeminent power in the region.

In same vein, we protest Barack Obama’s signing with BS Aquino of the “Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement" (EDCA) between the US and the Philippines, despite questions on its constitutionality. "The agreement gives the US full access to Philippine facility and to set up US military bases within Philippine military camps, and to launch military operations in Philippine territory under the name of joint military exercises. When this agreement is signed this will intensify violations of human rights and of the international humanitarian law. More so the continuation of the dire economic situation of many Filipinos which is the main cause of forced migration.

Forced migration of many Filipinos and other Asians are caused by the unjust economic development in our home countries and in the world. Workers rights are violated by employers and corporations so they may gain maximum profits from the labor of workers and employees. Today, we, migrant workers in South Korea join forces together to express our real situation and present our demands for the respect and protection of our labor rights. Our demands are:

A.To the government of South Korea:

1.Repeal the policy revision on refund of severance/pension claims of migrant workers after their contract ends or deported from the country.
2.Replace the oppressive EPS policy with just and employment system, where migrant workers exercise freedom to choose jobs that fit them, where their labor and human rights are respected.
3.Repeal the Immigration Control Act that severely impact migrant workers, stop crackdown and deportations; transform immigration policies that grant migrant workers the right to live with families in Korea.
4.Legislate and guarantee equal pay for equal work.
5.Guarantee equal right to work and sojourn for overseas Korean migrant workers

B.To the government of the Philippines:

1.Put a halt to forced migration! Create jobs at home!
2.Approve the passage of the P125 Wage Hike Bill. Workers urgently need significant wage increase amidst soaring prices of commodities.
3.Stop crackdown! The Philippines’ Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) should recall their memorandum on forced deportation of non-documented migrant workers in Korea which is in collaboration with the South Korean immigration office and the MOEL.
4.NO to return of US Bases in the Philippines and “Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement" (EDCA). Uphold and respect national sovereignty and self-determination.
5.NO to U.S. Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA)! This is an instrument of neo-colonization and imperialist pillage of national economies and people’s democratic rights for humane and just economic development
6.Resume peace talks between National Democratic Front-Philippines and the Government of Philippines.
7.Stop extra-judicial killings that already killed many labor, peasant, tribal community, youth and student leaders in the Philippines.
8.Prosecute and penalize all political leaders involved in Pork Barrel scam!

WORKERS AROUND THE WORLD UNITE! STRENGTHEN OUR SOLIDARITY TO END EXPLOITATION OF WORKERS!

KASAMMAKO
27 April 2014
Seoul, Korea

They're still cracking migrants down!

STATEMENT ON MASSIVE CRACKDOWN OF MIGRANT WORKERS
IN SOUTH KOREA
July 07, 2008

We member organizations of the Katipunan ng mga Samahan ng Migranteng Manggagawa sa Korea (KASAMMAKO) or the Unity of Filipino Migrant Workers Associations in Korea, with clenched fists calls for a stop to the massive crackdown on migrant workers in South Korea especially Filipino migrant workers, respect and protect their human rights.

The Korean government under President Lee Myung Bak has intensified the crackdown on undocumented migrant workers for the last few months and remains unabated up to this day. This systematic and calculated crackdown under a conservative government is a contradiction between its neo-liberal capitalist priorities and the need for cheap labour force. This is also a contradiction to the well publicized notion that South Korean society is becoming a humane multi-cultural society. This intensive crackdown has forcibly deported thousands of migrant workers in spite of their health and family conditions just to accomplish the immigration quota of arrest and deportation of undocumented migrant workers. There are migrant pregnant women even bleeding badly and men who are so ill yet arrested, incarcerated and consequently deported. Recently, immigration police are tucked with tasers or electric stand guns in arresting migrant workers, a threatening method which can be used in case of resistance to arrest. We vehemently condemn this treacherous crackdown.

The economic slowdown due to various capitalist market schemes and the looming economic recession in the U.S. which affects other economies has been used as justification for flushing out undocumented migrant workers in many countries particularly in South Korea. This should never be an alibi for the inability of the government to design mechanisms that will integrate migrant workers into the regular work force. The government has been stuck in recycled and obsolete means of labour outsourcing that exploits and maims the lives of migrant workers. Migrant workers have contributed to the industrialization and wealth of South Korea and should not be blamed for the economic downturn.

Migrant workers’ basic labour rights are protected in the South Korean constitution, including the right to freedom of association. The South Korea’s 1948 Constitution mentions in its preamble that the state is ‘determined to consolidate national unity with justice, humanitarianism and brotherly love and to destroy all social vices and injustice’. More so in Article 6 under Treaties, Foreigners, it stipulates that: (1) Treaties duly concluded and promulgated under the Constitution and the generally recognized rule of international law have the same effect as the domestic laws of the Republic of Korea. (2) The status of foreigners is guaranteed as prescribed by international law and treaties.

It is unthinkable that for several decades South Korean society has benefited from the labours of migrant workers that have supplied cheap labour for the small and medium scale industries, but the human rights of migrant workers are violated. While only a handful of Korean citizens would take on the difficult, dirty and dangerous jobs, hundreds of thousands of migrant workers spend their lives in these jobs, but often ill-treated and maligned by their employers and worse still, not paying the salaries and suffer many other sub-human conditions in their work places. Many have languished in detention centers waiting for their unpaid salaries to be paid by their delinquent employers. Worst of all many migrant workers have to endure the anxiety of the continuing crackdown some have even died or were hurt escaping arrest and deportation.

Finally, labour exporting or sending countries like the Philippines ought to develop its economy based on agriculture and move towards national industrialization which when realized will put a halt to forced migration which at present Filipinos working abroad has reached up to nine million. We reiterate our vision for the Filipinos and all migrant workers that we look forward to the day when families are no longer separated, that they don’t have to migrate in order to find decent jobs, that each person and family are able to provide adequately for their basic needs and each person will have meaningful life—a life lived in justice and peace. Once again in one voice, we call: STOP CRACKDOWN! LEGALIZE UNDOCUMENTED MIGRANT WORKERS!

CALLS FOR ACTION:
 For the Philippine government:a) Make immediate diplomatic and legal intervention on the plight of not less than 30,000 migrant workers in South Korea who face imminent deportation due to intensified crackdown.
b) The Philippine Labor Office (POLO) and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) in South Korea should inform and make written recommendations to the Philippine Senate and Office of the President how to avert intensive crackdown, and how Filipino undocumented /irregular migrant workers can become legal, regular, or integrated into the regular work force, that is, outside of the framework of deportation and the Employment Permit System (EPS).

 For South Korean government:
a) Stop crackdown and protect human rights and migrant workers;
b) Legalize and integrate all migrant workers regardless of visa status into the regular work force
c) Ratify the United Nations International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families

 For other governments:
a) All labour sending and labour receiving countries should devise and work out means and strategies to protect human rights of migrant workers;
b) Evolve just and sustainable economic system that will eliminate forced migration and enhance international solidarity and peace among nations.

 For all migrant workers and the general public:a)
All migrant workers should unite against the commodification of human labour in the neo-liberal market globalization;
b) Condemn and put a stop to crackdown as a strategy to flush out migrant workers from labour receiving countries.
c) Know that crackdown is being used not just in South Korea but also in other parts of the world and therefore unite against it.
d) All people should help protect human rights of migrant workers because in terms of peoples’ economic survival and more importantly in having a just economic order in the world, nobody is “illegal” or “undocumented”.