OFWs in Canada form national alliance

OFWs in Canada form national alliance

Communiqué
23 October 2005

Filipinos in Canada reach a milestone: Establish first-ever National Alliance of Overseas Filipino Workers in Canada

Toronto, Canada played host to a historic conference of Filipino workers in Canada. Over 60 Filipinos from Vancouver, Edmonton, Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal gathered under the theme “Migranteng Pinoy: Mura na, pang-export pa [Migrant Filipinos]: Our History, Situation and Resistance” from October 23 to 24, 2005.

The conference was attended by members and organizers of SIKLAB (Advance and Uphold the Rights and Welfare of Overseas Filipino Workers) from different cities. The National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada acted as coordinator for the conference, helping to ensure the establishment of the national organization of SIKLAB. The successful conference fulfilled the call of the National Consultation of Filipinos in Canada held in Winnipeg in 2001 to establish a national formation of overseas Filipino workers in Canada in order to provide this important sector of the Filipino community in Canada a national body and voice in their organizing work. There are now over half a million Filipinos, mostly domestic and low-waged workers, in cities all over Canada.

Professor Jose Maria Sison, Chairperson of the International Network of Philippine Studies and of the International League of Peoples’ Struggle, provided the gathering with a message of solidarity laying out the global framework for the massive outmigration of Filipinos to 186 countries. He pointed to the refusal of the Philippine government to stem the tide of millions of Filipinos leaving to work abroad because their foreign remittances prop up the ailing Philippine economy. In his message, Prof. Sison emphasized the historic importance of this national formation of SIKLAB both in terms of its tasks of defending and promoting migrants’ rights and welfare and overseas Filipinos’ support and participation in the struggle for a just and lasting peace in the Philippines.

Lu Roque, Executive Director of the International Migrant Resource Centre, outlined the systematic and sanctioned manner in which the Philippine government facilitates the out-migration of its labour and the context of organizing work among Filipino migrant workers in different parts of the world. She emphasized the annual remittances that have been propping up the largely bankrupt Philippine economy to help defuse social tension and pay off foreign debts.

From the global and Philippine context, the conference united on a common understanding of the current situation of overseas Filipino workers and their community of compatriots in Canada. Joy Sioson of the Philippine Women Centre of Ontario provided a historical overview of Filipino migration and the present challenges that this growing community faces. Sioson particularly focused on the current cheap labour demand of the Canadian economy and the occupational segregation of Filipino workers as cheap but highly-educated labour.

The conference then traced the over twenty-five years of struggle and resistance that Filipinos in Canada have been waging. It was shown that through the years, their struggle and resistance has become more systematic and organized. By the 1990s, the struggle for their rights and welfare as migrant workers in Canada were being linked to their history of migration and the situation in the Philippines.

Grounded on this history and struggle of overseas Filipinos in Canada, the conference tackled the task of forming their national organization by first establishing their basis of unity for future work. The basis of unity rests on three points: i) their outmigration from the Philippines is due to the chronic crisis of the neocolonial system that cannot provide them with adequate work and a stable livelihood; ii) their presence in Canada is due to and contingent on the Canadian economy’s need for a cheap but highly-skilled and docile labour force; and finally iii) that they are committed to struggle for their rights and welfare and that of their families through self-organization and collective action and that they participate in and support the struggle of the Filipino people for national freedom and democracy so that families will no longer be ripped apart by the urgent need for survival.

Equipped with these points of unity, the newly-established national body agreed upon a general program, and elected 11 members to SIKLAB’s National Council: From Vancouver – Glecy Duran, Dinah Estigoy, and Alex Imperial; from Edmonton – Arturo Estillore; from Winnipeg – Susan Rodriguez; from Montreal – Roderick Carreon and Tess Tesalona; from Ottawa – Judy de la Cruz; from Toronto – Marco Luciano, Ramir Ramirez and Yolyn Valenzuela.

The National Council elected a National Executive Committee to help carry out their 3-year mandate:

Chairperson: Roderick Carreon

Vice-Chairperson (Western Canada) : Glecy Duran

Vice-Chairperson (Eastern Canada): Yolyn Valenzuela

Secretary-General: Marco Luciano

Vice-Secretary-General (Western Canada) : Alex Imperial

Vice-Secretary-General (Eastern Canada) : Ramir Ramirez

The conference deliberated on key immediate areas of action and work which included coordinating national campaigns such as participating in the Filipino people’s call to oust the corrupt and illegitimate President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, assisting in the international campaign to help build Migrante-International in the Philippines a home from which they can continue their work in organizing Filipino migrants, supporting the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada’s national campaign to scrap the racist and anti-woman Live-in Caregiver Program, and encouraging migrant workers to register as absentee voters for the 2007 Philippine elections. They also discussed a general program of expanding and consolidating SIKLAB National and heightening its support for Migrante International.

The successful first day’s session ended with a solidarity night that featured cultural performances from the delegations of different cities in the form of songs and performances that reflected their patriotic sentiment for their homeland and the struggles and resistance that they carry out in Canada.
On the second day of the conference, members of the public were invited to join in the day’s session that featured testimonials from different Filipino migrant workers and organizers from Toronto, Montreal, Edmonton and Vancouver and a roundtable discussion in the afternoon.

To welcome the public and delegates, the newly-elected National SIKLAB Chairperson, Roderick Carreon, reviewed the previous day’s successful points of unity and accomplishments.

The testimonials exposed the different stories and struggles that overseas Filipinos experience in Canada from poor working conditions, immigration problems, family separation and re-unification, racism, and de-skilling. The testimonials served as education and substance to the need to intensify the community’s organizing work to advance the rights and welfare of overseas Filipino workers in Canada.

The roundtable discussion was began by people from KAIROS (Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives), the International Migrant Resource Centre, the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), Professor Ligaya McGovern, and SIKLAB National. Each did a presentation on their perspectives and work in organizing around migrant and immigrant workers to highlight ways in which they can work together to better the situation of overseas Filipino workers and the community in Canada.

The discussion was followed by a forum where ideas were exchanged to help better understand the struggles facing migrant Filipino workers and define ways of improving their situation.

After a summary of the two-day conference by newly-elected Vice-Secretary General for Western Canada Alex Imperial, the conference closed on a rousing note as participants recalled the historic accomplishments they achieved.

They vowed to return to their provinces to propagate the successes of the conference. They declared their commitment to heighten the unity and organizing work among Filipino migrant workers across Canada by educating, organizing, and mobilizing the Filipino community to fight for their rights and welfare while actively participating in and supporting the Filipino people’s struggle for national and social liberation.