Emilia Dapulang This is Me

 Web References

1. 1. Women Workers in the Philippines

   www.solidarity-us.org/atc/109h - [Cached]

   Published on: 12/30/2003   Last Visited: 5/12/2006

   Emilia Dapulang, national vice chair of the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU-May First Movement), noted that women "comprise 37.5% of the 32 million workers in the Philippines. Moreover, the majority are mostly employed in the service industry and export processing zones (EPZ) where they are 75% of the workforce (Sabaratnam 2000, 5).
   
   Seventy-seven percent of workers in the garment industry are women, and 72% in electronics. Also, mostly women work in sales, education, and in domestic labor, in jobs "that earn below the average wage rate." This fact is particularly alarming because it means they make less than the daily minimum wage, which was 250P (US $5) per day in Metro Manila. This was less than half the daily cost of living for an average-size Philippine family of six (Dapulang 2002: 7, 3, 5).
   ...
   The concentration of young, single women workers in the EPZs, according to Dapulang, was deliberate.
   ...
   Married women workers are required to practice birth control or undergo tubal ligation (Dapulang 2002, 6).
   
   Women workers in the EPZs have very little recourse to challenge these repressive policies. They are not allowed to unionize. EPZs are "notorious for their unwritten no union, no strike policy" (Dapulang 2002, 5).
   ...
   Dapulang pointed out that "women's participation" was not enough "if this simply means integrating women in the neoliberal development model." She added, "It is grossly misleading to banner the empowerment of women without addressing the economic and political basis of our disempowerment and marginalization in the decision-making structures of society. This is because the marginalization of women is embedded in the structure of class, race and national oppression" (Dapulang 2002, 8).
   ...
   Dapulang, Emilia (September 2002). "Globalization and Women Workers in the Philippines." Kapatiran: Newsletter of Philippines Solidarity Network of Aotearoa: 22. Retrieved January 29, 2004 from www.coverge.org.nz/psna/KapNo22/kap22art/art86.htm
   IFWEA Journal (July 1998). "Women Workers' Education in the Philippines." Retrieved February 1, 2004 from www.ifwea.org/jounal/0798/womenworkeducphili.html Mather, Celia (2003). "An East/South Encounter to Discuss Trade Union Organising in the Informal Economy From Marginal Work to Core Business." International Restructuring Education Network Europe (IRENE) Report. Sabaratnam, Sarah (November 20, 2000). "Politics and Public Life: The Woman's Agenda in Malaysia." Women's Development Centre (KANITA) at Universitit Sains Malaysia. Retrieved February 1, 2004 from www.Sabaratnam.org/modules/ENDA/enda
   2.php. Tujan, Antonio, Jr. (1998). "Globalization and Labor: The Philippines Case." Retrieved January 29, 2004 from www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Senate/8340/tujan2.h
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2. 2. Newsletter8 Aug02

   www.gpja.pl.net/sub/Archive/Ar - [Cached]

   Published on: 7/15/2003   Last Visited: 3/7/2004

   "Globalisation, Women Workers and the Struggle for Justice" national speaking tour by Emilia Dapulang, vice president of the KMU (Kilusang Mayo Uno, or May First Movement), the best known Filipino trade union confederation. Dapulang has been a leader in her own union, in the semi-conductor industry, since the 1980s and has risen through the KMU leadership since the mid-1990s.