For workers in the Philippines, repression and US trade policy go hand-in-hand

For call center workers in the Philippines, attempts to unionize the workplace don’t just entail confrontations with local management—but overseas US-based multinationals and the US federal government’s foreign policy agenda as well. Since 2022, the Biden administration has promoted a new economic initiative known as the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF). Touted as a vehicle for “writing the new rules of the 21st century economy,” the IPEF links 14 nations across the Pacific Rim into an emergent bloc that has been compared to the defunct Trans-Pacific Partnership. Like the TPP before it, the IPEF attempts to build an exclusive economic regional pact that excludes China.

In a special livestream panel, workers and organizers in the US and the Philippines discuss how trade policy and worker repression in the Philippines go hand-in-hand with the IPEF and the New Cold War on China. The event, moderated by Maximillian Alvarez, Editor-in-Chief of The Real News Network and Ryan Harvey, National Field Director for Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch, is part of organizing efforts for two upcoming rallies in the U.S. during negotiating meetings for the Biden’s administration’s largest trade initiative, the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF). Those meetings and rallies will take place in Detroit in May and in Seattle in August. This event is co-hosted by Public Citizen, BAYAN USA, the BPO Industry Employees Network, and Communication Workers of America.

Panelists include:

• Mylene Cabalona, President, BPO Industry Employees Network (Philippines)
• Kendra Williams, Member, Communications Workers of America, Local 6215 (US)
• Adrian Bonifacio, National Chairperson, BAYAN USA (US)
• Melinda St. Louis, Director, Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch (US)
• Maximillian Alvarez, Editor-in-Chief, The Real News Network (moderator)
• Ryan Harvey, National Field Director, Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch (moderator)

Additional links:

• For more info about the May 20th Detroit IPEF/APEC rally: https://bit.ly/Detroit-IPEF / [email protected]
• For more info about the August Seattle IPEF/APEC rally: [email protected]

Studio Production: Cameron Granadino, Adam Coley

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