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MANY OF OUR READERS NO DOUBT remember taking Chemistry 16.1 as freshmen, titrating soda and observing the changes that red cabbage pigments go through in a solution with variable pH. Students of this course rarely handled dangerous chemicals; a cheeky student’s lab report once listed “diabetes” under the hazards of soda as a reagent, arguably the most serious threat they would face in the lab. Despite this, they are decked out in complete personal protective equipment (PPE), from lab gowns complete with gloves and goggles to shield their eyes. In stark contrast, employees manning the detergent factories of the Peerless Products Manufacturing Corporation (PEPMACO), who work with corrosive chemicals like sulfuric acid and surfactants which irritate the skin, often have nothing more than their own clothing and mumbled prayers to protect them. Forced overtime is also commonplace, resulting in fatigued workers who are prone to make mistakes. As a result, chemical burns and other accidents are commonplace at the so-called “Patayan at Sunugan,” slaughterhouse and furnace, as the employees mockingly call the plant. “Patayan at Sunugan,” that is how employees from nearby manufacturing companies call the PEPMACO plant. Health support is also nonexistent. The lack of a clinic with a medical officer on call in the factory means that when workers do get injured, the best they can hope for is amateur advice from the human resources department, often ending tragically for the workers who are misdiagnosed and treated poorly (in more ways than one). In the past, pregnant workers have suffered miscarriages while working at the plant after the management refused to rush them to the hospital after they started bleeding. To prevent similar incidents in the future, the management has acted decisively and
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banned expectant mothers from working at the plant. The employees do occasionally get to wear safety gear; when the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) conducts inspections. The management is then quick to deck their workers out in full PPE to keep up appearances. Not all of them get this chance though; workers with noticeable burns from factory accidents are hidden or given the day off to prevent difficult questions from the inspectors. On top of health and safety issues, the workers manning these “slaughterhouses” get paid less than minimum wage— between 370 and 400 pesos for a full day’s work. They do not even get the benefits they are legally entitled to. Instead of remitting part of their salaries to the Social Security System (SSS), Philhealth and PAGIBIG, PEPMACO pockets the funds instead. Asking for accountability from PEPMACO is difficult for many of the workers are contractual, including those who had been working there for ten to fifteen years. By now, it should be crystal clear that PEPMACO’s plants are terrible places to work in. The corporation shamelessly violates several laws and lacks basic human decency. So why won’t their workers just give up their jobs and seek employment elsewhere? The answer is simple; it’s not as easy as it sounds. In this economy, giving up a job can mean that your family starves. If the choice is between enduring injuries to your hands or losing your children to hunger, it’s not a choice at all. Besides, leaving the terrible work environment in PEPMACO will not fix the problem, it would only pass it on to someone else. As such, the PEPMACO Worker’s Union (PWU-NAFLU-KMU) was formed,
