Media labor issues in context
A industry-wide union for media workers is key to the labor problems that persist in the media.
This is what Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) Deputy Director and PJR Reports Luis Teodoro said in a forum on labor issues in media last Nov. 17.
Teodoro said the solution to labor issues in media like that of the massive termination in television network giant ABS-CBN Corp. since June, is not be limited to speaking about it but collectively acting towards a solution.
Through an industry-wide media union, media workers can collectively bargain with media owners on terms of employment, wages, conditions of work, benefits, facilities and safety equipments.
“Habang walang industry wide union dito, ang mga may-ari ng media, marami silang maiisip para maikutan kung ano yung sinasabi ng ating labor laws (As long as there is no industry wide union, media owners can devise many ways to go around the labor laws),” Teodoro said.
Implications to media
Meanwhile, according to National Union of Journalists in the Philippines (NUJP) Safety Program Executive Coordinator Rowena Paraan, the media workers’ economic problems have implications on the kind of information people get. Paraan  was recently reelected  NUJP secretary general.
There is the case of correspondents or media workers who are compensated on a per piece basis. Paraan said the expenses in data gathering and the low compensation they get from their work has a correlation with the quality of  the work they do.
If correspondents get a measly amount for the work they do, they would have to cut down the cost of their data gathering. The number of sources and the subjects they report on are only some of the aspects of news reporting that are negatively affected, said Paraan.
Media issues in general, however, are not different from those in other industries, Paraan said. Cases like unfair labor practices and indiscriminate killings are not unique to the media industry. The problems  ABS-CBN workers have experienced also happen to other TV networks and other media outfits as well as other trades.
“Media do not exist in a vacuum. They are part of a larger society where it also experiences the same illness,” Paraan said in Filipino.
The difference, Paraan said, is that media people are more vocal about the issues they face.
Speaking out
“(The media) are just louder,” said Paraan. “We have a way of airing our concerns in public.”
The members of the ABS-CBN Internal Job Market Workers Union (IJMWU) who were terminated from work have  filed labor cases against ABS-CBN. They have also been setting up dialogues with government agencies like the National Labor Relations Commission and some members of Congress. Since Oct. 12, they have also been picketing ABS-CBN in Quezon City.
The Internal Job Market (IJM), introduced in 2002, is an internal workers pool composed of technical staff members like audio men, video editors and cameramen. The IJM union was formed in March 2009. Since June, however, 114 IJM employees have been sacked, in what IJM members say is an attempt to break the union.
ABS-CBN has denied direct having an employer relationship with IJM members. It claims that IJM is only a pool of ABS-CBN  accredited talents.
Media covering media issues
IJM workers said during the forum that there has been  scant coverage from mainstream media about this labor issue.
Though the Philippine Daily Inquirer and BusinessWorld reported on the mass termination in ABS-CBN, most of the reports on it appeared in the alternative media like Bulatlat. In June, when the termination started, a few reports aired over  abs-cbnNEWS.com.
Teodoro explained that the scant mainstream media coverage has something to do with wshat he said were contradictions in the media system. Among them, Teodoro said, is the private character of media ownership, which often comes into conflict with the media’s public service role.
Despite the multiplicity in media ownership in the country, there is only limited multiplicity in viewpoints Teodoro said. “After all what is involved is profit, and every media owner shares that interest.”
Three sacked members of ABS-CBN IJMWU also spoke at the forum together with Leandro Gerodias, national president of the Association of Democratic Labor Organizations, who has also been helping the group.
In August this year, the Department of Labor and Employment granted the petition for election certification of IJMWU so it can enter into a collective bargaining agreement with the company.
Gerodias said ABS-CBN filed a motion to cancel the group’s union registration but failed to get approval.
The forum was held at the University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication and was organized by the Union of Journalists of the Philippines UP chapter, the student arm of the NUJP.
By John M. Antiquerra
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