Last Updated:
June 1, 2009

What's New

INFORMAL WORKERS CALL FOR SOCIAL PROTECTION FOR ALL, PASSAGE OF MAGNA CARTA

MAGCAISA representatives   participated in the flag ceremony at Quezon City Hall, where they will award Quezon City Mayor Feliciano “Sonny” Belmonte  with a certificate of recognition for his leadership in promoting and implementing programs and services for informal workers  in his locality.

 

Some 25 informal workers' groups under the banner of MAGCAISA called for social protection for all as well as the passage of the Magna Carta for Workers in the Informal Economy (MACWIE) . when they celebrate dInformal Workers' Day on the morning of May 4 at the University of the Philippines  School of Labor and Industrial Relations (UPSOLAIR),  Diliman, Quezon City.

 

 

 

 

HOMENET SOUTHEAST ASIA JOINS ASEAN FORA,  ICT TRAINING
LAUNCHING OF JOURNAL ON RIGHTS FOR 2/3 OF ASIA

ASEAN ICT Representatives from 10 ASEAN Countries

Representatives of Homenet Southeast Asia and the various national Homenets participated in the ASEAN Social Forum held in Manila 26-28 November 2008, the ASEAN People's Forum held in Bangkok 20-22 February 2009, and the ASEAN ICT Homeworkers' Training held in Bangkok 13-24 February 2009.

 

 

VIENTIANE  2008:   Fostering Exchanges Towards
Solidarity Economy

Homenet Southeast Asia’s Subregional Workshop (SRW) on Solidarity Economy was held back to back with the Subregional General Assembly (SGA) in Vientiane, Lao PDR, December 9-12, 2008.   Homenet Lao as host organization, was assisted by the Lao Union of Science and Engineering Association (LUSEA) and the Lao Women’s Union, donors FNV, Unifem ESE-Asia, Oxfam Hong Kong and Oxfam Solidarity Belgium.  The recently concluded SGA was the second assembly for Homenet SEA, with the first one held in Bangkok in 2005.

 

The ILO Home Work Convention – A DECADE HENCE*

Home work has been described as "a vital and growing part of economic modernization, its growth exponentially linked to the globalization of industry and the never-ending search for less costly sources of labor and more efficient means of production." In this sense, the Home Work Convention is among the most "modern" and relevant of ILO conventions, inasmuch as it addresses a major and ongoing change in the world labor force.

 

Homenet Thailand Networks Promote Membership-Based Organizing

Leaders of homebased workers' networks and  the Homenet Thailand staff  conducted  several workshops in the last quarter of 2008 to promote membership based organizing (MBO) among homebased workers and capacitate them to become effective leaders.  The Southern Network  organized a regional planning forum for leaders on the importance of MBO as an entry  point for network membership, with separate meetings  taking place in Klong Ree and Klong Pia Sub-Districts, participated by  the provincial health team of Song Khla and leaders of  homebased rubber producers. Meetings undertaken by the Bangkok Network resulted in  a better understanding of guidelines and procedures for advocacy on informal workers as well as a work plan to campaign for MBO in  early 2009.   The Central Network will  pursue  an information campaign through newsletters and small workshops to raise awareness on MBO among the 450 members. Leaders of the Northeastern Network have included in their workplan for 2009  amendment of its By-laws to conform with that of the national network .  For the Northern Network, apart from raising awareness on  homebased and informal workers' concerns, membership campaigns were organized in the Li district for Ban Sriwichai chilli paste producers, Ban Pa Nai rice flour crisps producers, Ban Na Sai hand-made embroidery producers, Bang Dong Dam sewers and Ban Long Due sewers.

 

In Memoriam : Antonina  Ka Ester Tina, PATAMABA President

Antonina "Ka Ester" Tina, President of PATAMABA (National Network of Informal Workers). passed away on January 22, a day after she was hit by a motorcycle in front of her home, while preparing to go to a Senate hearing on the Magna Carta of Women.

Ka Ester led PATAMABA since its founding almost 20 years ago.  She worked as a child worker, and  started home working as a sewer under subcontracting at the age of 15.  She lost her job when she became active in organizing homeworkers, which led her to devote all her time to organizational work.  Although she completed only two years of schooling,  she learned a lot from all the seminars, workshops, and other opportunities to gain knowledge from the field, including participation in homeworkers’ meetings in Thailand and in India.  Her wisdom and experience more than made up for what she lacked in terms of  formal education.  She is survived by her husband, a farm worker, and two children who grew up imbibing their mother’s advocacy and commitment.

Ka Ester was honored and remembered by friends  and supporters from all walks of life: Senators,  professors, government officials, leaders of women NGOs, journalists,  representatives of  international development agencies such as the ILO, UNIFEM, Oxfam Hong Kong, sister organizations like the various Homenets and WIEGO,  coalitions of rural women and informal workers,  and many more.  During the Senate hearing last January 26 on the  bill for a Magna Carta of Women, Senator Jamby Madrigal mentioned her death as an important reason for the final passage of the bill, which gained final Senate approval February 3 in the presence of Ka Ester’s family, close friends and fellow-advocates.

 

Learning, Sharing and Networking in Indonesia

In between academic lectures and conferences end of October and early November 2008,  the Homenet Southeast Asia Regional Coordinator  Rosalinda Pineda Ofreneo  visited  homeworkers in the communities in  Malang, Surabaya , Mojokerto, Jakarta, and Tangerang, and discussed their issues with them. She  lectured on  the empowerment of women in poverty at the  Ma Chung University in Malang  City on  28 October and  shared  the Homenet experience in organizing, capacity building, and campaigning for health and social protection. She proceeded to Bali where she presented a paper on “Bridging the Gender and Formal/Informal Divide in the Labor Movement in a Globalizing ASEAN”  in the Kartini Asia Network conference on  Asian Feminisms Confronting Neoliberalism and Fundamentalism 2-4 November.Her paper again foregrounded the experiences of the Homenets in working with predominantly male leaders of trade unions  in the broad advocacy for both workers' and women's rights. (See www.homenetseasia.org for the full paper). Together with MWPRI representatives, she also had a meeting with ILO officials in the ILO office in Jakarta to explore ways by which there could be further cooperation with Homenet Indonesia in the advocacy for social protection and the ratification of ILO Convention 177 on Home Work.

Homenet SEA Joins  11th AWID Forum in South Africa

Homenet Southeast Asia organized two sessions on movement building among homebased workers in Asia during the 11th AWID forum held in Cape Town, South Africa, 14-17 November, 2008.  Panel discussants Chris Bonner of WIEGO, Rosalinda Pineda Ofreneo, Homenet SEA Regional Coordinator, and Olive Parilla, Homenet SEA Treasurer, shared the lessons and challenges of the past two decades of organizing in an interactive session entitled “Movement Building Among Homebased and Other Informal Workers Worldwide: Focus on Southeast Asia”.  A creative session organized by Homenet SEA Consultants Phoebe O. Cabanilla and Gichelle A. Cruz, “Sharing Stories, Connecting and Building a Homeworkers’ Movement Through Participatory  Video”  re-lived the PV experiences of homeworkers in the Philippines as they attained ownership of stories that  continue to strengthen and inspire the organization. Participation in the global forum led to greater knowledge by the wider regional and global publics  about Homenet Southeast Asia and its current activities as well as experiences. This was made possible with support funds from AWID and the University of the Philippines.

HOMENET PHILIPPINES/MAGCAISA NETWORKS CELEBRATES  2ND ANNIVERSARY AND INFORMAL SECTOR’s DAY

May 6, 2008 was the second anniversary of the formation of HOMENET Philippines Network and also a celebration of the Informal Sector Workers’ Day in the Philippines.

The celebration was very well attended by participants from different subsectors’ organizations of informal economy workers (homebased workers, vendors, non-corporate construction workers, small farmers and fisherfolk, waste collectors, small transport operators, barangay health workers and other service workers) who are also members of the network, trade unions, people from the academe, representatives from FES, and supporters from the House of Congress.

Homenet Thailand has a new website

AAC Joins Homenet Southeast Asia Family

The Artisans Association of Cambodia (AAC), through its Director, Men Sinouen, formally joined Homenet Southeast Asia during a meeting in Bangkok early June.  Previous to this,  AAC representatives had joined two subregional workshops on fair trade and related topics in Manila (2OO6) and Bangkok (2OO7), and thereby got to know the other Homenets.

Homenet SEA joins  panel in  8th ASEAN-IUC on Social Development

Dr. Rosalinda Pineda Ofreneo , Regional Coordinator of Homenet Southeast Asia presented a paper entitled "Bridging the Gender and Formal/Informal Divide in Labor Movements within a Globalizing ASEAN", during the 8th ASEAN Inter-University Conference on Social Development to be held on May 28 to 31, 2008 at the Century Park Hotel in Manila, Philippines. click here.

The ASEAN IUC was the first of its kind, inviting both academics and civil society advocates to join panels, interact with each other, and present joint resolutions.

2nd Asia-Pacific Congress of Cooperatives

Three members of the Homenet Southeast Asia secretariat, Dr. Rosalinda Pineda-Ofreneo, Primar Jardeleza, and Josephine Parilla joined the 2nd Asia Pacific Congress of Cooperatives in discussing the theme, "Towards Building a Solidarity Economy - Revisioning Globalization from the Perspective of Cooperatives, Trade Unions, and People's Economies" held at the University of the Philippines School of Labor and Industrial Relations, May 15-16, 2008. (click here to open the paper).

Dr. Ofreneo served as a plenary panel presenter, discussing the paper "Towards Fair Trade and Sustainable Livelihood for Women Informal Workers in a Globalizing ASEAN". 

This international activity was participated in by almost a hundred participants (both national and international) coming from various organizations such as cooperatives, government organizations, non-governmental organizations, people’s organizations, the academe, trade unions, and the private sector.

The said activity was sponsored by the Union Network International- Asia Pacific Regional Office (UNI-APRO) and the University of the Philippines School of Labor and Industrial Relations (U.P. SOLAIR) through its Center for Labor and Grassroots Initiatives (CLAGI).

One of the highlights of this two-day activity was the  presentation of best practices of successful cooperatives from Japan called the Rosai-Roren which focuses on Labor Insurance Business and the Kobe Consumer’s Cooperative run by Japan Federation of Trade Unions. 

Another highlight was the concept of Solidarity Economy shared by Mr. Benjamin Quinones, Chairman of the Coalition of Socially Responsible SMEs in Asia.  For more information about the topic on Solidarity Economy.

BUILDING A REGIONAL PRESENCE IN ASIA

Leaders of Homenet Southeast Asia, Homenet Thailand, PATAMABA –Homenet Philippines and Homenet Laos participated in the Regional Workshop on “Homebased workers in Asia Building a Regional Presence,”on April 7th and 8th, 2008 at Hotel Ramada Plaza Palm Grove, Juhu Beach, Mumbai (Bombay) 400 049, Maharashtra, India.