Introduction

There are about 7-9 million homebased workers in the Philippines doing both piece-rated and own account work in rural and urban areas. Like many others working in the informal economy, they suffer from invisibility, poor working and living conditions, lack of resources and social protection.

Pambansang Tagapag-ugnay ng mga Manggagawa sa Bahay (PATAMABA) Inc. or the National Network of Homeworkers, was founded in May 1989 with the objective of creating, strengthening, consolidating and expanding the national network of homebased workers and providing support services for their personal, social and economic well-being.

PATAMABA helps homebased workers form self-sustaining groups at the grassroots level. At the policy level, it acta to raise awareness about homebased workers and to bring about the necessary policy changes for the benefit of this informal sector.

PATAMABA has a total membership of about 14,138, 98 percent of whom are women as end of 2003 in its formal registry. Most of these women work in garments, footwear, bamboo, weaving, toy-making, food processing, handicraft and other cottage industries. In addition, the PATAMABA youth sector has been actively recruiting from among their ranks, and has reported a membership of at least 2,000.

PATAMABA’s key initiatives include education and training, socio-economic assistance, networking and advocacy, social protection and the empowerment of women.

History

It all started in 1975, I when a group of rural women founded the Association of the New Filipina (known as KaBaPa), to work for equality, development and peace as laid down by the United Nations in its declaration of International Women’s Year.

In the 1980s, community organizers from the KaBaPa together with researchers from the University of the Philippines (UP) came to know that thousands of women, even in the remotest of villages, did farmed-out work for exporters and local manufacturers. These women embroidered dresses and tablecloths, and sewed children’s clothes and schoolbags. They were also weavers, food producers/processors, and makers of handicrafts, footwear, novelty items, fashion accessories and furniture.

Common features observed in this group of women homeworkers were low piece rates, poor working conditions, lack of access to resources and to social protection, lack of proper organization and an absence of awareness about their rights as workers and women. Many of them were being exploited by profit-hungry middlemen and exporters; their work was enriching many foreign importers and Filipino traders. For example, some of them who made baby dresses earned a measly ten US cents for a product sold for 15 US dollars at US department stores.

The KaBaPa realized that it had a large number of homeworkers among its ranks. When the International Labour Organization (ILO) asked KABAPA leaders to work on a project to organize homebased workers in 1988, they quickly consented.

During a meeting convened by KABAPA of 29 homebased worker-leaders from nine provinces, it became evident that homebased work was a widespread phenomenon in the Philippines and that they all shared similar circumstances and needs. They also realized that they were in many ways ‘invisible’ to the rest of society, especially policy-makers, and that if they wanted to better their lives, they would have to organize themselves at a national level. With this realization, Pambansang Tagapag-ugnay ng mga Manggagawa sa Bahay (PATAMABA), the National Network of Homeworkers, was born.

PATAMABA was first formed as a committee within KaBaPa. Later, in May 1989, PATAMABA Inc. became independent. It, however, continues to work in close collaboration with KaBaPa.

The (ILO), together with KaBaPa, the University of the Philippines, and the Department of Labour and Employment (DOLE), launched Program HOPE aimed at organizing and assisting homeworkers in the Philippines. A systematic awareness raising campaign for homeworkers, with special emphasis on women, was set in motion.

For the women themselves, this was the first time they actually began to think of themselves as workers rather than just rural women/housewives with special needs and rights. They saw themselves contributing so much to the national economy yet remained neglected, unrecognized, and invisible in national statistics.