The KMU Labor Center of the Philippines During the Time of President Rodrigo Duterte: A First-hand Account

press release: The KMU Labor Center is the militant wing of the Filipino labor movement, and has played a leading role in presenting and demanding improvements for Filipino workers and poor since its founding in 1980 under the dictator Ferdinand Marcos. Despite extensive violence against it over the years, KMU has remained steadfast in its determination to win a better world. Its latest challenges have come under the reign of President Duterte, who came to office in July 2016, having made many progressive pledges to labor, and yet failed to implement many of them. Dr. Scipes’ last visit to the Philippines was in July 2018, when he attended the protests against Duterte’s State of the Nation report, and will talk about the current situation in the country.

Kim Scipes, Ph.D., is a Professor of Sociology at Purdue University Northwest in Westville, IN.  A long-time global labor scholar, he has written extensively on the KMU Labor Center of the Philippines, and has conducted the only nation-wide study of the KMU to date.  Besides six trips to the Philippines between 1986-94, he has visited the KMU in 2015, 2016 and 2017.  He is currently updating his 1996 book, “KMU:  Building Genuine Trade Unionism in the Philippines, 1980-1994” (Quezon City:  New Day Publishers).