Please support garment workers in the Philippines, whose attempts to organize in defense of their rights are currently met with repression and extreme violence.

On August 30, Chong Won union members started a picket line in front of the factory after management sent them home allegedly due to absence of orders.

The incidents mentioned below highlight once again that the Philippine authorities not only condone actis of union repression, but are also reportely perpetrators of extreme violence against union representatives and other workers' advocates. Philippine labor organizations call upon the international community to support their struggle.

Recent violent incidents include:

• The shooting of Gerardo Cristobal, a former union president and member of the Solidarity of Cavite Workers (SCW), a labor-related NGO,
• The brutal murder of Bishop Alberto Ramento of the Philippine Independent Church, workers' rights defender and chairman of the board of the Workers Assistance Center, Inc, a non-governmental labor institution, and
• The continuous violence against strikers at two garment factories in the Cavite export processing zone: Chong Won Fashion Inc., producing for such major retailers as Wal Mart, Target and Mervyn's, and Phils. Jeon Garment Inc., producing for such brands as Byford, DKNY, CNI Los Angeles, Dreamstation, Hanes and Bobson.

The Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC) is alarmed at the recent violence and ongoing repression directed at those who support workers' rights in the Philippines and find the alleged involvement of local authorities, the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) police and Jantro Security guards to be particularly troubling. These incidents are not isolated cases; human rights organizations report the continuous occurrence of political violence in the Philippines over the last years. (see box)

Please contact the Philippine president and the governor of Cavite Province to voice your concerns about these recent events and to demand their immediate action to ensure the safety of workers and labor rights defenders and to see that workers' rights are respected in the Philippines. The Clean Clothes Campaign also calls upon companies sourcing from the Philippines to support workers' right of freedom of association and to strongly condemn all forms of violence against workers and labor organizers.

Background information

Labor leader Cristobal ambushed

On April 28, 2006 labor leader Gerardo Cristobal was seriously wounded when ambushed by armed men who were later identified as operatives of police intelligence in Imus, Cavite. Cristobal had been receiving persistent threats to his life from the police and private armies of Governor Ireneo "Ayong" Maliksi of Cavite, when the shooting took place. Cristobal suffered serious gunshot wounds to his stomach, hip and hand. He was on his way to a protest action when the incident took place. The protest, however, was called-off following the incident. The head of the police intelligence operatives in Imus later tried to twist the account of the shooting, saying that Cristobal was responsible for starting the gunfight. No independent investigation into this case has taken place to date. Cristobal had to undergo several operations as a result of the attack, which left two bullets lodged near his spinal column.

Bishop Ramento killed