As we commemorate International Workers’ Day 2026, the Center for Women’s Resources (CWR) honors all working people of the world, especially in the Philippines, whose hands and labor generate the world’s wealth, yet remain the most undervalued and exploited. The working people sustain our economies and communities, yet the current global capitalist system keeps their rights, welfare, and conditions precarious.
Workers in the Philippines face a worsening labor landscape marked by meager wages that barely meet basic needs, persistent job insecurity, intensified labor flexibilization, and worsening safety and working conditions. Labor flexibilization traps workers in unstable, low-paying and limited access to benefits and social protection. This deepens job insecurity and weakens the workers’ rights to unionize, a critical means of advancing workers’ rights.
Restrictive and unjust labor policies further undermine basic workers’ rights. In 2025, the Philippines was listed among the 10 worst countries for workers due to its systematic violation of labor rights, which include red-tagging, threats and intimidation, violent dispersal of strikes, and extrajudicial killings.
Women workers are often disproportionately affected by these conditions, as they are often placed in low-paid, irregular, and unprotected jobs. Amid rising living costs and multiple burdens, women, particularly from marginalized sectors, bear the brunt of insufficient wages, pushing them further into economic vulnerability. Based on CWR interviews, there is a persistent pattern of women resorting to extreme measures, such as skipping meals and reducing food intake, just to ensure their families survive.
These conditions make the workers and peoples’ demand to raise the minimum wage across the regions to the family living wage of ₱1,200.00 and removal of the value-added tax (VAT) and excise tax on oil and other basic commodities. Alongside this is the demand to respect and uphold workers’ fundamental right to freedom of association, and ultimately to junk neoliberal policies and programs that have, for decades, been detrimental to the lives of the Filipino people.
Now more than ever, CWR reaffirms its commitment to working towards a society where every worker is protected, empowered, and dignified. It holds firm that only through collective struggle can these goals be achieved. We call on everyone to stand with working people in the fight for better working and living conditions. Workers of the world, unite! #
