Introduction

The advent of globalization in the Philippines has suddenly forced employers to reorient its operations to stay competitive: and that is to address the new system of doing business. Globalization has brought about stiff competition with the free flow of goods in the domestic market. It has also forced employers to reorient their operations towards the international market rather than stay solely dependent – as they used to be – on the domestic market for their revenues.

Globalization, from the academic point of view, can be defined by looking either at the process or the substance. From the point of view of process, “globalization” would mean the rapid integration of domestic economies to a global economy. As substance it would mean the attainment of free flow of trade, goods, services and investments from one country to another. In other words it seeks to achieve a global or borderless economy, which on account of the advancement in communication, transportation and computer technologies has now become a distinct possibility.

Globalization along with the concomitant  re-engineering of business  operations have affected the living standards of many workers especially those in the formal sector of the economy whose employment has traditionally been protected by law and by trade unions.  Many of the cherished concepts such as security of tenure, protection to workers, etc. have turned into  rigidities hampering the efforts of employers to achieve competitiveness as required by a global economy – as well as to provide employment to Filipino workers.

Trade unions which used to be looked upon as knights in shining armor and protectors of employment of the less fortunate suddenly found their role reversed in society and in business in general: to that of an anathema to a global economy. They have increasingly been condemned, unfairly I submit, to have caused all the rigidities that have become problematic to employers’ efforts to keep their companies afloat and to provide employment. It has increasingly become a popular punch line for employers to argue “that standard is useless for those who are unemployed.”