Uploaded February 2017 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Our social startup—People's Media Advocacy, Asia—is building a public sphere for Philippine and Asian unionists to create and circulate media about human rights in the workplace. Our catalyst was the 2015 Kentex fire, where 74 temp workers burned in a factory that had already passed safety inspections. The past decade's precipitous 10% drop in union saturation in the Philippines has rendered many workers precarious and vulnerable. Last year, two million non-regular and contractual workers entered the job market in the Philippines alone. If labor rights are not upheld, some of these workers will inevitably fall victim to another Kentex, or to another mine death in Indonesia akin to Grasberg. We envision a future that avoids such catastrophes. A substantial number of trade unionists remain, and they are uniquely positioned to uphold labor laws for themselves and for the precarious worker. Our theory of change taps this market for the social good, addressing labor issues in the Philippines and in ASEAN, such as migration and woman worker's rights. We craft tools to (1) strengthen the media capacity of Philippine and ASEAN worker organizations and (2) empower the ordinary worker to speak out about their rights at work with digital citizen tools.
Our social startup—People's Media Advocacy, Asia—is building a public sphere for Philippine and Asian unionists to create and circulate media about human rights in the workplace. Our catalyst was the 2015 Kentex fire, where 74 temp workers burned in a factory that had already passed safety inspections. The past decade's precipitous 10% drop in union saturation in the Philippines has rendered many workers precarious and vulnerable. Last year, two million non-regular and contractual workers entered the job market in the Philippines alone. If labor rights are not upheld, some of these workers will inevitably fall victim to another Kentex, or to another mine death in Indonesia akin to Grasberg. We envision a future that avoids such catastrophes. A substantial number of trade unionists remain, and they are uniquely positioned to uphold labor laws for themselves and for the precarious worker. Our theory of change taps this market for the social good, addressing labor issues in the Philippines and in ASEAN, such as migration and woman worker's rights. We craft tools to (1) strengthen the media capacity of Philippine and ASEAN worker organizations and (2) empower the ordinary worker to speak out about their rights at work with digital citizen tools.
