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To continue amassing maximum profits in the midst of the intensifying crisis of the world capitalist system, monopoly capitalists have been bleeding dry the labor power of workers through relentless attacks on their wages, benefits and right to organize unions. Worldwide, workers� rights are being trampled upon or outrightly denied and labor standards won after centuries of struggle by the workers� movement are being depressed. In the Philippines, the enslavement of workers and the suppression of their basic rights are policies long pushed by the imperialists and zealously implemented by the puppet government for the benefit of big foreign capitalists. Workers� enslavement is at its worst in factories within export processing zones (EPZ). Here, workers are like prisoners inside a hamlet or concentration camp because of the harsh and cruel regime imposed by capitalists and EPZ authorities. The following article describing the oppressive conditions of workers in Texas Instruments (TI) located in the Baguio City Export Processing Zone (BCEPZ) is based on research conducted by cadres in the workers� movement in the Ilocos-Cordillera region. Texas Instruments is a giant American company and one of the world�s leading makers of electronic parts, such as integrated circuits and semiconductors. These parts lie at the heart of computers, appliances, electronic toys, modern war mat�riel and other electronic equipment. TI was first established in 1930 out of the massive funding poured by the US after the First World War to bolster its military-industrial complex and to prepare for the Second World War. TI�s factory in the Philippines employs the most number of workers (around 3,000) within the Baguio City Export Processing Zone and has one of the biggest work forces in Northern Luzon. It is also among the top 11 companies in the country and since 1996, has led the rest in terms of exports. That year, TI was the first company to export more than $1 billion worth of products. Like other enterprises located within export processing zones, TI does not export genuine manufactures, but only semi-manufactured products. It merely reexports products which have, for the most part, been manufactured in other countries. The TI factory at BCEPZ, in particular, specializes in only one phase of semiconductor production, that of �assembly and test�. The rest of the production process such as the manufacture and assembly of the final product is done in the other branches of TI scattered in over 50 countries. Anti-union policies and measures TI has attained international notoriety for being antiunion. It has long been its policy to ban and vehemently oppose unionism not only in the Philippines but in its entire organization worldwide. Since its establishment, not a single union has been set up successfully by workers in any of its branches. TI ensures that �peace� prevails within its entire organization through the most devious means, which include fascist methods of mind-control and restricting the movements of workers and blocking their right to selforganization. All enterprises within BCEPZ are anti-union. But it is TI that has been the most rabid in fighting unionism. Every worker employed by TI is made to undergo an orientation seminar where it is stressed that her acceptance is conditioned on her compliance with the ban on unions and other forms of company defiance. Unions, according to management, will only destroy the �peace� prevailing within the company and jeopardize the workers� job security. TI set up an organization called �Kapatiran, Balikatan at Ugnayan� (Fraternity, Cooperation and Interaction) to ensure stricter control over its workers. Its supposed aim is to provide workers with a venue to air their grievances. Thus, the TI management claims, there is no need to form a union. Since �Kapatiran, Balikatan at Ugnayan� is not a genuine workers� organization but was set up and is manipulated by management, its meetings are confined to the airing of grievances, impeded further by the prevalence of an atmosphere of fear. Workers have neither the power nor the right to bargain collectively with the company. It is the company that decides whether or not it should address the grievances aired by the workers, or how these should be acted upon if at all. To prevent them from self-organizing, the company strictly prohibits workers from talking to each other during work hours. The ban extends to the time they wait for and ride on the bus that shuttles them to and from work. There is an even stricter ban on talking to non-workers, a transgression the company brands as a �mortal sin�. In 1981, two years after the BCEPZ and TI�s Philippine branch were set up, it was the workers of Texas Instruments who first tried to organize a union within the BCEPZ. Then, TI had only 500 workers, 300 of whom immediately expressed their desire to form a union. The yellow Associated Labor Union-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines, however, intervened and fomented trouble, disorganizing the process of union building within TI. Thus, the workers failed. Taking advantage of this, management immediately undertook measures to stop union organizing in the company dead in its tracks. Leaders of the busted union were sent abroad for training; others were promoted and given raises and other benefits; while others were shunted from one department to another and harassed. The company planted spies among the workers. There was stricter monitoring of workers� movements to alert management to the possible entry of union organizers. Anti-union seminars were held. At the same time, the company employed other means to deceive and terrorize the workers. Miserable working conditions Without a union to protect the workers� interests, the capitalists have been free to enforce such miserable working conditions. The capitalists squeeze every last drop of the workers� productivity. TI workers are made to operate simultaneously four instead of only two machines, the latter being the standard in other semiconductor factories within and outside the country. The company even plans to raise this to six. Workers are required to work for eight hours without a single moment of rest. They are not allowed to leave the machines unattended at any time, not even to go to the toilet. If they do, they are reprimanded by their supervisors and reported to management. Neither are they allowed to sit down. The workers are not assured of a safe working environment. Working conditions within TI pose many health hazards. Worldwide, the semiconductor industry ranks third among industries that present the most danger to workers� health because of their excessive exposure to acids, gases and other toxic chemicals. Exposure to these chemicals usually results in skin allergies, baldness and lung diseases. Cases of abnormal births have also been reported among mothers with previous exposure to such chemicals. Within TI, workers handle acetone, ethyl alcohol, flux, hydrochloric acid, lead, perchloro ethylene and trichloro ethylene in processing electronic products. With prolonged exposure to these chemicals, workers experience dizziness, delirium, memory loss, coma, dryness of throat and itchiness of the skin and eyes. So-called protective gadgets issued by the company such as masks and other apparel provide inadequate protection against chemicals that penetrate the skin. Workers are also in serious danger of blindness. Prolonged and repeated use of microscopes to view chips that are as thin as fingernails damage the eyes without fail and could lead to loss of sight. Because the workers are prohibited by the capitalists from going to the toilet, many suffer from urinary tract infections. Their muscles turn numb and they suffer from cramps and varicose veins from standing for long hours. The capitalists are much more interested in protecting their machinery. Thus, the air-conditioning is always on full blast inside the factory, causing workers to suffer a variety of lung disorders, such as asthma. High rate of exploitation TI boasts that in exchange, it supposedly pays higher wages compared to other companies in the Philippines. A TI worker�s daily take-home pay usually amounts to P300 or an equivalent of P7,000 monthly�which is almost twice the minimum wage. But this amount is actually less than what workers receive in other semiconductor companies within and especially outside the country. In fact, TI workers are subject to a very high rate of exploitation. Figures dating from 1994 reveal that for every P1 wage, a worker produces P50 in surplus value that is expropriated by the capitalist. Thus, a worker receives less than 2% of the value she creates, with more than 98% claimed by the capitalist. Apart from this, the company does not immediately pay its workers the regular wage. It resorts to various means to be able to make use of cheap, if not free, labor power. Before a TI worker becomes a regular, she has to undergo pre-training followed by a six-month probationary period. Most workers accepted under an apprenticeship program for new graduates are laid off after three months and told to wait for a promised placement should the company need more regular workers. All apprentices are paid only 75% of the minimum wage despite being given the same workload as regulars. TI also takes in students from technical schools for five months of �on-the-job training� and compensates them with grades instead of wages. Using high levels of technology; maximizing the number of machines operated and the number of operations assigned to each worker; utilizing to the hilt every minute of the workers� time bought by the capitalist�all these are ways employed by the latter to extract the highest possible surplus value from the workers� labor, thus intensifying their exploitation. Along with this, workers suffer serious damage to their health and are severely subjugated and oppressed. Elitist and anti-worker doctrine The most devious and effective means employed by management to block unionism among TI workers is to twist the workers� minds. They, claim management, are not workers, but �TI-ers�. They are also called �Production Specialists�. Management insists that �TI-ers� are a privileged class: they are neither oppressed nor exploited nor do they suffer like ordinary workers. Management supports this tack by granting incentives and rewards for �zero absenteeism�, long years of service to the company and publishing in the internal newsletter �success stories� of workers who had been promoted; and frequently organizing entertainment activities such as games, singing contests, discos, picnics and beach parties. The capitalists try hard to cover up the workers� severe exploitation through deceptive, entertaining and token activities and rewards. But even with TI�s long history of deceiving and controlling the workers� minds and actions and blocking them from self-organizing not only in the Philippines but worldwide, it cannot do this forever. At present, despite extremely difficult conditions for organizing within the company, there are class conscious activists who are clandestinely and prudently persevering to arouse and organize their fellow workers in TI. The workers of Texas Instruments will surely rise, develop class consciousness and wage struggles, just as what most of the first workers of TI did in 1981. In this regard, it is important for the Party, as the advanced detachment of the working class, to persevere in arousing and organizing the workers and providing them with effective leadership. 
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