First quarter reports expose the miserable state of the labor sector. Unemployment and underemployment numbers rose. The youth suffer most, especially those reaching working age and job-hunting graduates.

Abi, 26, has worked for five years. She currently works in a semiconductor factory in Calabarzon. This is her second employer. She first worked in business-process outsourcing. She quit college in her third year to work to cope with higher living standards.

Abi considers herself fortunate for having found work amid widespread joblessness. A January report recorded 2.96 million jobless Filipinos. That number grew by 357,000 between February and March. This guarantees neither job security for Abi nor enough pay. Abi’s company grants regular status only after 10 years of service.

Calabarzon workers earn the highest minimum wage of ₱600. “I’m bothered by how a family survives on one month’s wage because even I, being self-supporting, struggle to sustain myself and help my parents,” Abi recounts.

Factory conditions also worsened. Marcos Jr imposed the four-day workweek, pitched as an “oil-conservation solution” amid crisis, and laborers suffer most. Capitalists cheered this scheme as this helped them squeeze profit at workers’ expense. “Four days work, two days rest, 12 hours daily including lunch and break, alternating day and night shifts weekly. Working standard limits one machine per machine operator in production, but capitalists reduce manpower so operators often handle 2-3,” Abi shares.

Though not the eldest, Jino, 25, is breadwinner of his family. His older siblings already have families. He supports his three younger siblings alongside his mother who earns a paltry income from peddling vegetables. The hard life forded Jino to give up college; he takes odd jobs in residence and roadwork construction in their area. He has worked for two years for a contractor company engaged in roadwork, flood control projects, and quarries in Cavite, Rizal, and Laguna.

“My job output goes direct to the company. The occasional 8-hour night shift pays the same rate as other shifts. The daily service transport covers only the morning trip and I have to pay for my travel back home. Sundays are day-offs. We previously earned ₱600, now up by ₱100 since oil prices spiked,” Jino recounts.

“We often work under the blazing sun, which adds to our exhaustion especially this summer, and without benefits. They promised us a bonus and a 13th-month pay last Christmas, but we have lost hope as Easter has already passed but we still haven’t received the said benefits. We don’t have SSS or insurance. I joke that if I make a mistake and crush my finger lifting hollow blocks, I’d just laugh while crying. I thought I would be regularized after six months but nobody gets regularized at all. We were even nearly terminated last month because the company claimed losses. Our boss bought a new car despite this. We constantly fear being laid off any day,” Jino details.

Jino’s crew sometimes works just 3-4 days a week because jobs just follow contracts. A finished project might exclude him next, depending on needed construction workers per project.

“We get paid weekly but my wallet is empty even before Sunday. Over half of my payday’s earnings go to pay our mother’s debts from a local store and my debts from the diner at work,” Jino adds.

Neither Abi’s nor Jino’s workplaces have unions, but they take action to fight for labor rights. Abi says, “I understand collective action matters to assert our rights. It pairs with broad organizing among fellow workers to arouse them about their exploitation ordeal.”

Jino says, “Government disregards calls from individuals and even from mass complainants. Collective action has proven itself many times. The discussions I attended say this eight-hour workday we enjoy are victories of workers’ collective struggles.”

Filipino workers’ conditions have further worsened. Revolutionary mass organizations allied with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines light the way. Workers can join the Revolutionary Council of Trade Unions or other revolutionary mass organizations to advance rights. Abi is currently Kabataang Makabayan member and strives to spark youth action inside the factory while Jino is their community’s revolutionary mass organization member.

Jino’s challenge: “Our hard lives and work for family and loved ones are stretching our limits but we must still challenge ourselves to squeezee time to organize fellow workers and youth. Our situation of having low wages and constant shortages won’t change if government laws stay pro-capitalist, The same laws they themselves violate. This impels the poor like us to unite.”

Abi calls on fellow youth workers: “Instead of surrendering to the exploitative system, we must awaken, organize, and take action to smash this system!”

—first published in Kalatas May 2026, revolutionary mass newspaper in Southern Tagalog