The ITF Asia Regional Leadership Seminar was launched yesterday, May 21, with a mapping activity in one of the terminals for Manila’s famous ‘Jeepney’ buses, run by informal operators. Participants from India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand, along with comrades from the Philippines, learned first-hand about the extreme working conditions, poor pay and long hours.

Subsequent analysis of the information gathered from the operators, drivers and other workers in the terminal revealed the wide range of target agencies in collective bargaining that were involved in negotiations by the two Philippines unions – the National Confederation of Transport Unions, and PISTON – participating in the workshop.