Do You Know Your Heroes?(A Survey on the Consciousness of Unionists on the Legacy of Working Class Leaders and Heroes)

Abstract

Trade unionism has greatly preoccupied the Philippine government, military, business, and industry, and the Churches for the past two decades. Its avowed to fight for the poorest and most oppressed- the workers and peasants- has brought upon it both praise and condemnation. This study on the consciousness of labor union members regarding the legacy of labor union leaders aims to make the members of labor unions identify names of leaders who for them contributed to the growth of the labor union in which they belong to, This study would also gather data on the present educational programs being given by the three labor unions in study (FFW and KMU) to their members and how these discussions and their knowledge on the achievements of the leaders influence them as a member of the union. The tools used in achieving the objectives of the study included the distribution of survey questionnaires among members of the two labor unions and getting pertinent information on the study like the educational programs given to the members. The theoretical framework used in the study is the first premise that all human existence and therefore all history, the premise mainly that man must be able to live in order to make history. But in life, involves before anything else, eating drinking, a habitation, clothing and many other things. The first historical act then is the production of the means to satisfy these needs, the production of material life itself. Using this framework as a means of analyzing the results the researcher had come up with a conclusion that it is indeed true but the proponent of this study could as well see the efforts of the unions to give education to its members in spite of this truth.