After a series of consultation and alternative fora which started in 2002, 17 unions, or roughly 2,000 workers, organized and launched the Philippine Metalworkers’ Alliance (PMA) on November 9, 2003. Angel Dimalanta, then President of the Toyota Motor Phils. Supervisors’ Union (TMPSU) in cooperation with the Labor Education and Research Network (LEARN). It started as a broad alliance of three (3)
sectors: (1) automotive, (2) iron and steel, (3) electronics and electrical. The Alliance aims to unite the metalworkers’ in the country in advancing their legitimate rights, welfare and concern through collective actions and solidarity based on the principle of democratic and responsible unionism. Seeing the need for a legal identity, PMA registered to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) as a workers’ association on March 14, 2005. This reinforced the Alliance’s work of consolidating organized and unorganized workers in the metal industry. On May 13, 2008, PMA registered to the DOLE as a National Union to serve more workers by maximizing the coverage of Republic Act 9481 or the Act Strengthening the Workers' Constitutional Right to Self-Organization, enacted on May 25, 2007. PMA has outlined its immediate programs of action to make trade union activities more relevant especially among metal workers as follows:
1. Strengthen the rights of men and women workers;
2. Influence progressively government to make decisions and policies that will lead to fair distribution of growth and resources particularly in the metal industry;
3. Consolidate the already organized metal workers and organize the unorganized; and
4. Use the alliance as a venue to conduct joint and collective actions/campaigns vital to the interests of all metalworkers.
