The Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR) expresses its solidarity with the supervisory staff of major telecommunications provider PLDT Inc. in their struggle for a better collective bargaining agreement (CBA) for 2026-2028. We call on the PLDT management, led by billionaire Manny V. Pangilinan, to bargain in earnest with its workers to advance labor rights.

CBA negotiations in PLDT started on November 28, 2025, but after 15 rounds, no major agreement has been reached between the management and the worker-supervisors who are represented by their union Gabay ng Unyon sa Telekomunikasyon ng mga Superbisor sa PLDT (GUTS-PLDT). The CBA will cover PLDT’s 4,000 employees nationwide.

In response, GUTS-PLDT has held protests on January 9, 16, 23, 29 and 30. On January 29, the workers marched to PLDT’s headquarters in Ramon Cojuangco Building in Makati City and held a program there.

Amidst the changing telecommunications landscape, PLDT continues to grow, registering a net income of P 32.31 billion in 2024, which is 21% higher compared to its net income of P26.61 billion in 2023. The company reported a P25.1 billion growth in the first quarter of 2025.

CBA negotiations are about improving the state of workers’ labor rights. PLDT and other companies that are perfectly capable of enhancing their workers’ rights should offer improvements in wages and benefits, job security and union rights. As a major company in the country, PLDT is an instructive case of how employers are responding to workers’ demands.

PLDT workers across the country are showing their unity and militancy through their posts on social media. The PLDT management should take these workers’ actions as indications of the need to improve the working conditions of its employees and to take CBA negotiations as an opportunity to do just that.

GUTS-PLDT has a long and colorful history of struggling for workers’ rights. Its history has shown that even big employers do not hand to workers improvements in labor rights on a silver platter. Workers have to take united and resolute actions to make even the most modest of gains.

Even as it continues to struggle for better working conditions for its members, GUTS-PLDT is an inspiration to the overwhelming majority of Filipino workers who remain ununionized. Despite the threat of retrenchment and other difficulties, the truth remains: employers won’t improve working conditions on their own, and without a fight. We hope that more workers form and join their unions.