Union leader Angie Mata

Angie Mata is a member of a transport workers’ cooperative, organizer of the National Confederation of Transport Workers Union in Cebu City, Philippines, and an allied worker. The NCTU is affiliated to the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF).

In 2016 the government of the Philippines promoted the modernization of public transport to reduce carbon emissions in cities in the country. But it came with a cost: the National Confederation of Transport Workers Union in Cebu City, Philippines, was determined to save the Jeepneys, Philippines’ most traditional form of public transportation.

Thanks to the NCTU, since 2018 thousands jeepney workers have organized through a just transition into transport cooperatives that are now part of the jeepney modernization project, aimed to curb climate change, formalize informal jobs, democratize transport and provide a model to transform public transport.