42 Philippine Journal of Labor and Industrial Relations Job Satisfaction of SME Workers in Select Cities of Mindanao * Ma. Catalina M. TOLENTINO ** * The survey data in this paper were extracted from the broader research project “Globalization and Changes in Employment and Working Conditions: The Philippines” funded by the International Labor Organization, and had Dean Jorge V. Sibal as Project Director, Dr. Maragtas S.V. Amante as Project Leader and Prof. Ma. Catalina Tolentino as Researcher. The full report was presented in Yeouido, Seoul, Korea on February 22-23, 2007. ** Senior Lecturer and University Researcher II, UP SOLAIR; and Ph.D student at the College of Mass Communication, UP Diliman. Introduction How do workers in Mindanao perceive their employment conditions? Can workers depend on Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) for long-term employment? In this study, Mindanao was chosen as the site of a survey because the island has been identified as part of the East ASEAN Growth Area. A development strategy has been designed to reduce poverty incidence and improve peace and order in Mindanao. A survey on the job satisfaction of SME employees in four major cities—Davao, Cagayan de Oro, Valencia and Iligan—was done and their results indicate that social conditions in Mindanao contribute to the positive attitude of workers towards their jobs, which in turn explain their satisfaction with co-workers and customers, and to a lesser extent, with their supervisors. The environmental condition in Mindanao appears to be a factor in