July 17, 2008	Thursday	Rajab 13, 1429

ISLAMABAD, July 16: Various trade unions and civil society organisations have condemned the action by rangers against striking workers of PTCL and called upon the government to stop the ongoing spate of anti-worker incidents.

The PTCL administration, on the other hand, has urged the striking workers to immediately resume their work, expressing its concern over disruption of telecom services and operations caused by the strike being observed by “few misguided employees”.

“This use of brute force against the workers has exposed the government’s claims of making privatization beneficial for the workers,” said the People’s Rights Movement (PRM) in a statement issued here on Wednesday.

PRM workers visited the strike camp set up by the PTCL workers outside the telecom company’s headquarters at G-8 to express solidarity with them. They vowed to visit the strike camp continuously until the management and the government fulfilled the workers’ demands.

Speaking to workers at the camp, PRM activist Salman Haider said the PTCL management had been misleading the workers for almost two months about the fate of their “negotiations” with the labour union leaders. He said the management was suppressing rather than protecting the workers rights, yet the government is unwilling to take a stand in favour of the workers.

The government, despite holding the majority shares, never attempted to wrest some control from Etisalat management that holds only 26 per cent of the shares which shows its lack of political will.

Jamil Raja of the Railway Workers Union said the episode had exposed the government’s claim of making privatization “worker- friendly” by giving workers 10 per cent shares in any privatized company.

“In the past few weeks it has been proven just how little effective power the new government has, to really mould economic policies yet it continues to claim commitment to Roti, Kapra and Makan. This two faced attitude is costing the PPP whatever remaining support it enjoyed among working people,” he added.

PTCL spokesman Ali Qadir Gilani in a statement said the management welcomed the initiative of the formation of the prime minister’s four-member committee to help resolve this issue. It is looking forward to an urgent resolution of this issue and urges the workers to realise the gravity of the issue and resume duties to provide services to the PTCL customers, he said.

The management has a complete contingency plan to ensure the smooth functioning of the entire nationwide PTCL network and associated services.