HYDERABAD: Activists of labour unions, non-governmental organisations working for the rights of labourers and labour wings of political parties took out rallies and held demonstrations and seminars in several Sindh towns on Friday to mark the International Labour Day.
The day also known as May Day commemorates the workers’ fight for the eight-hour working day which culminated in Haymarket affair in Chicago in 1886 when a peaceful workers’ rally was fired upon by police.
In Hyderabad, activists of All Pakistan Wapda Hydro Electric Workers Union, Awami Workers Party, Muttahida Labour Federation, Sindh Agricultural General Workers Union, Sindh Labour Rights Welfare Organisation, PPP Labour Bureau, District Action Committee for Home-Based Workers, various trade bodies and non-governmental organisations took out rallies.
The workers’ leaders demanded the government implement labour laws, raise minimum wages to at least Rs15,000 a month and put in place a mechanism to save precious lives of labourers at workplaces, provide social security to all workers, stop privatisation, apply labour laws to farm workers and stop razing slums of labourers in Hyderabad.
In Sukkur, activists of Wapda Hydro Electric Workers Union, Watan Dost Mazdoor Federation and Sindh Hari Committee took out rallies while railways workers union held a demonstration outside the press club to mark the May Day.
The leaders said the government was not sincere with labourers as it was preparing to privatise all national institutions including Wapda.
In Khairpur, labour leaders said at a function held in connection with the May Day that PPP had forgotten its slogan of ‘Roti, Kapra aur Makan’ as the party had not done anything to protect labourers’ rights.
They said the labourers’ children had no access to education but even if they did manage to get education they did not get jobs. Labourers were deprived of almost all basic rights and were highly underpaid, they said.
In Mirpurkhas, Mazdoor Ittihad brought out a rally, demanding the government fix minimum workers’ wage to the equivalent of market price of 10 grams of gold.
The leaders urged the government to implement international conventions on labourers and the country’s labour laws to protect rights of labourers.
They condemned the government policy to privatise national institutions and demanded the government nationalise banks and insurance companies and reserve seats in assemblies and senate for labourers.
In Nawabshah, activists of Wapda Hydro Electric Central Labour Union, Mazdoor Ittihad, Shah Sachal Sami Welfare Association, Sindh Taraqqi-pasand Party, All Sindh Paramedics Welfare Association and several NGOs took out separate rallies to mark the May Day.
All the rallies terminated at the press club where leaders addressed the gatherings.
They demanded resolution of genuine problems of labourers.
In Sanghar, activists of National Workers Party, Home-Based Women Workers Federation, National Trade Union, Sindh Agriculture General Workers Union and STP took out rallies to mark the day.
The leaders demanded an end to exploitation of the downtrodden workers and peasants.
In Shahdadpur, a rally was taken out by Progressive Forum and Wapda Hydro Union.
Convention
At a workers convention, general secretary of the Home-Based Women Workers Federation Zehra Khan urged the government to ratify home worker convention C177 of the International Labour Organisation, approve local home-based workers policy and issue a notification in this regard.
She called for rise in workers’ wages to Rs25,000 a month. A worker was hardly paid Rs3,000 to 6,000 a month on which he had to subsist throughout the month, she said.
In Badin and adjoining towns, workers of several political and social organisations took out rallies to mark the May Day.
A large number of PPP workers took out a rally from Talhar town to Pangrio Sugar Mill where they staged a token hunger strike in solidarity with farmers and growers who had been protesting at the mills gate for past five days against non-payment of dues by mill management.
The protesters vowed to continue the protest till their dues were cleared.
In Shikarpur, workers of All Mechanical Welfare Association Auto Spare Parts, Tameerat-i-Sindh Works and Mistri Mazdoor Ittihad Union organised a workers’ conference to mark the May Day.
Labour leaders demanded the government resolve workers’ problems and raise their wages to enable them to lead a somewhat respectable life.
Published in Dawn May 2nd, 2015
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