RAWALPINDI: Trade unionists, political activists and workers at a conference on Sunday demanded restoration of labour inspection survey at the provincial level, amendments to the industrial relation act, and an increase in the minimum wage, warning that they would come out on the streets if they did not get their rights.

These demands were made at a conference of the All Pakistan Workers Confederation (APWC) at the Rawalpindi-Islamabad Press Club. It was followed by the traditional May Day rally by workers from the country’s trade unions.

APWC patron-in-chief Zafarullah Khan Niazi, regional general secretary Akram Bunda, All Pakistan Wapda Hydro Electric Workers Union regional chairman Javed Iqbal Baloch, Pakistan Workers Party’s Asim Sajjad, Mohammad Ramazan Jadoon and others spoke at the event.

Mr Niazi said workers were united to get the rights enshrined in the Constitution. He said: “Industrialists hired the services of labour and workers while violating international laws and human rights, and the government’s silence has exposed its mentality.”

“The government should stop the privatisation of PIA, Steel Mills, Wapda and other national organisations, as it would be an anti-state act of the PML-N led government,” he said.

Mr Bunda said the minimum wage fixed by the government for workers was not being implemented by any organisation or industrial unit in the country.

Activists call for increase in minimum wage, workers’ rights

“The government just announced the fixation of daily wages, but there are no checks and balances, and investors are given free rein to humiliate workers,” he said.

Following the conference, activists and workers brought out a rally from the Press Club to Murree Road. Participants carried red flags and placards inscribed with their demands.

Activists, trade unionists and students also gathered in Shamsabad at the Awami Workers Party (AWP) offices to pay tribute to two legendary working class organisers from Punjab: Bhagat Singh and Dada Amir Haider.

The event was organised by the Awami Workers Party to mark International Workers’ Day, which marks the 130th anniversary of the Chicago Haymarket massacre during the struggle for an eight-hour working day. The event included speeches on the life and struggles of Dada Amir Haider and Bhagat Singh, and the history of the revolutionary labour movement.

Speakers called for the left and the trade union movement to learn from their achievements, and assess their own shortcomings in organising the working class.

The speeches were followed by a musical performance by the AWP’s Ammar Rashid, featuring poetry by Faiz Ahmed Faiz.

Bhagat Singh (1907 - 1931) was a revolutionary socialist activist associated with the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association, hailing from what is today the Faisalabad district. He was convicted and hanged at the age of 23 in Lahore by the British colonial administration for his revolutionary activities.

Dada Amir Haider (1900 – 1989) was born in the Rawalpindi district and spent his entire life struggling for the cause of the working class in this region and around the world, and was arrested multiple times, both before and after partition, for his activism.

“We need to take a close look at the reasons why the labour movement in our region is no longer the vibrant force that it once was,” said Nusrat Hussain, secretary-general of AWP’s Islamabad-Rawalpindi district.

Speaking at the event, AWP’s Dr Farzana Bari highlighted the plight of working class women in the area. “On International Workers’ Day we must remember that this country’s workers are not only men, and they face many additional struggles in the workplace, particularly sexual harassment,” she said.

“We demand that this country’s labour laws are amended to included workers in the informal sector, many of whom are women,” she added.

Because World Labour Day fell on a Sunday, most departments were not able to hold events to mark the day.

Events are typically organised by a number of public and private sector departments and unions. The AWP also holds events in the capital, but could not do so this year.

AWP Punjab President Aasim Sajjad Akhtar told Dawn the party decided to hold its main event in Rawalpindi, and a rally was also carried out from the AWP offices.

The CDA labour union held an event in Islamabad at the Fire Brigade Office, which was attended by a number of politicians and labour leaders.

The leader of the CDA’s CBA union, Chaudhry Yaseen, said the civic body workers were not against the local bodies system, but did not want the CDA to be divided in the name of local government.

“We just demand from the government that legislation should be carried out to address the labourer’s problems. In the upcoming budget, the salary of a labourer should be increased and ad hoc-ism should be abolished in government departments,” he said.

He added: “There should be no politics in government departments.”

Published in Dawn, May 2nd, 2016