KARACHI, June 12: The People’s Workers Union emerged victorious in the referendum held after a lapse of over 13 long years in the Pakistan Steel Mills on Thursday by beating its rival group – United Workers Front – by as many as 3,411 votes.

Around 5,321 workers were eligible to participate in the process and as many as 4,797 of them exercised their right to vote. The People’s Workers Union (PWU) polled 4,065 votes to become the collective bargaining agent against the United Workers Front (UWF) that managed to fetch only 654 votes.

The Deputy Director, Labour, Mir Mohammad Baloch, who had been assigned the task of conducting the referendum, said that around 13 votes were rejected due to different reasons and 19 workers of the Steel Mills had sent in their votes through postal ballots.

The poll results, however, cannot be termed unexpected as the overall situation had become quite obvious a few days back when almost all the other labour unions operating in the Steel Mills had extended their support to the PWU. It is worth mentioning that the PWU is backed by the Pakistan People’s Party and the UWF enjoys the support of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement.

The day-long polling that started at 9am went on peacefully and smoothly till 6pm at the 17 polling booths – 14 on the premises of the mills and one each at its establishments at Gharo, Makli and Jhampir.

Long queues of enthusiastic voters were seen at all the polling booths till noon, after which things got quite relaxed and the remaining voters cast their votes quickly without having to wait in long queues. The activists of both unions, while remaining at some distance from the polling booths, were seen actively guiding and assisting the voters. The PSM management had made special transport arrangements for the workers so that the majority of them could cast their votes.

After a comfortable win, the chief of the PWU, Shamshad Qureshi, thanked the workers for entrusting the PWU with such a major responsibility and pledged to make all-out efforts to fulfil the promises that the union had made during the campaign regarding the welfare of the workers. Later, the workers took out a procession and chanting slogans, went around different areas of the mills.

The benefits that the PWU had promised included regularisation of contractual and daily wage employees, restoration of son’s quota in recruitments, introduction of pension scheme, plots for employees in Gulshan-i-Hadeed, abolishment of Hadeed Welfare Trust, medical facilities for self and family for life, etc.

Other labour leaders who addressed the gathering of workers included Dhani Bux, Mustafa Zardari, Razi Haider, Saleem Soomro, Sattar Butt, Hameedullah and Mirza Tariq.

Besides, the winning side has also planned a rally at the Hathora Chowk near the head offices of the Pakistan Steel Mills on Friday morning, after which a procession will be taken out that will go all the way to Bilawal House, where PPP leaders, including co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari, are expected to address the gathering.

Commenting on the results of the referendum, the chief of the United Workers Front, Mohammad Mohsin, told Dawn that the UWF was not expecting anything else as the workers were fully aware of the fact that a union having the support of the government would be in a much better position to solve their lingering issues.

The UWF chief said that his side had participated in the referendum to boost democratic norms. He said that the UWF would extend its support to the newly-elected CBA in its efforts to solve the various issues facing the workers of the mills.

Mr Mohsin recalled that at the time of privatisation of the Pakistan Steel Mills, all the labour organisations had joined hands against the decision and had struggled against it and it was owing to their unity they had emerged successful in their mission.

The referendum was held after a lapse of almost 13 years. The last referendum was held in 1995 in which the Peoples’ Workers Union was the CBA. After the completion of its two-year tenure, the United Workers Front had challenged it and the referendum was to be held, but one of the unions had approached the National Industrial Relations Commission (NIRC), which took around 11 years to settle the dispute and eventually, on May 22, 2008, the NIRC ordered that the referendum be held by June 15.

As the unions had extended support at a later stage to the PWU, so the ballot papers – which had been printed earlier – carried names of all the unions and due to that very reason some of them also bagged some votes.

These unions were Pakistan Steel Labour Union (five votes), Employees Unity of Pakistan Steel (16 votes), Pakistan Steel Democratic Front (five votes), Labour League of Pakistan Steel (one vote), Pakistan Steel Progressive Workers Union (30 votes) and Pakistan Steel Staff and Workers Union (two votes).

Meanwhile, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah congratulated the People’s Workers Union over its victory in the referendum.