RAWALPINDI/ISLAMABAD: Workers and labour organisations on Wednesday arranged seminars and rallies to commemorate Labour Day, urging the working class to join hands for their rights.

All Pakistan Workers Confederation brought out a rally on Murree Road and arranged a convention at the Rawalpindi Press Club. Members of Pakistan Mazdoor Mahaz, Awami Workers Party, Oil Tankers Association, All Pakistan Hydro-electric Workers Union and Railways Workers Union attended the convention.

In the rally, participants carried red flags and placards inscribed with slogans for the rights of workers.

Raise minimum wage to Rs35,000, end limited-term contractual employment, AWP leader says

They also chanted slogans in favour of their demands.

Speaking on the occasion, Zafarullah Khan and Akram Bunda said inflation had increased the workers’ problems as they were finding it difficult to meet their expenses.

They said on one hand workers were facing financial problems while on the other the government was planning to privatise government organisations.

Oil Tankers Association President Aslam Khan said people associated with this trade were getting less wages, and called on the government to ask banks to provide loans to oil tanker owners so that they could upgrade their tankers.

In Islamabad, the Awami Workers Party (AWP) organised a march from the National Press Club to D-Chowk. The participants of the march called on the government to end anti-poor policies.

The march, which was participated by over 300 people, consisted of people from various walks of life including women, students and labourers as well as trade union leaders.

AWP’s Deputy General Secretary and Women Democratic Front (WDF) President Ismat Raza Shahjahan said May Day was not only a day for organised union labour, which constituted merely 2pc of the total formal labour force, but also for those “who had to sell their labour power to ensure their survival since they do not have rent producing assets or capital”.

May Day is as much about those women who work at homes as domestic help as those who work in the textile sector, both in factories and homes, and countless of those people employed as daily-wage labourers and on limited-term contracts in agriculture and the informal service sector, Ms Shahjahan added.

AWP organiser and gender studies lecturer Alia Amirali highlighted the need to understand how ‘neoliberalism with its mantra of liberalisation and deregulation had led to premature de-industrialisation and state withdrawal from provision of essential public services.

Ms Amirali concluded her speech by calling for an end to gender discrimination at work and “a fair day’s wage for a fair day’s work”.

AWP’s Ammar Rashid laid out the agenda for labour day which included raising the minimum wage to Rs35,000 per month, ending outsourcing and limited term contractual employment and replacing it with secure and permanent employment, increasing pensions in line with inflation, taking effective steps to combat inflation, free state provision of essential services, upending the power and control of capitalists in favour of establishing a system that works for all starting with rural and urban land reform and redistribution.

Radio Pakistan Union’s General Secretary Mohammad Ejaz said he was impressed with the manner in which AWP had organised this march and set the agenda for the labour movement in Pakistan.

He criticised the IMF’s conditionalities that led to widespread privatisations in the past.

Progressive Students Federation’s Aunil Muntazir praised students’ participation in the march and said “May Day is important for us since students enter the labour market upon graduation”.

He criticised the plan to cut Higher Education Commission’s funding by half, saying that it will ‘further exacerbate inequality in access to education, and result in an uneducated and unskilled population.

Representatives from Mazdoor Kissan Party, Progressive Youth Alliance, Postal Services Workers’ Union, CDA Workers’ Union and social activist Tahira Abdullah also took part in the march.

Published in Dawn, May 2nd, 2019