Daily Times

LAHORE: Hundreds of labourers, including women, attended a seminar at the Hamdard Centre and took part in a rally from Jilani Park to Shadman Chowk to mark the May Day on Sunday.

The All Pakistan Trade Union Federation (APTUF), Working Women’s Organisation (WWO), Hamdard Employees Union, Shaheen Workers Union, Pakistan Labour Wing Union, People’s Labour Union (Royal Leather Group), Railways Workers Union and other trade unions organised these events to pay tribute to the Chicago workers who sacrificed their lives for their rights several years ago.

APTUF Chairmen Sultan Khan, WWO Executive Director Aima Mahmood, APTUF President Fazal Wahid and union leaders Nasir Mahmood, Munir Dogar, Salma Liaqat, Bushra Tabassum, Nasim Anwar and Safia led the rally.

Holding placards and banners inscribed with anti-capitalism, anti-feudalism and anti-privatisation slogans, home-based women workers, agriculture and factory workers and workers from other sectors participated in the rally. They raised slogans against the contract system in factories, banks, private and semi-government institutions and other sectors and asked the government to ensure direct and permanent employment system.

Addressing the workers, Mahmood said that 70 per cent of labourers in Pakistan worked in the absence of labour laws. They were getting lower salaries and their children and families were without basic health and education facilities, but the government failed to introduce reforms in the labour sector.

She said that child labour could not be eliminated in the country and 3.8 million children were working in the agriculture sector alone. Highlighting the plight of women workers in different sectors, she said, “Women workers get low salary despite the fact that they do work equal to their male colleagues. Their work environment is unsafe. They are deprived of basic facilities of social security and old age benefit.”

She demanded 33 per cent representation for women workers in trade unions and called upon the government, trade unions and world organisations to play their role for equal rights for women workers and their protection. She spoke for the rights of home-based workers who were the most neglected class. She said that unity among labour unions was the need of the hour to protect workers’ rights.

Khan said that trade unions were losing their role in protection of workers due to non-implementation of government policies and labour laws. He asked the government to convene a national conference of trade unions and employers to ensure implementation of labour laws in the country. Wahid asked the government to end its privatisation policy. He demanded that the government must announce a national labour policy.

WAPDA employees and the workers confederation took out separate rallies form Labour Hall to Lahore Press Club and Assembly Hall, respectively.