Against the odds in Pakistan

Submitted by Janine on 14 May, 2005 - 9:39

Trade unionists in Pakistan face a daily struggle to organise. The unions have often been hijacked by reactionary political parties. Farooq Sulehria of the Labour Party Pakistan tells the story.

In Pakistan people often take on two jobs or have some small business after work to survive. All our governments, whether khaki or civilian, have had the same IMF-World Bank dictated neo-liberal agendas: privatisation, downsizing, and an end to subsidies. It may have been different had there been a workers’ party built by trade unions. But

Pakistan’s trade unions are too weak and divided to build even a united national centre, let alone a party of their own.

Around 41 million of Pakistan’s estimated population of nearly 150 million constitute the labour force. A little over 48 per cent is employed in the agricultural sector with no legal cover to form unions. Just one million (three percent) of workers are organised in 7,204 unions. Only 1, 905 unions have collective bargaining agent (CBA) status.

The destruction of the trade union movement has been a combination of external (state and employer) repression and self-inflicted wounds.

Like the left, Pakistan’s trade union movement is a child of the trade union movement of united India. United India had two national trade union centres: communist All India Trade Union Congress and reformist Indian Federation of Labour. Both were reorganised in Pakistan as Pakistan Trade Union Federation (PTUF) and Pakistan Labour Federation, later renamed as All Pakistan Federation of Labour (APFOL).

The former was not acceptable to the new confessional-Islamic state. Its charismatic leader Mirza Ibrahim was arrested in 1948. Three years later, he was convicted in the Rawalpindi Conspiracy Case. When Mirza Ibrahim died in 2000 aged 94, he had spent almost a quarter of his life behind bars.

The APFOL on the other hand was patronised by the government, and its training centre in Karachi indoctrinated trade union workers against communism — funded by Washington’s then front organisation Asia Foundation.

The Jamaat-e-Islami [reactionary political Islamist party], having declaring trade unionism repugnant to Islam, decided to “Islamise” trade unionism in the early sixties by launching the Pakistan Federation of Labour (later National Labour Federation — NLF). The NLF remained isolated until General Zia started patronising it. It now has a strong presence in the public sector. One “Islamic” theme that the NLF introduced is to oppose May Day.

The formation of fundamentalist trade unions further divided the trade union movement. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto did the same. He encouraged forming PPP-supported unions. Later his daughter Benazir formed a labour wing of the Pakistan Peoples Party, the Peoples Labour Bureau. Now all parties, from the right wing-Muslim League to [the Islamist alliance] MQM, have their trade union fronts.

Over a period of time, divisions have been aggravated by poor trade union leadership. There have been attempts to overcome it. Such steps include the formation in 1994 of the Pakistan Workers’ Confederation (PWC), a body of ten federations.

In 1952, the founding fathers of Pakistan introduced the draconian Essential Services Maintenance Act. The Industrial Dispute Ordinance was promulgated in 1959 during the first military dictatorship, banning workers from striking in public utility services, in which employers were given the right to hire and fire. But these decrees proved useless when workers took to the streets in 1968 and forced the first military dictator to resign — a great victory for the young working class of Pakistan.

For next few years, workers would simply occupy, strike or lock-out the management to get their demands accepted. The state was too weak to intervene on industrial areas. The newly formed Pakistan Peoples Party’s open support to the workers led to a whole new layer of working class and its leadership joining the party.

On November 23 1969 the Yahya regime promulgated the Industrial Relations Ordinance (IRO 1969) that strengthened the institutional framework for labour participation and dispute settlement. It also extended the scope of the Essential Services Maintenance Act 1952, thus depriving a big chunk of working class from being able to participate in trade unions.

Bhutto did the same. Under Bhutto, on the one hand, the trade union movement reached its “peak”: a record number of unions were registered, their memberships underwent an upsurge, the number of industrial actions went high and some pro-trade union reforms were introduced. On the other hand, Bhutto unleashed a reign of terror against the trade union leadership and workers, with police even firing at striking Landhi workers in 1972.

By the time Zia removed Bhutto, the trade union movement had ebbed. Zia declared a state of emergency, banning strikes, lockouts and demonstrations. His misrule left the trade union movement in bad shape. The memories of Colony Textile Mills have not yet faded: in January 1978 police firing left hundreds dead.

The restoration of democracy in 1988 kindled many hopes among workers. The Benazir government lifted Zia’s ban on trade unionism in certain public sector establishments and reinstated many workers fired during his regime, yet nothing concrete happened. Soon Nawaz Sharif replaced her, and proved to be as anti-worker. Sharif did not tolerate trade union in his own factories.

When Musharraf took over, he appointed Omar Asghar Khan as his Labour Minister. Omar restored the May Day holiday that Nawaz Sharif had cancelled, lifted some bans on trade unions, raised the minimum pension from Rs425 to 700 and minimum wage for unskilled workers from Rs2, 150 to 2,500, and announced a welfare package. But repression against the trade union movement continued, and trade union activity continued to be curbed.

The Musharraf regime appointed military officers as heads of many public sector utilities and harassed the trade union leadership opposing his privatisation plans. In short, the last nearly quarter of a century has been a period of defeats and uphill struggles for the working class in Pakistan.
• The full article is at www.laborpakistan.org/articles/intl/
maydayoptimism.php

This website uses cookies, you can find out more and set your preferences here.
By continuing to use this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.