Workers Resistance

Category: Asia

  • ग्रामीणों की ऐतिहासिक जीत : कोका कोला मेहदीगंज का प्लांट बंद

    आख़िरकार 12 वर्ष लम्बे संघर्ष का परिणाम रंग लाया और  भूजल व् प्रदुषण के लिए जिम्मेदार कोका कोला प्लांट मेंहदीगंज राजा तालाब वाराणसी को गत 6 जून 2014 को प्रदुषण नियंत्रण बोर्ड उ ० प्र ० के आदेश के द्वारा बंद कर दिया गया है, उक्त कंपनी को बंद करने की मांग को लेकर विगत एक दशक से मेंहदी गंज व आसपास के स्थानीय ग्रामीण आन्दोलनरत थे, जिनके प्रयास से कोकाकोला कंपनी बंद हुई।

    आंदोलन की शुरुआत 2002 से हुई।  अनगिनत बार धरना प्रदर्शन हुए।  200 -200 किलोमीटर की कई बार पदयात्राएं हुई।  अहिंसात्मक रूप से प्रदर्शन करने वाले ग्रामवासियों पर लाठियां बरसाई गयी।  तीन बार सैकड़ों महिला पुरुषों जेल जाना पड़ा।  उनके ऊपर अनगिनत फर्जी मुकदमे लादे गये। आंदोलन को दबाने के लिये लोगों को प्रलोभन दिए गए यहाँ तक कि ग्रामवासियों में मतभेद पैदा करने के लिए यह भी दुष्प्रचार किया गया कि यह आंदोलन पैसों के लिए किया जा रहा है।

    प्रदेश सरकार से लेकर दिल्ली सरकार के सम्बन्धित कार्यालयों में   अनगिनत बार हजारों की तादात में जाकर गुहार लगाई गयी।  जलदोहन प्रदूषण धोखाधड़ी के मुद्दों पर सरकारी जाँच  एजेंसियों से लेकर प्राइवेट जाँच  एजेंसियों से जाँच कराई गयी लेकिन कोका कोला के खिलाफ सारे सबूत होने के बावजूद कंपनी के दबाव में कोई भी विभाग कम्पनी पर कार्यवाही करने से बचती रही।  लेकिन इसके बावजूद ग्रामवासियों ने हिम्मत नही छोड़ा और कंपनी के खिलाफ आंदोलन करते रहे।  अंततः प्रदुषण नियंत्रण बोर्ड उ ० प्र ० को स्वीकार करना पड़ा और कंपनी को तुरन्त बंद करने का आदेश दे दिया है.

     

     

  • People suffer as revenue staff continues strike

    MARDAN/NOWSHERA, June 19: The ongoing strike of revenue department employees has created great difficulties for people, particularly students in obtaining domicile certificates for admission to colleges after passing matriculation.

    In Mardan, students and their parents told Dawn on June 18 that they faced difficulties in getting domicile certificates as it was mandatory for them (students) to take admission in colleges after passing matriculation. They lamented that they were forced to shuttle between the district courts and offices of patwaries, girdawars and other relevant revenue officials in scorching heat.

    Parents demanded of the government to make alternative arrangements so they could get domiciles without any hassle. The revenue staff, including patwaris and girdawars, is on a strike for seeking service structure. In Nowshera, the Anjuman-i-Patwarian wa Qanoongoyan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, vowed to continue strike till the government accepted their demands for promotion of patwaris to grade 14, girdawars to 15, naib tehsildar to 17, and increase in their allowances. This was stated by the association’s provincial president Mohammad Khan Swati while talking to mediapersons after a meeting at Pabbi on June 18.

    Revenue officers from Hazara, Malakand, Peshawar, Mardan, Kohat, Bannu, and DI Khan divisions and the association’s general secretary, Kashif Khueshgi, were in attendance.

    Mr Swati said that they would continue fight for their rights. He said that the government had adopted step motherly attitude towards them. “Now we are out to fight for the rights of employees and no one can stop us from our genuine struggle,” he said.

    Published by Daily Dawn on June 19, 2014

  • दुनियाभर में अमानवीय शोषण-उत्पीड़न के शिकार हैं प्रवासी कामगार

    असमान आर्थिक विकास की बदौलत देशों के अन्दर एक क्षेत्र से दूसरे क्षेत्र और एक देश से दूसरे देश की तरफ़ (आमतौर पर अविकसित से विकसित की तरफ़) मज़दूरों का प्रवास जारी रहता है। स्थानीय मज़दूरों की संघर्ष की ताक़त अधिक होने के कारण विश्वभर के लुटेरे पूँजीपति स्थानीय की बजाय प्रवासी मज़दूरों को काम पर रखना पसन्द करते हैं। एक तो इन प्रवासी मज़दूरों से कम तनख़्वाह पर काम लिया जाता है, दूसरा स्थानीय और प्रवासी के झगड़े खड़े करके मज़दूरों की एकता की राह में अड़चनें पैदा की जाती हैं।

    The post दुनियाभर में अमानवीय शोषण-उत्पीड़न के शिकार हैं प्रवासी कामगार appeared first on मज़दूर बिगुल.

  • Delhi: Press release from protest against changes in Labour laws by Rajasthan government

    KRANTIKARI NAUJAWAN SABHA Date: 18th June 2014 Release Despite the Delhi Police coercion since yesterday to stop the Protest Demonstration for ‘security reasons’, we held a Protest in front of Bikaner House, New Delhi this morning against the anti-labour reforms proposed by the BJP government in Rajasthan. This ‘denial of permission’ for any democratic voices […]

  • Officials inspect Wazirpur plants as strike continues

    News courtesy – THE HINDU, 18th June 2014

    Another worker said they were threatened when they asked for legal benefits. “I worked as an electrician for seven years at a hot-rolling plant. When I asked for my PF and other benefits the employers asked me to leave. I could not find another job as an electrician and now put iron blocks into the furnace in another plant now,” said a worker in his early 20s.

    Labour activists said with labour officials agreeing to meet the workers and inspect the plants, they were hopeful labour laws would be implemented.

    “We met the Labour Commissioner on Monday and he deputed an inspection team with a labour official, a health officer, and a factory inspector to visit the plants. They found that most owners are running plants without registration numbers and do not follow even the Factories Act or the Minimum Wages Act. They seized a few plants’ records, and asked the owners, who could not produce the documents, to appear at the office this morning,” said Sunny Singh, a labour activist with Mazdoor Bigul Dasta, who is supporting the Garam Rolla Mazdoor Ekta Samiti workers’ strike.

  • Report: Demonstration against Changes in Labour Laws by Rajasthan Govt

    New Delhi (Press Note/ 18th June 14): Despite the Delhi Police coercion since yesterday to stop the Protest Demonstration for ‘security reasons’, we held a Protest in front of Bikaner House, New Delhi this morning against the anti-labour reforms proposed by the BJP government in Rajasthan. This ‘denial of permission’ for any democratic voices of protest is part of ‘security’ given nakedly or covertly by the state machinery to protect class interests of the corporate regime.

    Resist Anti-Labor Laws

    Resist Anti-Labor Laws

    The changes in the three crucial labour legislations, the Industrial Disputes Act, the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, the Factories Act is part of the regime of ‘bitter pills’ that Narendra Modi is talking about today. It is nothing else but the forced implementation of neo-liberal reforms, for which the BJP-led Rajasthan government is supposed to have ‘shown the way’, and other states and the Central government will soon follow. While Chief Minister Vasundhra Raje has given the reason of ‘15 lakh job creation’, the effects of this move is the exact opposite- increasing insecurity and joblessness.

     

  • India’s Abu Gharibs

    The custodial torture and death in Wadala Police Station is the latest to draw attention to the endemic practice of police torture.

    By Mansi Sharma,

    FOR the underprivileged in our country, police stations have become torture chambers. It would not be an exaggeration to compare them with Abu Ghraib.

    The pictures emerging from the cells of Abu Gharib – of wanton and indescribable physical and sexual abuse of detainees, shocked the world. Something not very dissimilar is happening in Indian police stations.

    On May 16, 2014, when the Supreme Court of India acquitted five of six men accused in Akshardham attack case, it drew attention towards coercive methods adopted by investigating agencies to extract confessional statements.  The Andhra Pradesh Minorities Commission-appointed Ravi Chander enquiry dwelt at length on the torture inflicted upon scores of Muslim youth following the Mecca Masjid blast on 2006. I remember, at a convention in Delhi some years ago, one of those tortured recalling the smell of burnt flesh in police custody, and then realizing it were his own lips smouldering from the electric shocks administered by the police.

    Images are for illustrative purposes only.

    Images are for illustrative purposes only.

    However, torture is not confined to terror investigations at all; indeed, it has become endemic and often seen as a quick route to ‘solving cases’. But even in this widespread culture of abuse and torture, the case of gross abuse of four young men at the hands of police at the Wadala police station manages to shake us.

    On the night of April 15, police picked four boys, Agnelo (Richie), Arbaz, Irfan and Sufiyan from their homes near Reay Road Police Station for the theft of gold chain and brought them to Wadala Police Station.

    They were not presented before the Magistrate, in violation of the law, till two days later. Though Arbaz was minor, he was kept with the other accused. Two days later, Agnelo died in police custody.

    Their affidavits submitted to the court describe the horror, abuse and indignity these boys were subjected to. In his written complaint, Irfan has said “my hands and legs were tied with a big rope and a big heavy iron rod was put between my folded legs on which I was hanged upside down. I was naked during this time. Mane and Kamble were assaulting me turn by turn with belt and the danda one by one. Then One Ganya officer holding the stick tried to insert the said stick into my anus but as the stick was thick it didn’t penetrate into my anus and so Mane and Kamble said that we have to spray petrol into his anus using a spray pump”.

    To read more click on post Title

  • 28 bonded labourers set free

    MIRPURKHAS, June 18: The Mipurkhas district and sessions court on June 17 set free 28 peasants, allegedly forced into bonded labour, after recording their statements.

    The peasants, including women and children, were recovered in a raid conducted by the Old Mirpur police on the farmlands owned by Anwer Marri and Jhando Marri.

    The raid was ordered by the court on an application filed by a peasant, Rewo Kolhi, who stated that his 28 relatives had been forced into bonded labour by the landowners.

    In his application, he stated that they had been kept in illegal confinement on the farmlands falling within the remit of the Old Mirpur police station.

    Mr Kolhi claimed that his relatives were not being paid their wages and faclities as per the Tenancy Act.

    On June 16, the police carried out the raid and recovered the peasants, who were kept at the Old Mirpur police station overnight.

    On June 17 morning, they were produced in the sessions court, which recorded their statement and set them free.

    Published by Daily Dawn on June 18, 2014

  • Protesting employees reject 10pc pay raise

    TIMERGARA, June 18: The government employees took to streets here on June 17 to reject the 10 per cent raise in their salaries, announced by the government in the annual budget.

    The protest was organised by local chapter of All Employees Coordination Council (AECC). The protesters demanded of the government to increase their salaries according to the price hike.

    The protesters, majority of them teachers, took out a rally from Balambat and marched on the road. Carrying banners and placards, they chanted slogans against the federal and provincial governments.

    The protesting employees gathered outside press club where they were addressed by AECC provincial chairman Syed Mohammad Shah, Abdul Khaliq, Mohammad Sadiq Jan, Mohammad Shaeer Tajak, Mohammad Salim, Zahid Khan, Wazir Mohammad, Haji Bahadar Syed and Zahir Shah.

    The speakers said that government employees were satisfied with the 10 per cent raise in their salaries. They said that keeping in view hike in prices of daily use items, raise in their salaries was not enough.

    They said that government made a fun of employees by increasing their salaries just by 10 per cent. The salaries of ministers and lawmakers were increase by 200 per cent, they added.

    They demanded of the government to increase their salaries according to price hike and abolish tax on salaries. They threatened to lock the government offices and educational institutions if their demand was not met.

    Published by Daily Dawn on June 18, 2014

  • Auqaf workers for regularisation

    June 18: Around 250 contract employees of Punjab Auqaf Department have appealed to Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and Auqaf secretary to regularise them instead of recruiting new employees. Iffatullah, chairman Tanzeem-ul-Jihad, and Qazi Zaman Abbasi in an appeal to the CM have said around 250 employees working on daily wages are facing risk of losing jobs as the Auqaf Department has given an advertisement for new recruitments. They said instead of recruiting new employees, the department should adopt a procedure to regularise them. They said these employees had been serving in the department for years and now they deserved permanent jobs.

    Published by Daily The News on June 18, 2014