LAHORE, May 1: The working class all over the world will commemorate the Labour Day on May 1 (today) by staging rallies and holding meetings to pay a homage to Chicago martyrs while workers in Pakistan will take to street primarily for electricity and gas, non-availability of which has rendered hundreds of thousands of them jobless.

Lack of recognition on the part of the government, denial of fundamental right of freedom of association besides the law and order situation will include the other challenges the working class will be highlighting during their May Day engagements.

Electricity and gas outages resulted in partial or complete closure of scores of industrial units, especially in the textile sector. The situation also slowed down the economic growth, increasing unemployment rate to an alarming level.

“Trade union is the basis of democracy but it has not been given its due recognition though it has always been on the forefront in every movement,” says trade union leader Khurshid Ahmed.

The present regime has completed two years in office but it has yet to take measures to ensure fundamental rights of workers, especially women. There should have been measures to revive tripartite labour conference, include rural or agricultural sector workers in the minimum wages mechanism and revival of independent factory inspection machinery.

Ironically, measures have also not been taken to ensure provision of free and uniform education to each child, jobs to the youth and ‘decent’ working conditions and rational wages to the workers along with social protection against sickness, accidents, old-age, elimination of abuse of child and bonded labour in society, says Mr Ahmed.

All Pakistan Workers Confederation President Rubina Jamil says a demonstration will be staged in front of Alhamra on The Mall on May 1 to commemorate the historic struggle of the Chicago martyrs.

She says the government should introduce measures for social and economic uplift of women who constitute more than half of the population, by ensuring equal opportunities of education and employment, elimination of discrimination against them and enforcement of the principle of equal pay for equal work.

Pakistan, she says, has been a signatory to 36 conventions of the International Labour Organisation (ILO). However, the government has yet to formulate laws in conformity with the eight core ILO conventions.

Bonded Labour Liberation Front Pakistan Secretary-General Syeda Ghulam Fatima says a massive rally will be staged outside the Dyal Singh Mansion on The Mall that will pass through Charing Cross and culminate in front of a banquet hall near Mozang Chungi where a seminar will be held.

“Senator Hasil Khan Bizenjo, National Party president, and provincial minister Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman will be key speakers at the seminar on “GSP Plus Status and compliance of labour standards,” she says.

All Pakistan Trade Union Federation Information Secretary Yasir Gulzar says the workers will march from the federation office in Gulberg industrial area up to the Punjab Assembly building against “capitalism and exploitation besides for safe working conditions and dignity of work. May Day is a day to analyse the struggle of workers and trade unions for emancipation and what they gained and what they lost; to think over how to move forward against imperialist and capitalist oppression.”

Published by Daily Dawn on May 1, 2015