Wage today, gone tomorrow
The daily wagers Kolachi spoke to are having difficulty in coming to terms with the reality of job market after enjoying the economic boom years of 2002-06 
By Saad Hasan
It has been 15 days since 30-year-old Muhammad Ismail last found any small-time house repair job. With his rusted shovel, hammer, trowel and some other tools, he waits everyday from dawn to dusk, in hope that someone will buy his labour. But as economy grinds to a halt, there is hardly any work.

Despite the fact that the process of industrialisation in Pakistan is as old as the country itself, governmental spending on labour has been negligible - a fact that is reflected by the poor labour conditions, said Masood Alam, one of the pioneers of the Federal 'B' Industrial Area.

Alam, and others in the same profession, have witnessed the impact of a lack of investment in the development of labour. The resultant paucity of skilled labour in the market did not allow the industry to mature, a phenomenon being gravely felt at the capitalists' end.

"It is very difficult to find a good technician in industries. The percentage of technicians in the pool of labour is so poor, only one person of out 100 labourers meets the criterion of what a qualified technician should be," said Idrees Gigi, former chairman of the Federal 'B' Area Association of Trade and Industry (FBAATI).

"You cannot improve labour efficiency and industrial production unless you improve labour education and skill training," he maintained. "It is well known that labour efficiency in Pakistan is low. Health, education and skill development are the three major impediments that hinder labour growth, which in turn badly affects the country's industrial production."

The story of Federal 'B' Industrial Area is bedded in the country's need for more industrial zones, explained 77-year-old Alam. The government strategy at the time was to encourage the industrialisation of Karachi, and various measures to bolster industry were taken. The government initially provided cheap industrial land to establish the SITE industrial area, and over the course of time, industries started sprawling in the city. The need for more industrial zones was acutely felt, and other zones were gradually established, he narrated.

Karachi had undergone enormous demographical changes during the late 1940s and 1950s, when thousands of refugees made their way to the city. Many of them had no experience of running industries or even doing business, Alam described. This meant that while there were few who had any experience of setting up and running industry, there certainly were a large number of people interested in business.

"It was in the early 1960s when I bought a piece of industrial land in Federal 'B' Industrial Area. At that time, there were no facilities there to attract business - no power or water was available there. Land, however, was very cheap in the industrial areas, as cheap as Rs4 per square yard. This attracted businessmen to the industrial zones in the early days. Secondly, industrialisation was also motivated by the close proximity of workers' residences to the industrial area," Alam said.

Despite the fact that a paradigm shift in attitudes was required to successfully conduct business, Alam had the tenacity to emerge successful, with his product 'Rahbar Cooler' becoming a household brand. Government assistance to the nascent industrial base was remarkable in the early years, but slowly, the situation started to deteriorate.

"We have suffered a lot because of the weak infrastructure in the country. Advanced countries have industrial parks which are equipped with state-of-the-art infrastructure, which we do not have. Foreign buyers also avoid coming here because of the weak infrastructure," Alam said.

The absence of patronage to the industrial sector also extended to the labour half of the productive process. "There is not a single dispensary or school for labour in Federal 'B' Industrial Area, despite the fact that huge funds are being collected from industries to provide basic facilities to labour," Gigi told Kolachi.

"The government-run system for labour welfare is full of loopholes, and it provides an easy way for bureaucratic vultures to mint money at the cost of labour health and social security," he said. "The system is exploitative to the core, as the funds collected are lost to the bureaucratic system, and it is seldom spent on health and education of deserving people who work in industries. Millions of rupees are lost in the dubious money collection process for labour welfare, and the end beneficiary is not poor labour," he alleged.

Gigi highlighted the fact that India and Bangladesh had progressed phenomenally in providing the facilities of health and to their labour, but in Pakistan, labour welfare has always been neglected by successive governments. He added that public institutions such as the Sindh Employees' Social Security Institution (SESSI) and the Employees Old Age Benefit Institution (EOBI) were created for the welfare of labour, but their performances had been far from satisfactory.

The fundamental factor in the improvement of skill sets is undoubtedly education, Gigi said, with other countries in the region doing better in comparison because of better education facilities for labour in the public sector. "Government schooling is pathetic in Pakistan. Even those fortunate enough to successfully complete their basic education find it difficult to operate the latest computerised machinery. Educated labour is necessary for today's industry, as every new machine that comes into the market is equipped with a newer version of computerised systems," he elaborated.

"The basic problems of our labour are unchanged," said Alam. "Problems such as health care and basic education still persist, making it difficult for labour to make both ends meet. The problems of labour are fast deteriorating due to unprecedented inflation in the country," he concluded.

--The News photos by Zahid Rahman

Excerpts from Dr Kamran Asdar Ali's anthropological study 'The strength of the street meets the strength of the State: the 1972 labour struggle In Karachi'

On 10 February 1972, the newly-installed president and civilian martial-law administrator of Pakistan, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, addressed the nation to present the salient features of his government's new labour policy. As Bhutto laid out the details of workers' benefits, he also warned them of dire consequences if they did not refrain from participating in "lawless behaviour." He asked the working class to desist from its "Gherao" and "Jelao" (encirclement and burning) politics; "otherwise," he raged, "the strength of the street will be met by the strength of the state."

 A few months later, Bhutto's government fulfilled his threat. [...]

 The confrontation... came on 7 June, 1972. It was payday at the Feroz Sultan textile mill in the SITE area. The mill's management refused to pay the labourers back pay that was a month overdue and their portion of the workers' participation fund, citing the unavailability of funds. Instead, the mill owners declared the mill closed--a lockout. 

This mill's management, like that of several others, had a particularly confrontational relationship with its increasingly militant trade union. The workers, angry over the lack of payment, encircled the mill, confined the executives to their offices inside, and started putting pressure on them to come to terms. The management called the police, who used tear gas to disperse the workers. The police then locked the gates, confining a large number of workers inside the factory; they also arrested fourteen persons for illegally confining the management staff. The workers regrouped and other labourers joined them from nearby factories and workers' residential colonies.  

By late afternoon, about 5,000 people had encircled the factory, demanding the release of their comrades and asking that the factory doors be opened so the workers could come out. Some workers also started throwing stones at the police contingent at the factory gates. The police then opened fire, claiming that they had been fired on. Official reports accounted for three dead and scores injured, including three policemen. Two bodies were retrieved by the police, and the third was taken away by the retreating workers.

The very next day, the funeral procession for the third worker was taken from the labour colonies near the Benaras Chowk... A police contingent waiting at the roundabout stopped the procession from proceeding. In retaliation, the workers raised slogans. The police then fired tear-gas shells to disperse the crowd. The crowd reacted by pelting the police with stones. The police force retreated, regrouped, and then opened fire as the marchers walked onto the main road, killing ten people and injuring dozens.

Eyewitnesses told me that the scene was total mayhem, with people running everywhere to avoid the barrage of bullets. According to estimates, the shooting went on for about a half-hour. Two people I spoke to recalled seeing several bodies with their heads blown away, showing that the police were not merely dispersing the crowd but were taking aim at people to kill. Another informant remembered counting seven dead bodies. This filled him with extreme rage, and he wanted to keep walking with the funeral even though he could have been injured or even killed.

In an editorial, an [...] English-language daily condemned the incident by reporting that the shooting was not only prolonged but also indiscriminate, as some people were killed and injured at great distance from where the clash with the labourers had happened. A journalistic account from the Urdu press describes the immediate aftermath of the incident in the following terms:

"As the firing ended some of us reached Frontier colony where most of the deceased and injured lived. People were extremely angry... [A] middle-aged man, Saifur Rahman who also owns a hotel in Frontier Colony pleadingly asked us, "Was Pakistan created for this reason, so that the police could play with the lives of the poor?" The children and relatives of the dead were uncontrolled in their grief, and one only heard wailing and crying all over the colony.

These two incidents on two consecutive days created a wild-fire strike in all the labour areas of the city, and industrial production in the SITE area and Landhi-Korangi area came to a halt for twelve days. More than 900 units were closed while workers wore black badges and red and black flags flew from nearly all factories in Karachi. The impact was felt all over the county; workers went on strike in many industrial units in Hyderabad, Sind, and other parts of the province. In Punjab, trade-union leaders organised protest marches, and their offices flew black flags to show their solidarity with their comrades in Karachi.

The author is associate professor at the Department of Anthropology, University of Texas at Austin.

In a country where even promulgated labour laws are flouted by employers, workers should, in theory, be able to fight from the collective platform of a labour or trade union. The history of the trade union movement in Pakistan, however, is mired with tales of suppression, both by employers and the State -- not just during military dictatorships, but also during the tenures of democratically-elected governments.

Anti-labour laws

More anti-trade union laws were put into the statute books during the eight years of Gen. (retd) Pervez Musharraf's rule, than at any other time in the preceding 53 years of Pakistan's history. "In terms of attacking workers' rights, Musharraf [left] Margaret Thatcher, and the anti-trade union legislation that she implemented in Britain, in the dust," according to a pamphlet distributed in January 2008 by the Trade Union Rights Campaign-Pakistan (TURC-P). 

Due to these anti-trade union laws, which were not only promulgated, but also viciously implemented, only three per cent of the current workforce in Pakistan is organised in officially-recognised trade unions, according to the TURC-P. This figure rises to over 20 per cent if one includes members of unions that the government and employers refuse to recognise. 

The law states that trade unions can only be legally recognised in an organisation with more than 50 workers. To get around this legislation, large companies usually keep less than 50 workers on permanent contracts, and then employ hundreds or even thousands as "temporary" or "contract" workers, who are unprotected by labour laws.

Conversely, in the public sector, over 80 per cent of the workforce is unionised. These workers, however, are barred from joining political parties or standing for elections, or even participating in political campaigns.

Divide and rule 

The labour movement of Pakistan reached a zenith in the 30-odd years between the 1950s and the 1970s. In collaboration with the left-wing Democratic Students Federation (DSF), and then the National Students Federation (NSF), the workers of Pakistan organised themselves into strong bodies of resistance to oppression from employers and the State.

Ironically, the NSF was promulgated by Field Marshal Ayub Khan, after banning the DSF for alleged anti-State activities. Eventually, however, members from the banned DSF entered the newly-formed NSF, and turned it more militantly Left-wing than the old student federation. 

After the ouster of Z.A. Bhutto in 1977 by Gen. Ziaul Haq, a new policy of "Islamisation" was put into place, ostensibly to counter the USSR's influence in Afghanistan. This policy was also made to trickle down to the lowest levels of workers' unions in Pakistan, and several "Islamic" trade unions were formed either by the State or employers, or both.

Breaking what was essentially a secular movement along the lines of religion proved disastrous. Remnants of these "Islamic" unions still exist in various organisations, and while they do not wield much power politically, they are, however, often involved in violence against religious minorities. One such incident was reported a year or so ago in Korangi, where a Hindu worker was lynched for alleged blasphemy. Other similar cases come to light with alarming regularity in the media.

Participation of women

Another major issue that the labour movement in Pakistan is yet to deal with is the lack of participation of female workers. Most trade unions have turned into what may well be referred to as "boys' clubs". Even where women attend meetings, their presence is mainly to fulfil token "quotas." Many of them are unaware of their own rights as workers, and leave it to the male leadership to make decisions for them.

Even the Pakistan Trade Union Federation (PTUF), formerly run by the once-formidable Kaneez Fatima, has fallen victim to this. On a positive note, while the leadership of many trade and labour unions seems largely unconcerned about these issues, grassroots workers do recognise this gender imbalance. "We keep asking the women to participate in strikes and sit-ins, but they get intimidated by the large number of men at these events," a worker at the strike camp set up in 2008 in Lahore by the Pakistan Telecommunication Limited (PTCL) had said. "We have explained all the issues that we are fighting for to them, and they agree with us. Maybe they will agree to protest publicly if they see more women around from other organisations as well." 

  No democracy for protesting workers

Apart from the religion card, various other means have been used by those in power to suppress workers' movements. For instance, many old political activists from Karachi tell hair-raising tales of State-oppression during the era of Z.A Bhutto. "In those days, protest rallies organised by workers and unions used to be huge. We could cover all of Shershah with people and red flags," Zafar Aslam, a central committee member of the Communist Mazdoor Kissan Party, told Kolachi. "During one of these rallies in SITE, workers were brutally attacked by the police and shot at. Many died."

The funeral for those who died in this attack was organised the next day, and thousands of workers participated in it. "Even this funeral procession was attacked by the police, and many workers died again," Aslam said.

Pressuring the media into silence, either directly through threats, or indirectly through suppression of ad revenue, is also one of the tactics employed by governments and employers in Pakistan to silence workers' unions. "It is ironic how employers use the money that we earn for them, to give ads to newspapers, and then use the same ads to silence our voices in the mainstream media," a trade union leader lamented at a press conference after his group's protests against a large, multinational organisation went unheeded.

Post-February 18, 2008 

Soon after the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) came to power through the February 18, 2008, elections, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani announced that the ban on workers' and students' unions will be lifted. While this announcement was much appreciated by all quarters concerned, several major unions still remain banned, either completely or partially; some are even brutally suppressed.

A recent protest by PTCL workers in Islamabad faced violence at the hands of the State machinery. Several protestors -- mostly employees of the PTCL -- were beaten up by the police, and at least the first two tiers of the leadership were jailed, despite the fact that the protest had been extremely peaceful, and not a single stone was cast by the aggrieved workers who were demanding their lawful rights.

The Pakistan Railways Workers' Union (RWU), once the bastion of the labour movement in Pakistan, is also faced with a similar fate. After the promulgation of an Ordinance during the second tenure of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief, Nawaz Sharif, activities of the RWU were severely curbed, on the grounds that it was a threat to security and defence. This partial ban has not been lifted yet, despite several protests and court cases from the union members, Manzoor Razi, a leader of the union, told Kolachi.

What next? 

Unity among workers, regardless of religion, caste, or colour is the only thing that will give strength to the workers' rights movement, Sindh Haari Porhiat Council (SHPC) head Punhal Sario said during a recent convention of landless peasants. "Workers have to give up reliance on leadership from outside. Only a movement begun by the working class -- including urban workers and the peasantry -- and run by them will solve their issues," he maintained. "Organisational chauvinism is also a major problem, as is the lack of general awareness of the gender question. All of these will have to be addressed, before we can even begin to think of a strong working class movement in Pakistan."

Shahida Khatoon spent nearly thirty years of her life stitching, seaming and weaving in a garment factory. Her wages were meagre, and sometimes in the form of daily remunerations, but nevertheless essential for her as she was the sole breadwinner of her family. Some three months ago, the garment factory closed down its business, and Shahida has been unemployed ever since. "It is very difficult to get employment nowadays, even as a daily wager," she lamented.  

Women who toil in factories mostly belong to illiterate families, and who are forced by poverty to come out of their homes and work, Hosiery Garment Textile Workers General Union of Sindh General Secretary Rehana Yasmeen told Kolachi. "Workers are leading the lives of slaves here. Women are the lowest-paid workers – they earn just Rs 4,000, which is less than the minimum wage set by law," she said.

The absence of appropriate law for female labour also translates into employers not signing any contracts or appointment letters with women, claims a report titled 'Denial and Discrimination: Labour Rights in Pakistan' which was published in 2007 by Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (Piler). Despite the fact that that women labour force has increased since the last few years, no special laws exist in Pakistan that pertain to equal remuneration for both men and women, and consequently, women workers are under-paid in relation to their male counterparts, added the report.

The report argued that the lack of access to resources, including property and credit, and deprivation of public goods (such as information and legal rights) increases women's vulnerability in both the private and the public sphere.

Despite low remunerations and the absence of transportation facilities, many women choose to quietly bear the conditions they work in, said Yasmeen. "There are no jobs available for women, but many don't raise their voice simply out of the fear that they'll lose their jobs. If they don't have a job, they won't even make whatever little they do right now."

Shahida agreed that daily wages are not commensurate to the amount of hard work and energy put in. She had worked in a carpet-weaving factory for 12 years, before making the switch to the garment factory some three years ago, and both experiences did not reap rich financial benefits.

At the factory which shut down, Shahida's job was to crop the extra bits of thread in manufactured shirts. Despite the fact that she worked for 12 hours every day, the daily wage was solely dependent on the number of shirts she produced – something she was not entirely in control of. "The wages I earned varied and depended on the workload. Sometimes I would earn Rs120. On other days, when there was less work, I was only able to earn Rs50. In a single month, I would be able to make about Rs3,000, but not more," she said.

While financial exploitation is more obvious, the issue of harassment is rampant. "Women labourers are sexually harassed in factories and workplaces. However, they are reluctant to share their experiences even with their own people, again, because they are fearful of losing their jobs. They are also threatened by their owners and trade merchants to not speak against crimes committed against women," explained Yasmeen.

A worker at an air-filter factory, situated in North Karachi Industrial Area, told Kolachi on condition of anonymity that a young woman recently injured her hand while working on a machine, but the factory didn't compensate her and she lost her hand. "There were about 150 of us, but we could not say a word to protect her rights," she said.

Yasmeen has been a witness to all such excesses, given her experience of working at the towel-producing United Factory for two years. "Till today, a sickening environment prevails in factories; women are assaulted, and no one is willing to raise voices against them. Younger female labourers are usually preferred, as men take advantage of them, by wooing them to their offices, offering them tea and indulging in immoral activities. To escape from these heinous, unspoken crimes, these females simply change their jobs. In contrast, older women labourers are looked down upon, and are fired from their jobs for the smallest of things," Yasmeen said.

 "When I used to work, I spent my days in the factories, and nights doing my household chores," Shahida said. "Life is difficult now, as one cannot make do in this age of inflation with such a meagre amount of money."