Railway workers demo for promotion

LAHORE: Members of the Railways Workers Union (CBA) Workshop held a protest on Thursday to demand promotions and service upgrade for diploma-holding engineers and class four railways employees.

They gathered in front of the Mughalpura Superintendent’s office carrying banners and placards. The railway union leaders – president Sakhi Khan, general secretary Rana Saleem and Ashiq Jahangiri – and Peoples Solidarity Forum activist Manzoor Hussain, along with Progressive Students Collective representatives, addressed the protesters calling for an end to the privatisation and bundling of the Pakistan Railways and the oppression of railway workers. They demanded that the railways administration end the 5 per cent salary deduction for housing services.

Addressing the workers, Sakhi Khan said the dignity and morale of workers was on the decline as 30 years of austerity and anti-labour practices in the Pakistan Railways had left the once vibrant and dynamic institution, a shadow of its former self. He said that Railways Minister Saad Rafique had been quoted as saying that the era of attempted-privatization had ended. However, the railways administration has instituted an undercover regime of privatisation and keeps pressing for anti-labour policies such as a permanent freeze on new hiring and promotions.

He said the union was aware of the tactics being used to undermine the workers, and that they were devising a strategy to combat the state’s coercive policies and uphold workers dignity and rights.