Sindh’s labour leaders to attend Punjab Labour Conference

Trade unions and labour support organisations from Sindh will attend a “Punjab Labour Conference” to show solidarity with workers who have recently organised protests demanding rights for the workers in the province.

The Labour Qaumi Movement (LQM), a labour rights group, has been organising the conference in Faisalabad on December 23.

In the meeting of the National Labour Council, a joint body of the labour groups, held at the Karachi Press Club, leaders of various trade union and labour bodies agreed to attend the conference to show solidarity with Punjab’s workers.

Karamat Ali, executive director of the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research, presided over the meeting where participants also agreed to form a national level joint body that will initiate a campaign for the workers’ rights.

The meeting’s participants showed their concerns over the Punjab government’s decision to end labour inspections and termed it dangerous for workers. They also criticised the federal government’s recent policies of privatisation and condemned the retrenchment of 4,544 Pakistan Steel Mills workers.

Habibudin JunaidI of the Peoples Labour Bureau, Nasir Mansoor of the National Trade Union Federation, Saeed Baloch of the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum, Fahim Siddiqui of the Karachi Union of Journalists, Liaquat Sahi of the Democratic Workers Union, SBP, and other labour leaders attended.