Report: Work with trade union in District Nowshehra (Pir Sabaq)

25-Sept-2010

Pir Sabaq union council is situated on the bank ofKabul River. The population of union council is about 35000. Pahar Mazdoor Union (Stone CrushingWorkers Union) was established and registered with Labor Department Khyber Pukhtoonkhwa province few years earlier. Now the union has 1400 membership in the area. The stones are used for making marbles and for the construction of the buildings.

During the recent catastrophic floods, the Pahar Mazdoor Union (PMU) workers are playing a vital role for providing relief and rehabilitation work in the Pir Sabaq area. On the third day of the floods, PMU called a meeting to organize the workers of the union for flood relief. They decided to join Labour Relief Campaign committee and started relief works.

Two weeks earlier, some local effectees told to the Labour Relief Committee members that a local landlord of this area is hiding 10 relief goods truck and keeping them in his house. The committee decided to take an action that we will recover these trucks and will distribute among the flood victims through the Labour Relief Committee. They organized some 500 local workers and community people and raided the landlord house, where he was hiding the relief goods.

Police was also there for the protection of the landlord. But the comrades of PMU and LRC didn’t show any weakness before the police. They raised slogans and continue shouting against the landlord and their protectors. Finally they succeeded to get in and brought the relief goods into labour relief campaign camp and distributed among the victims.

IN another incident, the Turkish Red Crescent with the help of Turkish organization Hurreyat launched a project of shelters in the area. They chose an area to set up the camps that was about two kilometer away from the Per Samba village. And they started the shelter camp there. Because of the distance of the shelter camp from the village, the people of Pir Sabaq had problems to live in these shelters. They wanted to rebuilt their houses and to go on foot two kilometer away from the village daily was difficult for the locals. LRC decided to demand for stopping making shelters over there and organized some demos and interviewed to some local channels also. This put pressure on the Turkish organization and they agreed to stop making shelters in a distance place. The locals demanded that they should provide the shelters on their own house land. Now negotiations are going on with the Turkish organization.

Labor Relief Campaign with the help of trade union organized the demos in front of District Coordination Officer (DCO) office Nowshehra twice and demanded for fare distribution of relief goods and also exposed the involvement of the DCO with local landlords and industrialists that was paving the way for corruptions in relief works.

Now PMU with the help of National Trade UnionFederation and Labour Party Pakistan is to organize demos for the restoration of their jobs. The Pahar Mazdoor Union workers are working in local area hills. The mine owners have  closed the mines. For the last two months the workers are jobless because they were working on daily wages. Now they are starting campaign against the mines owner and lease holders.

These are the few successful stories of LRC in Khyber Pukhtoonkhwa province during the last few weeks.

Now the trade union of the area fully involved in a relief works with the labour relief campaign. 

Farooq Ahmad

Coordinator

Labour relief Compaign KP