Telecom workers’ strike against privatisation

Pakistan:

Telecom workers’ strike against privatisation

THE MUSHARRAF government has launched a massive new privatisation
campaign worth $1.7 billion.

Azad Qadri and Azam Janjuah, TURCP, Islamabad

The centre piece of this programme of looting of state assets is the
Pakistan Telecommunications Company Ltd (PTCL) which makes £263 million
in profit every year. Telecom workers, one of the most radical and class
conscious sections of the public sector in Pakistan, are completely
opposed to its privatisation.

The Socialist Movement (CWI in Pakistan) and the Trade Union Rights
Campaign – Pakistan (TURCP) have played a major role in this struggle.
They have been instrumental in the setting up of an Anti-Privatisation
Committee made up of the nine unions within the industry as well as
proposing a rolling programme of mass meetings and a daily two-hour
strike. These meetings have brought together 41,000 telecom workers all
over the country.

Management has delayed the bidding process three times now as a
result of the action. Obviously no big businessman wants to buy shares
in a company which is on strike! The government is enraged with the PTCL
management and has written to them asking why they have such bad
relations with the unions.

PTCL management wanted to use negotiations to cause divisions amongst
the unions and get them to halt their programme of mass meetings and
daily strikes. But because of the pressure on management they promised
they would accept the demands of the unions on pay scales and bonuses.
However, they said they could not withdraw the privatisation plans and
demanded that the action organised by the unions be called off
immediately before any further discussions. As a result the meeting
broke down.

Workers want to fight to the end. They have practically taken over
the strike. The public meeting on 16 May in Quetta (Baluchistan) showed
the real mood of the workers. 1,500 workers participated, the largest
meeting ever organised in the telecom sector.

Now the daily two-hour strike has spread to every corner of the
country. There were some problems in Karachi in the beginning, because
the MQM (a Karachi-based linguistic political party) was forcing the
leadership not to observe the strike there. But workers refused to
"follow orders" and are now observing the daily two-hour
strike for the last two days.

Impact of material

THE LEAFLET produced by the TURCP has received a tremendous response
nationally. We have received many calls from telecom workers all over
the country. The workers are distributing this leaflet and demanding
more.

The response has been more impressive than we really thought. Workers
are saying that after reading this leaflet they are more determined to
fight against privatisation. Many are saying that it is the first time
they have seen material like this.

The Socialist Movement and TURCP also have launched a campaign of
solidarity meetings to get support from other sections of workers for
the telecom dispute. The first solidarity meeting will be held in
Islamabad on 23 May. Other meetings in Lahore, Multan, Karachi,
Faisalabad, Hyderabad and other cities, will follow.

For more info see www.socialistworld.net