Pakisthan Workers struggles

Paramedics demonstrate in Lahore

Services Hospital paramedics in Lahore protested for several hours outside the hospital on April 12 to demand employment regularisation and implementation of an approved service structure. The Punjab Paramedical Staff Association has called a meeting for April 21 to decide on further action.

The protest is part of a two-year campaign by an alliance of Punjab paramedics. The alliance claims that the government has shelved their service structure case, which would have guaranteed promotions and financial incentives for more than 90,000 paramedics and other government employees. It also failed to regularise the services of contract and daily wage employees, as promised in negotiations last year.

Pakistani utility workers demonstrate against privatisation

Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) workers held rallies in Pakistan’s major cities on April 9 against the proposed privatisation of public sector entities. In Lahore they were joined by workers from other government-owned utilities, such as the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited, Pakistan Railways and Pakistan International Airlines.
Organised by the All Pakistan Wapda Hydro Electric Workers Union, the demonstration is part of a long-running national campaign against privatisation. Under the International Monetary Fund’s directive, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government has made privatisation of public sector utilities a priority.
The union campaign is restricted to limited strikes, protests and other techniques aimed at wearing workers down and preventing genuine unified industrial and political action by all public sector workers against privatisation and the government’s social austerity demands.