Karachi hotel workers occupy

16/03/2010

Author:

Riaz Ahmed

Karachi hotel workers occupy

Hotel workers at the Pearl Continental Hotel in Karachi, Pakistan have been occupying the hotel for three weeks in protest at the sacking of over 100 employees across Pakistan by the chain .

Here is the orignal report from the International Socialists of Pakistan and it is followed by today's update and more details.

Workers Occupy Pearl Continental Hotel, Karachi

By Riaz Ahmed

The following first appeared as on Riaz Ahmed’s Facebook.

Strike: 150 Workers Occupy Karachi PC Hotel

Over 150 workers of -star Karachi hotel Pearl Continental have occupied the basement for the last 8 days. About 50 workers have set up a camp outside the hotel. Armed guards of PC hotel have stopped media and other activists from going into the basement of the hotel. However they can be contacted by mobile. In a rapidly developing strike which started from after the sacking of 4 union activists in Karachi PC, 27 from Pindi PC and 70 from Peshawar (already closed and about to be given to Blackwater). The sacked workers first started protests 24 days ago when they protested at constitution avenue. The managment started negotiations but then backed out and thus the second phase of protests have begun in Rawalpindi PC and Peshawar PC as well.

The strike at PC is the first of such intensity after a long time. Workers have risen up to the bosses and have taken measures which are not common in Pakistani trade union struggle ie occupation. However the bosses of Pearl Continental are billionaire Hashwani group and they managed to blackout news from print and electronic media. Almost all major papers are situated at a 1 km distance from PC Karachi but none of them have reported the occupation by workers.

Two comrades of IS, Asim and Shafiq went to the Karachi PC camp and managed to talk to the occupiers on phone. They report that the occupiers are in high spirits but certainly need a large number of people to express solidarity. Outside the Karachi PC the police attacked the camp on tuesday and arrested the protesters but later released them. The attack has not deterred the protestors neither those occupying inside our those outside. Now the protesters are sitting in the open.

The strikers have asked everyone to assemble at the PC hotel at 12noon on Thursday 4 March 2010 to express solidarity.

PC workers have been fighting sackings since 2001. But the current struggle errupted in an atomosphere where the Pakistani ruling class is on an offensive. Throughout the country they have attacked occupying peasants, protesting clerks and other working class protests. However the occupiers and protesters have not taken the attack laying down. The occuption by PC workers is therefore critical to the struggle of a huge number of working class struggles, that is why the ruling class and its media are united and blocking its spread using all means of violence available to them.

It is important that the news of OCCUPATION is spread as far as possible. We can learn from the expreience of PC workers that the media is ‘free’ to report that which is in the interest of a section of the powerful, otherwise not. So it is up to the working class to mobilize support, propagate and express solidarity with its own means.

Riaz Ahmed International Socialists Karachi

0333-2298922

www.worldtowinpk.net

Today's update

There are still about 140 people left in the basement in their 20th day of protest at the PC. On Sunday evening about 30 to 40 went home due to sickness or some other emergent reason and were not allowed to return to the basement and in their astute attitude the PC management is not budging from their position. The workers’s current demands are basically asking them to come to the negotiating table and do not fire the PC Four.

Since the last few days the PC management has restored to video taping these protesters while they are eating food. These protesters being holed up in the PC basement consume food from the hotel and the management prefers to video tape them eating to humiliate them that – you dare eat our food and then you talk about unions. The Human Resources Director fighting against these protesting workers is a retired Major Zia Jan who came to the PC after busting a union at the Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC). Major Zia recently told the striking workers that they ought to be ashamed of themselves for fighting the PC.

About 17 left-wing parties and labor bodies met today at the Labor Party Pakistan Office today evening and all have unanimously decided to to step up their struggle with the PC workers and chalked out plan to exert more pressure on the PC management to address the issue .

The decisions that were made are as follows

All the representatives will present at NIRC Court tomorrow morning at 10am where PC workers case will be processed [as an NIRC Judge has issued arrest warrant of the four sacked officer bearers today]

Parties and workers’ delegation will visit various media centers and urge them to increase coverage of the PC workers

A protest rally will be held on Wednesday 17th March at 4pm at PC Hotel

Following which a Press conference of all citizens representatives will be held on Thursday 18th March and they will give a three-day ultimatum to PC Management to accept the demands of the workers or else an indefinite hunger strike will be started at Karachi Press Club till the acceptance of demands.

Sign the Pearl Continental Workers’ Occupation Petition. Their demands are simple,

Reinstate the four sacked employees

Recognize the union and

Come to the negotiation table.

Text of the petition:

To: The Hashwani Group

HOW MUCH DOES YOUR STAY AT THE PEARL CONTINENTAL COST YOU?

Because the workers who clean the rooms, make the meals and run the hotel only get Rs. 7800 per month for nine hour shifts each day. And, when they tried to organize a union to fight for their rights, some were fired and others thrown in secret prison on false charges. 150 of them are now occupying the basement of the Pearl Continental Hotel to demand that its owners, the Hashwani Group, abide by the law. This is following an attempt by the PC to fire four workers, all union activists. Food has become scarce while they have been on strike and management has refused to allow outside deliveries to be made.

The current Human Resources Director at the PC is a retired Major Zia Jan who came to the PC after busting a union at the Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC). Major Zia recently told the striking workers that they ought to be ashamed of themselves for fighting the PC.

The workers are being filmed and monitored by security. They are afraid that they will soon be subject to Ranger or police brutality. The families of the workers who protested outside the hotel in solidarity have already been baton-charged by the police.

We, the undersigned, demand that the PC Hotel abide by the law and accept the workers' demands, which are as follows:

1. GIVE US OUR JOBS BACK!

Firing of union activists while negotiations are ongoing is illegal.

2. RECOGNIZE OUR UNION!

The courts already do. Itâ€™s time for the PC to abide by the law.

3. COME TO THE NEGOTIATING TABLE!

The PC refuses to negotiate the charter of demands. The 2002 and 2006 demands are still pending.