Workers from the Karachi Electric Supply Company in Pakistan
staged demonstrations and a sit-in to protest the company’s massive layoff Jan.
19 of over 4,500 employees. The workers’ only demand was to get their jobs
back.
The massive layoff and outsourcing of the non-technical and
non-management workers’ jobs had been denounced as illegal by the People’s
Workers Union due to the fact that KESC was not facing any solvency problems.
The workers claimed that the attack on their jobs was part of a move to
undermine the union. KESC had offered a separation plan, but it was met with a
“lukewarm” response.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Ishratul Ebad,
governor of Sindh province, established separate committees to resolve the
issue, leading the company to cancel the layoff.
Privatized in 2005, KESC is another example of how businesses
would rather destroy their employees’ lives than give them a say in how the
company is run via a union.
