May Day eclipse of the worker

J. T. Roshantha FERNANDO

WORKERS’ RIGHTS: With far reaching political and economic changes and politicisation of Trade Unions it is timely on “May Day” to consider the impact on the worker and the whole Trade Union Movement. In Sri Lanka it has been the order of successive governments and trade unions to celebrate May Day with pomp and pageantry, but with no significant gains to the working classes.

Speaking of workers’ rights each May Day dawns and passes proving a farce which ridicules the working class. While workers in other countries rejoice, take stock of their achievements and celebrate May Day.

Universal significance

May Day universally accepted as the Workers’ Day would be celebrated with the usual processions, slogan shouting and rally just for one day the workers will display their longings and expectations and then on the morrow they will return to their mundane work forgetting the euphoria that marked the May Day which highlights the dignity of labour the world over.

The vital importance of labour to the well-being of society will inevitably be spotlighted in Sri Lanka. Workers today, more than at any other time are victims of the upheaval which occurs in the economic order of work and the politicisation of Trade Unions.

The globalisation that is taking place today is a continuation of the industrial revolution which ushered in the modern era where tremendous technological development has gradually reduced the worker to a mere economic factor.

The worker has become merely a cog, a commodity whose only value is calculated on the profit margin.

Form of the celebrations

When we consider the form and the manner of the celebrations and the various slogans, speeches and platitudes that will be expressed at the various rallies and demonstrations one wonders how much of the significance of the workers’ rights and responsibilities will permeate the mind of those who will participate in the various May Day celebrations.

Divisive politics

Divisive political issues rather than the question of worker welfare are likely to dominate May Day speeches and tirades. This of course is a far cry from what May Day ought to be for; the traditional focus of May Day is the working class and its interest.

Trade Unions came into existence in an atmosphere of hostility from Employers and Governments. With the passage of time, however it came to be tolerated due to necessity.

With the strengthening of Trade Union movements, toleration changed to partnership this situation has since changed. Politicisation unionism, multiplicity of unions, disunity and decline of trade union power has all resulted in the workers losing the initiative and bargaining power.

It is an irony in a country with over hundred years of Trade Unionism and 95% literacy, outsiders continues to manipulate the destinies of the workers. These self appointed protagonists are politicians or followers of some decadent ideology and use Trade Unions to climb to power to preserve the positions they already hold.

While for seven decades Trade Unions in the country have celebrated May Day, the event does not have the dynamic importance it should have for the worker itself. It tends to be the occasion for slogan singing, rallies and processions with political emphasis.

May Day is essentially a workers’ day and strictly speaking, it should be celebrated as an occasion that signifies the emancipation and beginning of a worker movement to secure its place in the sun.

Worker expectations

This year May Day dawns at a very crucial time with the United Progressive Alliance installed in power about a year ago and with the high expectations of the trade unions on the background of the strong pledges afforded in the UPFA manifesto and during the elections, setting out the meaningful relief measures and benefits to the workers in Sri Lanka.

This year the May Day will be of much significance to both the Trade Unions and the Workers.

I However in view of the impact of the Essential Services Act and Prevention of Terrorism Act on the Trade Union activities, the question on most perceptive observers lips will no doubt be to what extent would be making the May Day relevant and memorable to the workers of this country and to what degree would issues pertaining to labour taken up and championed on May Day?

Essential Services Act

The impact of the Essential Services Act and Prevention of Terrorism Act will inevitably be focused at the various meetings. Apart from this there will be no tangible effort to deal with the real issues affecting the average worker.

Workers’ plight

Trade Unionism in Sri Lanka indicate a rather tragic situation where our workers have shown a readiness to align themselves to political parties which mean that they depend largely on the swing of the political pendulum to get what they want.

There is total dependence on the party and also its fortune which make them political animals, without the strength to fight their battles on their own. The sooner our workforces learn to fight their battles on their own the less dependent they would be on the politician to obtain their legitimate rights.

Apart from the problems directly connected with their work, their living conditions leave much to be desired. Their housing, living costs, children’s schooling and many other problems reduce their living to a miserable experience.

Adding to their woes are the periodic disturbances and upheavals caused by political and communal conflicts that make their conditions worse.

Insignificance of the worker

May Day is no longer a Workers’ Day. It does not belong to the workers anymore. Politicians and political parties have taken over May Day; workers are merely going behind political rallies and demonstrations expressing their disunity.

While May Day was earlier intended to show worker solidarity against exploitation and their willingness to fight their rights, it is used today by political parties to show their respective strengths.

The workers have lost their grip and are mere political pawns in the hands of political parties is quite apparent in the manner May Day has been celebrated in recent years.

The usurpation and invasion of May Day by political parties had virtually driven away the real workers and genuine leaders from the May Day scene. May Day is a time for stocktaking; it has been the order of successive governments to celebrate May Day with pomp and pageantry.

There is however no significant gains to the workers. How can we boast of any significant victories for the working people of this country given the bleak backdrop?

Ironically the so called Trade Unions which are so active in politics today represent middle class interest. Take the case of the Government Doctors, Engineers, Station Masters.

All this is a reflection of current social dynamics. The middle classes are wielding disproportionate power and they are mobilizing more effectively than the working class.

There is, of course on and off industrial unrest of the classical kind. But what has the working class per se achieved in contrast to the middle class based agitations which are increasingly achieving their ends by holding the people to ransom.

A case in point is the manner in which Doctors extracted their recent demands. There is some truth in the assertion that once a Lankan worker achieves middle or lower class status through the process of upward social mobility, he sets about “consolidating his gains rather than keep the avenues open for the social and economic uplift of his erstwhile colleagues among the masses.”

Workers rights

Rights are often ignored in order to attract foreign investment; low wages are often used as the bait. We see this happening in the Free Trade Zone of Katunayake and Biyagama in many garment factories and industrial foreign investment factories where the unskilled and semi skilled workers are often paid a pittance.

The hire and fire system, the contractual system and outsourcing of labour have made the worker reluctant to express their dissatisfaction and in an economy where unemployment is an ever increasing frightening prospect few workers have temerity to make demands.

The workers in this scheme of globalisation become the first victim of an economic policy of expansion in profit making.

The development of the market economy with its emphasis on free trade, the economic themes of globalisation and liberalisation have in no way increased the quality of life of the worker in third world economies. This we see in situations the workers of our country face.

The structural requirements of the World Bank and the IMF the liberalisation and industrial concerns and the removal of many welfare measures and subsidies have made the worker not only totally dependent on his meager earnings, but also has increased in him fears of redundancy and a golden handshake with no support systems to sustain him.

In fact this has been said that globalisation and liberalisation have brought into the third world countries the concept that the rich have the freedom to get richer and the poor the freedom to get poorer.

The elite develop a luxury lifestyle while the worker faced with ever increasing cost of living, which again is a result of the market economy, does not even have the basic facilities to live in marginal comfort.

Labour rights

State and Private Sector have often violated labour rights. Both the State and Private Sector have often violated.

Labour rights over the years with impunity, while some so called labour leaders make made workers pawns in a political game. A glaring example was the 1980 General Strike.

Despite the strong pledges afforded by successive governments to the unions and the workers the Governments have no alternative, but to do a tight rope walk- a balancing act between attracting foreign investment and ensuring labour rights.

How this can be done is a moot point. Looking back, we could figure out with sufficient, justification that the major ethics of worker interest began with the political resurgence of the UNP in 1977. That was the time the economy was liberated as never before and the “Robber Barons” given the green light to operate with impunity.

Outsourcing

The indiscreet use of strikes has resulted in increasing number of business enterprises today “outsourcing labour” and obtaining the services of labour contractors to provide staff to perform core and ancillary functions.

“Outsourcing” has resulted in workers been underpaid and deprived of some legitimate entitlement.

Sri Lankan workers should be considered in a fool’s paradise to gleefully gulp all the utterances fired by those Marxist Leftists which has been most damaging as while the employers granting what they demand, the ultimate result in some cases has been the employer deciding to close down the factories and the workplace whereby the workers lose their livelihood.

It is prudent therefore on a day like this for trade union leaders to reflect on this matter and take appropriate steps to enable these workers, organisations to operate principally for the benefit of employees.

The history of this country is replete with instances when political parties have left the workers high and dry after having used them for political purposes.

There was indeed a time when workers need assistance of politicians and political parties.

Today as an organised section of the people in the country, trade unions have a responsibility to make their contributions towards fashioning the country’s political, economic and social structure.

The principle” See, Judge and Act” should be the guiding force to provide the much required leadership the worker needs , so that feed from political parameters, workers can unite not only to achieve their rights but also realize their responsibilities to the community.