A worker has lost his hand while working in the unsafe conditions of Unilever in Rahim Yar Khanu. Management have attempted a cover up by taking the worker to a hospital where no one, including the unions, are allowed to visit him. The PTUDC is raising a campaign of protest.
On 14th April at 11am a worker, Khalil Ahmed, was working inside the Unilever Factory in Rahim Yar Khan when suddenly his hand was sucked into the generator where his three fingers got cut into pieces.
Khalil Ahmed is one of those hundreds of workers who are hired through a contractor but are working inside the factory on meagre wages and without any safety precautions. These contract workers have to work under a barbaric management where they are forced to risk their lives and work in a dangerous environment and for long hours without any overtime pay or benefits. As these workers are not granted any official appointment by Unilever, management super-exploit them and put their lives at risk without any concern to give them any compensation and are unanswerable to any law.
Now this worker Khalil Ahmed is one of many who were injured during working hours in this horrible environment. Works Manager of the factory Shahid Rafique, who is responsible for this incident, on the behest of management is threatening the workers and labour leaders to hide this incident from the media and labour organizations. In his attempt to conceal the brutality of Unilever this worker was not immediately taken to the government hospital but is being treated in a shabby private Ahmadani hospital where the health of worker is under serious threat. Media personnel and activists and leaders of the Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign who want to visit the injured worker are being threatened with dire consequences. Security has been tightened around the private hospital and no one can enter or take pictures of the hospital or the injured worker.
The CBA of the factory which is a pocket [yellow] union is doing its best to extend their loyalty to the management and is betraying the workers once again in this critical situation. It has been a long time since elections were held inside the factory and management is deliberately delaying new elections to use the current CBA in its anti-worker manoeuvres.
All the workers are enraged by this incident and have contacted the PTUDC to support them at this moment. Comrades of the PTUDC have extended full support to the workers of Unilever and have issued a countrywide appeal to support the workers against this brutality. We also call for workers of the world to support the Unilever Workers of Rahim Yar Khan in this critical moment and raise the following demands from the Unilever bosses. If the following demands are not met immediately the PTUDC will start a campaign of protests and demonstrations against Unilever not only in Rahim Yar Khan but in the whole country.
Demands
Immediate sacking of Works Manager Shahid Rafique and all others responsible for this incident;
Media and Labour leaders should be allowed to meet the injured worker and he should be given treatment and compensation from Unilever;
All contract and daily wage workers be made permanent with all benefits and privileges;
Safety precautions should be met according to International Standards and unsafe and oppressive environment inside the factory should be put an end to;
Strict action against CBA union should be taken for their anti-worker activities and new elections should be held immediately.