Pakistan: Workers of Army Sugar Mills in Badin (Sindh) suffer brutal attack Pakistan Share Tweet Workers struggling for the right to have a union at the Army Welfare Sugar Mills in Badin in Pakistan, after getting a court decision that reinstated their union, were met by armed goons hired by the bosses, some of them receiving serious injuries and being hospitalised. After the enforcement of the IRO 2002, the administration of the Army Welfare Sugar Mills in Badin accepted an application for the dismissal of the workers' union in the Hyderabad labour courts. After one and half years, the union had won the case but then the administration appealed the decision in the Sindh High Court. The single bench of the High Court confirmed the decision in favour of dismissal of the workers' union. As a result, the union leadership together with 450 workers were dismissed from their jobs. Most of the workers were seasonal workforce. Later the workers regained their jobs though the positive intervention of the Labour Court. The decision of the High Court in favour of reinstatement of the union was then challenged in the Supreme Court. However, the full bench of the Supreme Court decided on reinstatement of the workers' union on November 3, 2008. Later, union elections were organized and the newly elected leadership asked the administration for the reopening of the union offices but the administration simply refused. The workers' leader met with the DCO on February 6 to discuss this matter and he demanded the mill administration respect the decisions of the Supreme Court but all his efforts were in vain. The workers then contacted the social, political and civil activists and went to the mill in a rally that marched 5 kilometres south of Badin city to the mill. As the rally reached the mill goons and guards hired by the mill administration brutally attacked the workers with rifles, pistols, axes and other dangerous weapons. As the result of this inhuman attack several workers have been badly injured. The names of some of them are given below. Ali Muhammad Shah, secretary general of the union, Shakeel Mahajar, worker (who received bullets in the abdomen and legs), M. Hanif, worker, M. Musa, worker (his head was injured by an axe and he is now in the Intensive Care Unit), Iqbal Bharya, union president (still in the emergency department of the civil hospital). Hundrads of other workers have also been admitted to the civil hospital in Badin. The workers of the PTUDC have visited the injured in the civil hospital and have announced a protest against this attack for February 11.
