Workers sweat through Labour Day

Express Tribune

01-05-2025

Poverty-stricken daily wage workers continued to earn their livelihood in the scorching heat in the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad despite the observance of International Labour Day across the globe including Pakistan on Thursday.
All government offices, educational institutions, and courts remained closed to mark the occasion. However, for the working class, particularly daily wage labourers, the holiday was of little significance.
Throughout the cities, they continued their hard labour, striving to earn enough to feed themselves and their children.
In the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad, labourers could be seen toiling in alleyways and on construction sites, carrying heavy loads of bricks, cement, and sand on their frail shoulders from morning until evening. No one offered them a day off, free meals, or even a guaranteed daily wage in the honour of Labour Day.
Wholesale markets dealing in vegetables and fruits were bustling, with labourers loading and unloading sacks of produce onto trucks. Local and large-scale factories that produce snacks like roasted chickpeas, peanuts, and namak paray remained open. In blistering heat and intense fire, workers continued to roast snacks and prepare food items without respite or recognition.
In areas like Pirwadhai, laborers worked in oil factories, melting animal fat over strong flames, again without any provision of free meals or acknowledgement of the holiday. Markets across the city—especially Raja Bazaar, Dingi Khoi Chowk, Pul Shah Nazar Chowk, Haathi Chowk, Saddar, Tench Bhatta Chowk, and Adiala Road—were filled with daily wagers.
Painters, carpenters, stone breakers, and excavation workers sat from 6am to 3pm, tools in hand—shovels, saws, hammers, brushes—waiting for the chance to earn a living. While some managed to find work, hundreds waited in vain and returned home in the evening without a single rupee earned.
Meanwhile, Labour Day rallies featured government employees and union officials dressed in neatly pressed cotton suits and waistcoats, delivering lofty speeches about workers' rights. Ironically, the real labourers—the ones pulling carts through markets under heavy loads—were left watching from the sidelines, muttering under their breath as they passed blocked roads where these rallies were taking place.
Many of these labourers dismissed Labour Day as nothing but a farce. Rafiq Ahmed, a 45-year-old daily wage worker waiting at Raja Bazaar Chowk, said, "What is Labour Day to us? What benefit do we get from it? Will anyone give us a free meal or even half a day's wage today? Just look around—hundreds of us sit here waiting for work. Those who earn in the millions mock us with their Labour Day rallies. Not one real labourer attends those events. A real worker has to choose between joining a rally and feeding his children. If we don't get work, we have to beg just to feed our families."
Fayyaz Abbasi, who was seen roasting chickpeas in the scorching heat at the Ganjmandi snack factory, said, "Since 9am this morning, we've been working by an open flame. No owner has ever given us a day off for Labour Day. Until the real labourers of Pakistan are happy and secure, these Labour Day celebrations are nothing more than staged events and opportunities for the elite to advance their own interests."
He added that political leaders, union heads, and business owners continue to use workers' names to serve their own agendas.