Workers around the world will be celebrating International Workers’ Day, also known as May Day, today (May 1). Workers in Sri Lanka are no exception. After all, it is their day. This year, May Day is being marked in Sri Lanka amid unprecedented conditions brought about by an economic and political crisis that has culminated in street protests.
May Day has a long history internationally, having begun as a workers’ struggle in Chicago, USA in 1886. Just three years later, May 1, was officially recognised as the International Workers Day, although the US itself now marks the day in September. The calamitous events of 1886 were the catalyst for modern work trends such as the 40-hour week, which some countries have reduced to 35 and even 30.
There has been tremendous progress in the domain of workers’ rights over the intervening 133 years, from better salaries to more comfortable working conditions overall. The establishment of the International Labour Organization (ILO) in 1919 as part of the Treaty of Versailles that ended World War I was a landmark in the global labour movement.
It became a specialised agency of the United Nations (UN) in 1946 and has since presented many labour charters and laws which have been ratified globally. Sri Lanka is a signatory to nearly all ILO charters and laws. For example, child labour has been banned by law in Sri Lanka, whereas it is a sad fact of life in many of our neighbouring countries.
Indeed, the existence of the ILO does not mean that workers have gained all rights in all countries. There are many repressive regimes around the world which have curtailed workers’ rights in defiance of ILO edicts. In Sri Lanka, however, Governments have had a generally healthy relationship with workers and their organisations, better known as trade unions.
But there have been several instances in Sri Lanka where the trade unions have opted for a confrontational stance against the Government of the day. The 1953 Hartal and the July 1980 strike are among them. The latter marked a low point in the relationship between the Government and the trade unions, as the then President J.R. Jayewardene sacked all the public servants who refused to come to work by the deadline he set.
Many Opposition politicians criticised this move back then, but economists and investment analysts pointed out that if the strikers had their way, the Free Trade Zones (FTZs) proposed by President Jayewardene would never have got off the ground. After all, no investor would like to come to a country sans industrial peace.
This is true today, as it was then. Last Thursday’s island-wide strike and hartal by a large number of trade unions in the Government and private sectors severely inconvenienced the general public and more than that, led to losses amounting to billions of rupees in terms of lost productivity and other losses such as fuel wastage by vehicles struck in traffic caused by the jaywalking strikers.
Even the road to the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) in Katunayake was blocked by the protesting strikers. Significantly, they were mostly from the adjacent Katunayake Free Trade Zone (FTZ), which would have sent a chilling message to any investor contemplating investing in any venture here. Tourists too will think twice before visiting Sri Lanka as a result of such shenanigans, coming on top of the adverse travel advisories issued by many Western countries – Sri Lanka’s key tourism market next to India.
Many trade unions are political by their very nature, as they have branched off from the original goal of securing their members’ rights per se. Most trade unions are now openly and officially affiliated to various political parties. Even the so-called professionals’ trade unions with apparently no political affiliations regularly dip their toes in political waters, raising their voice on matters that are totally outside their area of expertise.
And some acts of trade unions can be really detrimental to the economy and the future of the nation – for example, teachers kept away from giving online lessons to students for many months during the pandemic at the behest of their unions fighting for a salary hike. This adversely affected the country’s four million plus student population, who had missed almost two years of in-person schooling due to the pandemic.
In a similar vein, some trade union leaders seem to be taking advantage of the current political impasse to further their own nefarious ends. Instead of assisting the incumbent administration and the political parties to resolve the current political and economic imbroglio in an amicable manner, many trade union leaders are trying to fish in troubled waters to enhance their personal political prospects and fortunes. Trade union leaders must act more responsibly at this crucial juncture with the interests of their members and the public in mind.
All those who toil for the sake of the country, from rural farmers to white collar workers in city offices, have a role to play to extricate the country from the present quagmire. Only hard work and a collective determination to rise from our troubles will deliver results – and salvation – at a time when the country is at crossroads.
The already reeling economy will suffer further, perhaps irreversible blows if there are more work stoppages and strikes in the coming days and weeks. This May Day, this is the main message that should be delivered to workers by both trade unions and political parties. Only a combined effort by all stakeholders will enable Sri Lanka to rise up phoenix-like, defeating the present pessimistic climate.