Falling short on Labour Day

Most Pakistanis just enjoy the May Day holiday with little care for its significance. The government is probably content with their labour-friendly legislation. The wide gaps in the implementation of these somehow escape their attention. Employers possibly resent it but tolerate it. Workers, however, celebrate Labour Day as well as they can. Today again, workers will meet at multiple platforms to honour the contribution of their class in the production cycle, pay respects to resistance against exploitation and salute sacrifices made 137 years ago by workers in Chicago. The question is, do they still trust that activism will deliver for them? My guess is as good as yours. The situation has never been ideal for workers in Pakistan. If memory serves right, it has never been worse than what it is today. High unemployment and conflicts riddled the weak trade union movement, which had already compromised their bargaining position, leaving them at the mercy of seths (business owners), and a biased system has always been loaded against them.