Labor

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/5872395

Thousands of power loom, textile, and kiln workers across Punjab’s industrial hubs of Faisalabad and Gujranwala have sustained protests since late July 2025, demanding the implementation of Pakistan’s increased minimum wage and urgent improvements to their working conditions.

The demonstrations, met with illegal factory lockouts by owners, mark a critical standoff between labor and capital in the region’s vital textile sector. 

The unrest follows Punjab’s June 2025 budget announcement, which included a revised minimum monthly wage of Pakistani rupee 40,000 (140 US dollars). 

Though considered highly inadequate by unions which had demanded a minimum wage of PKR 70,000 (245 US dollars), workers report persistent resistance from factory owners and local authorities toward implementing even the promised wage, a pattern compounded by deteriorating workplace safety and withheld benefits. This systemic non-compliance ignited the current wave of workers’ mobilization. 

The workers, particularly in Faisalabad’s power loom sector, which employs roughly 25% of Pakistan’s textile workforce, endure severe conditions: 

Insufficient wages, often below PKR 15,000 per month12-hour shiftsHazardous working conditions plagued by electrical faults, fire risks, and absent safety protocols

Many are denied social security registration, blocking access to healthcare, pensions, and injury compensation, while kiln workers face a form of bonded labor through coercive advance payments.

Workers fight back after owners slash wages 30%

The immediate trigger came in July, when factory owners in Faisalabad and Gujranwala unilaterally slashed wages by 20-30%, citing global market pressures, while further neglecting safety and social security obligations. 

Workers swiftly mobilized under the leadership of established labor organizations, the Labour Qaumi Movement (LQM), founded in 2003 to combat exploitation, and Haqooq-e-Khalq Party (HKP), a leftist socialist party of Pakistan. 

Mass protests paralyzed industrial zones by mid-July. In Faisalabad, workers blockaded key corridors, chanting “Kam do ya jaan do!” (Give work or give death!), crystallizing five core demands: 

Implementation of the legal minimum wageMandatory social security registrationImmediate factory safety overhaulsAbolition of bonded laborFormal union recognition

Factory owners retaliated with a lockout of over 300 factories in Faisalabad, chaining gates, freezing wages, and barring workers, a move later declared illegal by the labor court. Outcomes diverged sharply between cities. 

In Gujranwala, weeks of strikes and protests forced local authorities to broker a provisional agreement, reversing the wage cuts and committing to address other demands. Strengthened by this victory, Faisalabad’s protests escalated.

Since August 1 to date, hundreds of workers, including significant numbers of women and children, have maintained continuous protests outside the Faisalabad Deputy Commissioner’s office, demanding state intervention. 

Leading the effort is Baba Latif Ansari, LQM chairman and HKP Punjab president. Ansari, a former religious activist who redefined “jihad” as workplace justice and survived a 2014 assassination attempt by factory owners, today bridges grassroots mobilization with legal strategy for workers in Faisalabad. 

The HKP amplifies the struggle nationally, challenging lockouts in courts and framing demands for state action against exploitation. Internationally, Punjab’s workers embody a global fight for dignity, resonating with global movements. A victory here could inspire marginalized workers across the Global South supply chains. 

As of August 12, Gujranwala workers are monitoring their agreement’s implementation while Faisalabad’s protests persist. 

The provincial government faces a pivotal choice: enforce labor laws and ensure wage implementation or endorse the owners’ illegal tactics. The workers’ resolve echoes the cry of an LQM organizer: “Toh Hum kya chahte? Azadi!” (What do we want? Freedom!).

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/5765833

A group of United Auto Workers members is seeking to oust President Shawn Fain ahead of an election next year, a sign of frustration among some in the two years since the labor group secured landmark contracts with U.S. automakers.

Workers at a Stellantis NV truck factory in suburban Detroit and an engine plant in southeast Michigan voted over the weekend to start the union’s process to remove its leader, said two UAW members involved with the effort. The votes join earlier ones by four other local UAW chapters, reaching the threshold needed for Fain’s opponents to bring allegations of financial mismanagement, workplace retaliation and other issues against him to the federal monitor overseeing the union for potential discipline.

Representatives for Fain and the UAW didn’t respond to requests for comment.

The move increases pressure on Fain, the bombastic labor leader who led a 2023 strike against Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co. and Stellantis that helped secure significant wage gains for workers. Fain won a close runoff earlier that year, the first direct vote by union members in the UAW’s 90-year history.

Now, ahead of the union’s next leadership elections in 2026, Fain is facing blowback from some members for layoffs at Stellantis factories, claims he retaliated against two fellow board members who disagreed with him and accusations that the union has mismanaged its funds.

“I supported Shawn, but his spending is out of control and he’s retaliatory,” David Pillsbury, a worker at GM’s Flint, Mich., truck plant who started the petition to remove Fain, said in an interview. “The transparency Shawn promised hasn’t happened.”

Although a small fraction of the UAW’s more than 600 locals, the groups seeking to oust Fain represent a vocal contingent that have been hurt by layoffs. Fain still has strong support among the legions of graduate student teaching aides who are also members of the union, said Art Wheaton, director of labor studies at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations.

The effort to remove Fain was started by two UAW members who have criticized Fain for a lack of transparency. Pillsbury and Brian Keller, a Stellantis worker who intends to run against Fain next year, plan to take their proposal next to a pair of plants in Ohio and Fain’s home plant in Kokomo, Ind., Pillsbury said.

Turnout at some locals has been small. At the Sterling Heights plant that voted over the weekend, 63 workers showed up with all but one voting to oust Fain, Pillsbury said. The plant has 6,200 employees.

If the union challenges any of the victories because of low voter turnout or for any other reason, he said he wants enough wins to maintain the six victories needed to push ahead.

Some UAW workers are angry over thousands of layoffs at Stellantis factories since the 2023 contract was ratified, moves the company took to tame inventory amid declining market share. The contract that Fain negotiated allowed Stellantis to fire hundreds of temporary workers, and it has since been replacing them with part-time summer employees, said Eric Graham, president of UAW Local 140.

“They told the people that ‘this is the best contract ever,’ and it was — incentive-wise,” said Graham, who represents workers at a Stellantis assembly plant in Warren, Michigan, where more than 1,500 people are currently laid off. “But when you pressure the company the way they did and make the company spend money they didn’t want to spend,” it puts jobs at risk, he said.

Five of the six locals that voted to begin removal proceedings represent employees of the Jeep maker, where Fain worked as an electrician before moving up the ranks of UAW administration.

Dissent over Fain’s leadership also centers on his decision to strip duties from two of the union’s elected vice presidents. There were about 1,900 UAW members still on layoff at the end of July, a Stellantis spokeswoman said.

Fain retaliated against UAW Treasurer-Secretary Margaret Mock after she refused to approve certain expenses, according to a report by Neil Barofsky, the federal monitor appointed by the Justice Department to oversee UAW governance after two past presidents were convicted on corruption charges.

After the monitor issued that report, Fain and 10 other board members shot back in a letter saying Mock had obstructed funding for critical organizing efforts. They also blamed the financial management issues on her, saying the monitor is looking into management of union investments during her tenure as treasurer.

The monitor is also probing similar allegations made by the other vice president, Rich Boyer, who was the UAW’s chief negotiator with Stellantis before Fain removed him from the union’s Stellantis department.