Daily News Editorial

May Day reflections

01 May 2017

Workers around the world celebrate May Day, also known as Labour Day and International Workers’ Day, today. It is a national holiday in more than 80 countries including Sri Lanka and the event is celebrated in some of the most staunchly capitalist countries too.

The May Day tradition is around 125-years-old, having begun as an agitation campaign against harsh working conditions by workers in the US in 1886. They were demanding a 40-hour working week. The slogan was “eight hours for work, eight hours for rest and eight hours for what you will”.

In the famous 1886 Haymarket incident in Chicago, US, police fire killed several trade union leaders and workers who were engaged in a demonstration seeking better working conditions and fewer working hours. It was usual for employers then to get their employees to work for 16-18 hours a day. It is generally accepted that these events eventually led to the adoption of the 40 hour working week.

In 1889, the first congress of the Second International, meeting in Paris for the centennial of the French Revolution and the Exposition Universelle, following a proposal by Raymond Lavigne, called for international demonstrations on the 1890 anniversary of the Chicago protests. May Day was formally recognized as an annual event at the International’s second congress in 1891. However, the US and Canada now observe the Labour Day in September.

With the establishment of the United Nations, a specialist agency for labour matters, called the International Labour Organization (ILO) was created. In cooperation with Governments around the world, it has evolved labour charters honoured by all UN members. This has ensured much better working conditions than the demonstrators of 1886 ever envisaged.

Sri Lankans have observed May Day for decades. It is a vibrant event with rallies, demonstrations and parades. Over the years, May Day has been transformed into a political event based loosely on the significance of the day for the working class. It has become an opportunity for the political parties to show their grassroots strength and also their affinity to the working masses. Although one can no longer witness the massive May Day rallies of yesteryear, the day has still not lost its significance in our country.

Now the focus has shifted firmly towards political propaganda, with workers’ rights and struggles often relegated to the second place. Parties should strive to put the worker first in their rallies and meetings. This year too the parties have made elaborate arrangements for May Day.

The SLFP should be commended for taking May Day celebrations to the outstations – last year, their rally was held in Galle and this year, it is being held in the outskirts of Kandy. This gives outstation workers and party supporters to attend a May Day event closer to their hometowns. The UNP, as usual, has opted for Campbell Park where they held a successful rally last year. The Joint Opposition rally at Galle Face Green has already been subject to controversy as MPs Bandula Gunawardena and Basil Rajapaksa gave widely differing projected crowd figures of two million and 120,000. Filling the Galle Face Green is no easy task and how they cope with the challenge remains to be seen. The JVP too has stuck to its BRC venue, where they are likely to put up a very elaborate stage as is the norm.

In the end, it very hard to separate the labour movement from politics in Sri Lanka. The workers in many organisations are represented by trade unions which are for the most part affiliated to the major political parties. There are some stand-alone trade unions, that find it hard to raise their voice without the backing of a political party.

Sri Lanka has a vibrant trade union sector, especially in the one-million strong government workforce. Most private sector companies generally do not tolerate trade unions, but this is beginning to change. There also are a number of powerful professionals’ trade unions which should essentially be non-political but which have increasingly dipped their toes in political waters. The GMOA is a good example.

Most trade unions are well known for making demands from the Government in power. For this reason, many trade unions are nearly always at loggerheads with the Government. Some of the demands are reasonable, but most are not. Sri Lanka’s trade unions have a predilection for demanding higher salaries for their workforce, regardless of the economic situation of the country.

Trade unions should stop the current practice of resorting to strikes at the drop of a hat if their demands are not met. That should be a last resort, to be considered only when negotiations with the authorities fail. They should stop taking the public ‘hostage’ when they strike to win their demands.

But do workers and trade unions pause to think of their obligations to their organisations and to the public? This rarely happens. Work really is a two-way street. This May Day, both workers and employers must work towards addressing labour unrest and implementing better working conditions.