Making the May Day meaningful

History was made on May 04, 1886 following a clash between striking labourers and the police at Haymarket in Chicago. The bloody clash that left seven policemen and at least four civilians dead acted as a driving force for the first time in human history to recognise an eight-hour working day for factory workers. This event was a sequel to the killing of several workers in police firing the previous day. Then why do people the world over commemorate May 01 as the International Labour Day? It is because the Federation of Organised Trades and Labour Unions set in 1884 at a convention on May 01, 1886 as the timeframe by which the eight-hour work day would become standard. But intriguingly enough, the day's observance in the United States, the movement's birth place, is almost non-existent.

Clearly, the employers and factory owners were unwilling to accept this demand yet. It is because of their reluctance, the clash at Haymarket ensued and lives were lost. But it surely was a sacrifice for a worthy cause, for the event subsequently had a great influence on redefining the labour-management relationship all over the world. It was a first tentative step towards recognising the dignity of labour. Today, there has been a radical change in the attitude of industrial management in the developed world but in poor developing countries workers are exploited and forced to work in deplorable conditions. Their safety is grossly compromised. The Rana Plaza disaster illustrates the point most strikingly. No wonder therefore the garments factories in the country have been brought under closer scrutiny with factory inspection being conducted by European and American retailers' platforms.

However, no such exercise can be expected of in case of improving the working condition of workers in the country's informal sector. Even underage children are compelled to work in hazardous manufacturing job for a pittance. Wages earned from such jobs by workers are generally meagre but women and children are more discriminated against than men. Many of these hapless people do not even know what May Day is all about. When workers engaged in the formal sector have at least the privilege to observe a holiday on the occasion, most labourers and workers cannot entertain the luxury of taking this very day off. The message of May Day is simply meaningless to them.

On the other extreme, though, the right to trade unionism has given rise to a no-work sort of culture in some of the formal sector. This received the official blessing at some point when undue political patronage ended up creating monsters out of such labour bodies. On the other hand, genuine labour leaders and organisations are given little scope to develop so that they can rightly bargain for protection of labour interests and enhance workers' welfare. No wonder, foreign retailers of apparels from Bangladesh are putting pressure for introduction of trade unionism in the garments sector. This is a requisite that cannot possibly be kept at bay any longer. But then the issue of productivity cannot be ignored as well. The more a single worker produces, the greater the collective contribution. There lies the answer to any industry's prosperity as well as workers' all-round welfare.