Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières
Threatening of women activists of the Katunayake Free Trade Zone by the officials of the Government was condemned by Joseph Stalin, the General Secretary of the Ceylon Teachers Union at a press conference held last week at the CMU Office.
About two weeks ago several social activists including (...)
In October this year, the country’s total workforce, stood at approximately 8,971,000 persons. The minimum wage rate of workers has remained static - at Rs.10,000/- a month, through 2019 and 2020. The cost of living on the other hand has increased many times over.
At today’s prices, it costs a (...)
The past year, has been strangely, free of strike action. This is surprising given that the cost of living has been continuously rising, while at the same time wages of ordinary workers has been halved and large numbers have been laid off. This is in stark contrast to the status of workers in (...)
The JVP-led Ethera Api organisation, yesterday, accused the government of making use of the high number of COVID-19 infected cases, from Kuwait, as an excuse to avoid bringing home thousands of Lankans stranded overseas.
Addressing the media at the party headquarters, yesterday, former JVP MP (...)
In a letter to Presidential candidates, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, and Sajith Premadasa, five trade unions stated they had not paid attention to over two million employees in the formal private sector, and to those in the informal private sector, such as the private commuter (...)
Since coming into power in 2015, every Budget of the Yahapalana Government has faithfully advanced a labour law reform agenda. The 2019 Budget proposals attempt to frame labour law reforms as a solution to address the low participation of women in the workforce.
In the words of the Minister of (...)
Plantation workers are demanding a living wage to be paid to workers in line with the existing cost of living in the country.
During discussions between the estate sector trade unions on Friday, the workers’ representatives said they want the Regional Plantation Companies (RPC) to increase (...)
A feminist perspective on social security in Sri Lanka. Social protection should recognise women’s full social and economic contribution, respect workers’ union rights and avoid the ‘big brother’ excesses of India’s aadhaar system.
International Labour Day on 1 May was honoured in Sri Lanka by several major trade unions and other Left organisations. This was despite the Government’s attempts to ‘shift’ May Day to 7 May, to prevent it from ‘overlapping’ with Vesak Poya. The decision to shift a day that honours labour rights in order to make space for a religious holiday – particularly one which is observed by the majority community – is not a neutral one.
Sri Lanka’s (...)
Long before the 1950s when Sri Lanka first began celebrating International Workers’ Day, the country’s workers still claimed this right by taking to the streets on the day, after a half day’s work, even at the cost of suffering pay cuts, as a result. To them, it was a day won by the workers of the (...)
May Day celebrations have never clashed with the interests of or activities conducted during the Buddhist Vesak celebrations which often fall at the same time of the year. Nevertheless, without consultation, the President has unilaterally decided to postpone May Day on the pretext that there (...)
Trade unions and Sri Lankan plantation companies are bracing for a tough round of negotiations, starting later this month, on the once-in-two years wage hike amidst the controversial state takeover of hundreds of acres of plantation land which has resulted in lost jobs for workers.
While the (...)
A union leader, M Sujeewa Mangala, was found blindfolded and dumped by the roadside on February 1, three days after being abducted by unknown armed men.
Mangala, the vice-president of the All-Ceylon Telecommunication Employees Union, has been playing a leading role in the struggle of temporary (...)
Review of Class, Patriarchy and Ethnicity on Sri Lankan Plantations: Two Centuries of Power and Protest by Kumari Jayawardena and Rachel Kurian (New Delhi: Orient Black Swan 2015; pp 364, INR 825)
Kumari Jayawardena and Rachel Kurian have uncovered the injustices heaped upon the plantation (...)
After a near 2-year struggle, Sri Lanka’s active female labour movement has succeeded in forming the country’s first women’s trade union with the Women’s Solidarity Union (WSU) close to be registered by the authorities.
“We have applied for registration of the WSU with the labour authorities and (...)
As the private sector workers are campaigning to secure the Rs. 2,500 increase to their monthly salaries, manpower workers in public and private sector jobs are faced with a difficult struggle.
Using manpower agencies to recruit employees has been a common practice in the private sector for (...)
The purpose of this article is to discuss some matters regarding the efforts taken by the ILO to improve decent work at workplaces and the role of EFC towards that effort. There are so many projects organised by the ILO to improve tripartite relationships when settling workers issues. In this (...)
The passing away of a veteran Trade Union leader at the age of 92 years, is still a big shock to the working-people of Sri Lanka. His absence will be very much felt at the level of the big meetings of the National Labour Advisory Council. It is for the first time the members of the CMU (Ceylon (...)
Veteran trade unionist Bala Thampoe – who has been at the forefront of Sri Lanka’s labour movement for nearly seven decades – passed away here on Monday. He was 92.
Bala Thampoe voiced deep concern about shrinking spaces for dissent in Sri Lanka. Photo: Meera Srinivasan.
As general secretary of (...)
Being General Secretary of the CMU for 66 years since 1948 is a marvellous achievement and record - all the more so because of his ethnicity in Sri Lanka’s deeply divided society. Bala Tampoe is of Jaffna Tamil origin. The membership of the CMU though multi-ethnic is predominantly Sinhala.
May (...)
In conversation with Bala Thampoe, the oldest active trade union member in Sri Lanka. When Bala Thampoe, a young Botany lecturer, was asked to address a group of workers on trade union and political rights for public servants, he had no clue.
Like for many young Marxists, the working class was (...)
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