Twenty one year old Roshain Shanaka shot by the police in Katunayaka, Sri Lanka lost his life on the first of June after two days of suffering in the Intensive Care Unit of the Ragama hospital. He was among the tens of thousands of factory workers and trade union activists who called for the withdrawal of the private sector pensions bill on Monday the 30^th. Roshain was fatally injured by live bullets fired by the police. The Joint Trade Union Alliance (JTUA) held a massive demonstration in the capital Colombo on June first condemning the brutal police attack.

The Sri Lankan government facing criticism over alleged war crimes in Geneva where the United nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) is having its annual session, tried to save face by announcing that the police chief has handed over his resignation. Meanwhile, in an unprecedented move Minister Anura Priyadhashana Yapa has said that President Mahinda Rajapaksa has offered to send the seriously injured abroad for medical treatment.

How it all began

The confrontation started on Monday 30 June, with the arrival of several ministers including Sarath Gunaratne and Priyadarshani Fernando claiming to make the workers aware of the benefits of the proposed pension scheme by distributing leaflets to the factories. They have come with a large group of security personnel. Nava Sama Samaja Party(NSSP) leaders of the area informed UPU news of the arrival of these ministers. The presence of ministers at a time the government has announced that the pension will not be applicable to the Free Trade Zones (FTZ) is quite strange. Labour Minister Gamini Lokuge has said free trade zone employees were exempt from the new pension proposal, according to the government’s Information Department.Workers provoked by the ministerial presence started hooting and initiating a work stoppage. Police who came with the ministers who used force for the hooting to stop started the clash which ended with one worker critically injured. Trade union activists of JTUA shut down FTZ after clashes with police.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s political party later said it has decided to suspend the pension bill in parliament, and the government said the free trade area where the clashes took place would be closed on Tuesday to “restore industrial peace”. However, the government is yet to make an official declaration of its policy. Police said they fired tear gas and admitted to firing live ammunition while ’scuffling with several thousand striking employees’ at the FTZ near Lanka’s only international airport, located about 33 km (20 miles) north of the commercial capital, Colombo. In the first big union action to hit Mahinda regime since the end of the genocidal war in 2009, a union following the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) also backed the JTUA led industrial action over a pension plan opposed even by the employers.

Live bullets used at unarmed workers

Authorities said at least eight people were wounded by police including by gunfire and 15 officers were hurt when an estimated 5,000 people began throwing rocks and stormed a police station, damaging vehicles. “When a large crowd stormed in, police fired in the air and then later fired at them to control the gathering,” Inspector General of Police (IGP) Mahinda Balasuriya told the media, admitting that police used live rounds.

JTUA leaders emphasise that police turned violent on a legitimate protest against the provocative intervention of government ministers.

“We won’t stop our campaign unless the government releases all arrested employees and conduct an impartial inquiry on police firing live bullets at unarmed employees,” Linus Jayathilaka, President of the United Federation of Labour (UFL) and the deputy leader of the NSSP, told UPU news. The JTUA supported by pro JVP unions, which have in the past been a significant force whose actions became a political challenge, oppose the new pension plan on the grounds it will not guarantee retirement savings and will dissolve both the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and the Employees Trust Fund (EPF). Employers have complained too, saying it is an additional cost. The government has failed to explain its plan proposed on the dictates of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The strike has affected more than 1,20,000 employees in the 12 Free Trade Zones across Lanka, which has been trying to attract major foreign investment. The 265 companies in the BOI-run free trade zones account for about 13 percent of the annual income in exports. Many of the garment factories in the FTZ produce clothes for popular labels in European and US market.

UPU news 1 June 2011