hamshad Ali was fourteen years of age when he was pulled out of school so he could train for loom work. He remembers his first day at work very vividly. He was locked in a dark room. The heat and the humidity made him gasp for breath. The noise from the machines rang in his ears and made his head throb. “That was the day I realised how difficult the life of a labourer is,” he recounts.

Two decades and many hardships later, Ali has remained faithful to his perilous craft, out of necessity rather than choice - but the current year, with its backbreaking inflation and sporadic disruptions in production, has put even a seasoned worker like him in a quandary about how to make the two ends meet.

“The power loom I work for shuts down three days a week. On those days, unless we have some leftovers, we go hungry. I have never had such a hard time earning bread and butter for my family as I have done in the past few months,” says Ali who works in the power loom establishment in Qadirabad, adjacent to Ghulam Mohammadabad which houses one of the major clusters of power loom factories in Faisalabad.

The soaring inflation has made matters worse for Ali’s family of five, “the price of essential commodities has doubled in the past few months but my wages have only increased by a few hundred to a thousand rupees,” he says. “I have had to sell my wife’s jewellery. I have also had to swap my motorbike for a cycle this year because of the skyrocketing prices of petrol.”

Ali says he is a cardiac patient and fully aware that he should be seeking treatment but that is simply not an option. “We have children to feed; we cannot leave them to starve,” says Ali. Clad in a flimsy shalwar kamees on a chilly December morning, Ali tells us he is not optimistic about the situation improving next year.

Nadeem Ahmed, another power loom worker in Faisalabad, says that 2022 has proved to be the worst year of his life income-wise. “The factory runs three days a week. For the remaining four days I have to take up odd jobs like working with a mason or in the vegetable market so that I can earn enough for my family,” he says. He appeals to the politicians to stop fighting amongst themselves ahead of the New Year and take steps to show empathy to the workers and improve their lives.

Baba Latif Ansari, chairman of Labor Qaumi Movement (LQM), an organisation of textile workers, estimates that during the last two weeks alone, about 150,000 labourers have lost their jobs. Ansari says 30 per cent of Faisalabad’s power looms have been closed down and the remaining are running on part capacity.

Ansari says that so far, the provincial and federal governments have not done anything to improve the condition of the workers. He says that the workers are planning on holding a Mazdoor Kisan Conference on January 1, to set an agenda and develop a consensus over how best to safeguard their rights.

The power loom workers held several strikes in 2022. In early March, the government announced that the wages of the loom workers would rise by 17 per cent from July 1. Reports that some power loom owners were not interested in raising their employee’s wages began surfacing by late July. On July 26, the loom owners closed 450 units. The workers responded by organising a protest that culminated in a call for a strike on August 1.

Over 40,000 garments workers and their families participated in the sit-in protest in Sadhar and Dandhara estates. They called on the Labour Department to make sure the loom owners pay their wages in line with the minimum wage set by the government. The workers also demanded that they be registered and issued social security cards. They called on the Environment Protection Department to enact regulations that would improve their working conditions and decried the rise in electricity and power tariffs.

The protest ended when the district administration and power loom owners assured the workers that they would receive a 15 per cent pay raise. They promised to issue social security cards and informed them that steps were being taken to improve their working environment and protect them against occupational hazards.

Barely a month had passed since the agreement when the power loom workers were again protesting against a hike in electricity prices and inflation. This time, the power loom owners protested alongside the workers. They complained that they were forced to lock down their factories because of the high electricity bills.

Manzoor-ul-Haq, the owner of a locked-up power loom, estimates that 50 per cent of the machines in his area have ground to a halt. The remaining are not running at their full capacity. He admits that while the thought makes him profoundly sad, he too wants to sell his 40 power looms and start a new business. “As hard as it would be for me to part with my machines, I suppose I will have to eventually,” he says.

Chairman of the Council of Looms Owners Association Waheed Khaliq Raamay says that the electricity tariff in January was 30 rupees per unit. It rose to 55 rupees per unit by December. He says the value of the dollar has risen by 55 rupees during 2022 and the prices of cotton and yarn by about 30 to 40 per cent. “The power loom industry has reached the brink of collapse due to an abrupt increase in the price of production,” he laments. “The governments have been silent on the issue,” he adds.

Haqooq-i-Khalq Party leader Ammar Ali Jan says the implementation of a long-term industrial policy is necessary for the protection of labour and industry in Pakistan. “It cannot be that the industry is not getting gas in winter and there is electric load shedding for hours in summer,” he contends, “using these excuses is akin to making light of the industry and labour.” According to him, the long-term solution to this problem is to carry forward the process of unionisation of workers. Without trade unions, it is not easy for workers to fight for their rights, he says.

Tracing the history of the power loom industry, Jan says that the textiles account for the largest share of exports but when labour unions were formed in some public and private enterprises in the 1980s, textile workers were barred from forming unions. “It has been a policy of the state. For textile exports to increased, labour is kept cheap to gain an advantage in the competition with other countries in the region,” he remarks.

Jan says textile workers are treated like security forces with regard to forming a union. “That is why in 2004, when Faisalabad’s power loom workers started forming a union for their rights, cases were registered against them. Some of them were called foreign agents and traitors,” he says. “Even now textile industry is linked to national security. The government want it to earn foreign exchange,” says Jan “so whenever textile workers protest, they are treated as miscreants,” he continues.

Jan says that today union workers are not only fighting for their rights but also for the survival of the industry. “It is easy for a factory owner to close the factory and make money by building a housing society or go abroad,” he says. “We are not only advocating the rights of the workers but also calling for a long-term industrial policy,” he tells the TNS.

Senior journalist Shahzada Irfan Ahmad says the power loom sector is an important part of the textile industry, which has been reeling from one crisis to the next over the last few years. “The power loom sector consists of mostly home-based or small units. The labourers face a lot of problems in terms of social security, low wages and working environment,” says Ahmad.

The state of our fledgling textile sector should be a cause of concern for the authorities since it employs almost 40 percent of the workforce and makes up 46 percent of the manufacturing sector. Ahmad says that the condition of the workers in the power loom sector is worst in the textile industry. “The situation has become critical now that the industry has partially shut down and there are fewer jobs,” he warns.

The life of a power loom weaver is rife with risks and occupational hazards. Workers often have to toil in stifling heat and deal with chemicals and dyes without any protective gear. They inhale boiler fumes which increase their chance of developing debilitating respiratory problems such as asthma and lung conditions. The chance of sustaining serious injuries while operating power looms is also high.

Shamshad Ali says he has not noticed any significant improvements in the working environment of the power loom sector over the span of his career. “Incidents of workers being electrocuted in power loom factories are commonplace, the factory buildings are old and dilapidated, and there is no arrangement for ventilation and cleaning,” he adds.

The writer has been associated with journalism for the past decade. He tweets @ naeemahmad876