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With assistance from UNI and UNI-Apro a series of training sessions were recently held in Karachi & Lahore for members of the newly formed Metro C&C Employees Union. Metro Cash & Carry operates 9 stores in Pakistan with over 2500 workers, their parent company METRO AG headquartered in Germany operates in 31 countries and is the world’s 5th largest retailer by revenue.With assistance from UNI and UNI-Apro a series of training sessions were recently held in Karachi & Lahore for members of the newly formed Metro C&C Employees Union. Metro Cash & Carry operates 9 stores in Pakistan with over 2500 workers, their parent company METRO AG headquartered in Germany operates in 31 countries and is the world’s 5th largest retailer by revenue.

Read more about the founding of the union at Metro Cash and Carry Pakistan here. 

Below is a report on the recent training sessions.

In opening remarks Tanveer Ahmed, General Secretary PBIFCEF as well as Acting President UNI-PALC congratulated Metro C& C Employees Union, office bearers and members for their struggle in organizing a union in this commercial establishment. He stated to the Metro C&C workers, “credit goes to all of you for your hard work, patience & commitment, although during this period a number of you faced challenges from local management in terms of dismissal from job or issuance of enquiry letter to various employees but at last you won the race due to your determination.”

He further stated, “all of you attending this training programme it is the first one of your life and now it is the responsibility of all of you to strengthen this union and that is the reason that this training course has been organized…. for better understanding to all of you about importance of trade union, rights & responsibilities of office bearers and members, how to resolve grievances, how to build harmonious industrial relations as well as collective bargaining.” Additonally Tanveer proclaimed, “ this victory was not possible without support of UNI and UNI-Apro and we are extremely grateful to them for their generous support in this matter especially from Nyon and we are also thankful for providing financial assistance for holding these training sessions for you.” He further praised the role of Bro.Zulfiqar in organizing this union as a first step of an effort to organize the Commercial sector in Pakistan.

Bro. Zulfiqar, Vice President and Chairman Metro C&C employees union in his remarks said, “this is a big achievement that we are able to form a union in a commercial store in Pakistan and this is the first example of this nature as everybody knows how difficult to organize a union in any establishment specially in a country like Pakistan.” He further said, “we are half way there, now after this training session it is the responsibility of all of you to be active in recruitment of new members as workers are waiting for you. We cannot achieve our goal without support of each of you. So let’s start new membership immediately.” He further thanked UNI and UNI-Apro for their support and especially personal interest from Brother Rajendra and Priyal from UNI-Apro and Bro. Mathias from UNI Global Union for their roles.

Mr. Sarang Aslam, one of the members of the Metro Union at the Karachi Metro Safari store and also a key person of the organizing committee mentioned “ I am  so excited  about this training session and it is the first one of my life and I am happy that I get to know a number of new things especially about trade unions, their importance and how we can get our rights through dialogue.” He said, “I am confident that we will recruit more workers in my store.” He requested that more training session should be organize for a deeper understanding.

Mr. Mehtab Belong from Metro Store SITE Area, Karachi also in his remarks thanked PBIFCEF and also UNI for holding this training session enabling him and other members resolve different questions the workers  have. Bro Mehtab further stated,  “both Bro. Tanveer and Bro. Zulfiqar satisfied us with answers and now it is our responsibility to strengthen our union and recruit more members.”

Mr. Iqtidar, President, Metro Union, also thanked UNI and UNI-Apro for providing support for holding the training sessions.

Mr. Tahir Mehmood, General Secretary, Metro Employees Union, based in Lahore, in his concluding remarks during Lahore training session thanked all the participants attending this training session especially from other cities. He said, “this training session will definitely change our approach and thinking and we are now in better position to fight for our rights and better wages and working condition for us.” He thanked Bro. Tanveer and Bro. Zulfiqar for their hard work during hard times and also UNI for their support.

Mr. Nasir, a worker from Islamabad Store, attending Lahore session, in his remarks said that, “before this session we are totally unaware about any union activity or any development about trade union in Metro store.   This training session provide us an opportunity to know about importance of trade union and how we recruit new members and we assure you that from tomorrow we will start our organizing work in Islamabad store and the betterment of our fellow workers.” He thanked Bro. Tanveer and Bro. Zufliqar to travel to Lahore and organize this important training programme for us.

Leaders and representatives of the Metro C&C Union continue to have good dialogue with management and are recruiting new members every week.