Lucky Cement stops production: ''illegal'' union blamed

Lucky Cement, the largest cement manufacturing company of Pakistan, after taken hostage by a group of people who claim themselves as union leaders has been forced to close down and all its production activities are lying shut since last five days. According to a company spokesman, although no union is officially registered, a group of miscreants claiming to be the union leaders, on Saturday forcefully entered the factory premises along with 200 people.
They were stopped by the company''s security personnel but they broke into the premises. They asked the management of Lucky Cement to close down the production or otherwise threatened to damage the plant. They also threatened the management to accept their demands which were found to be "illegal" and have nothing to do with Lucky Cement or its employees. Even after five days of a complete shutdown, around 50 unauthorised persons, who are not the employees of the company, are still inside the factory premises ensuring that production remains off. The management of the company approached the District Co-ordination Officer (DCO) and District Police Officer (DPO) of Lakki Marwat to register FIR against these miscreants namely Taj Kundi and Muhammad Ismail for threatening the management and entering the premises illegally without any reason.
However, for some reason, the DCO and DPO are not interested in helping the management and instead are backing the people who have taken the entire factory as hostage. The reason is unknown to Lucky Cement''s management as to why the local administration is not co-operating with, the company to help restart the production.
The so-called union does not have any legal existence and is not registered as Collective Bargaining Agent (CBA). There are about 2500 workers inside the factory who are helpless due to illegal pressure and non-co-operation of the local administration. The management has also approached the Chief Minister of Khyber-Pukhtunkhwa but so far there is no development from the CM House as well.
The spokesman said the factory is incurring huge losses because of this problem. There are about 25,000 families who are directly or indirectly linked to the factory, whose employment is now at stake. The management has appealed to the President and Prime Minister for their personal intervention in resolving the matter and to instruct the relevant ministries to intervene to resolve this issue without any further delay.