A majority of employees in Karachi Port Trust (KPT) on Wednesday elected the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) backed United Workers Front (UWF) as its Collective Bargaining Agent (CBA) for the year 2009-10.
At least 5,300 political and non-political employees of KPT participated in the balloting that started early in the morning at 8am and remained continued till 5pm in KPT headquarters, West and East Wharves of Karachi Port and Manora.
According to KPT official sources 1,481 people voted for star, the electoral sign of UWF, and 1,222 for the strong competitor torch, representing the Pakistan Peoples Party backed Peoples Workers Union (PWU). The number of wining votes for KPT referendum stands at 1,314 and in case of a tie the concerned unions need to form a coalition CBA under the so-called "one third" formula.
The other two unions, Progressive Workers Union (PWU) and Labour Union (LU), could harness the support of 593 and 364 votes respectively. However, an insider came up with the referendum results a little different from those of KPT, saying that the Kamran Usmani led UWF, Rauf Ahmed Nagori led PWU, Lutfe Amin Shibli led PWU and Jalil Shah led LU respectively got 1,496, 1,222, 554 and 350 votes respectively.
According to official results of KPT the UWF had won the referendum for the next two years, under the newly legislated Industrial Relations Act, 2008. It may be mentioned here that the Progressive Workers Union and Labour Union, represented by hammer and anchor respectively, contested the poll as a non-political unions.
The fact, that attached due significance to the referendum, was that the major contesting unions, PWU and UWF, had the political support of PPP and MQM, the two coalition partners in Sindh and Centre. The UWF by sweeping Wednesdays referendum had maintained its victory, as it had also been the CBA for the last three years from 2006-09. The KPT conducted and watched over the referendum, which according to sources was held in a peaceful and congenial atmosphere.