Multinational oil giant Shell has consistently sought to prevent employees in Pakistan from organising. The workers from Shell Pakistan’s Lubricant oil blending plant in Keamari, Karachi, first attempted to register their Insaf Shell Pakistan Workers Union in 2013. Shell appealed against the registration on grounds that the 300 contract workers were not officially Shell employees.
However with the support of the Pakistan Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine, and General Workers’ Union (PCEM) the 300 workers were granted permanent contracts, and on 16 July 2015 Pakistan’s trade union registrar dismissed the management’s appeal and allowed the registration of the union to go ahead.
Instead of recognising the new union and bargaining a new collective agreement, Shell Pakistan’s management filed another appeal before the national trade union registrar in Islamabad to stop a workplace union vote proceeding. This second appeal was also dismissed, on 30 October.
Rather than allow the vote to go ahead, Shell Pakistan deployed paramilitary rangers at the plant on 17 November. The company then appointed 100 new workers through contractors and outsourced the packaging work of lubricant oil.
